Pathetic - that is the only word for the response of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to the attempted bombing of Flight 253. Astonishingly, after the bomber was only thwarted thanks to the quick thinking (and quick action) of the passengers and crew, Napolitano had the audacity to proclaim that "the system worked."  Uuuuuh, what planet is this woman living on?

Actually, we are not surprised. The grossly incompetent Napolitano has long been castigated for her amateurish approach to serious matters of national security - remember that she is the one who asked that we refer to Muslim terrorist attacks as "man caused disasters" - don't want to offend Muslim terrorists, you see. Ms. Napolitano is also the person who couldn't even admit that Mexican border jumpers who enter the United States are guilty of a crime. Apparently, Ms. Napolitano has a hard time assigning the term "criminal" to, well, criminals.

But the larger issue is the absolute refusal of the Obama Administration and its cabinet of bungling bureaucrats to confront the cold hard facts of the jihadist threat. Napolitano's answer to the latest attack by a disgruntled 23 year old Nigerian carrying a made-in-Yemen bomb onto a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit is just the most recent example of their habit of letting politically correct feel-good nonsense trump aviation safety. Her response to a deranged suicide bomber is to further increase the burdens on already frustrated air travelers.

Napolitano wants all passengers on international flights to remain in their seats for the last hour of the flight. Gosh, that'll show 'em - because obviously it will never occur to the next "belly-bomber" to simply detonate his (or her?) device a few minutes early. But the absurdity of such a restriction aside, there have long existed effective ways of dealing with air safety. For decades, those of us who understand security have been urging the United States to adopt the methods used successfully by the Israelis.

Because the Israelis do it right - they haven't lost a plane to terrorists in over 40 years, in spite of being the #1 target of Islamic terrorists.

By using proven profiling techniques (yes, profiling works, and works very well) combined with rapid communication of intelligence information on suspected terrorists, the Israeli's have been able to achieve what we have not: actually doing something to make the skies safer. At the same time, we could reduce the annoying and pointless procedures that today's flying public is asked to endure, which only succeed in wasting valuable time and resources - instead of patting down Lutheran grandfathers, TSA employees should be focusing on those most likely to represent a threat.

But such common sense measures as profiling and intelligence sharing would result in some people (Muslims with connections to terrorist-supporting nations, for example) being subjected to more intense screening than everyone else. And heaven knows, liberals abhor any policy that has a "disparate impact" on one group or another - in their (distorted) view, having a tiny percentage of passengers (i.e. those most likely to actually be terrorists) submit to intensive screening is automatically "discriminatory" and therefore something to oppose.

However, these very same liberals see nothing wrong with forcing every one of America's 2 million air travelers to submit to the most humiliating (not to mention pointless) screening procedures - that's perfectly OK with them. Because in reality, liberals have no problem with governmental violations of privacy and civil rights - as long as the loss of liberty is "equally" shared. That's just "fair" you see.

Worse, both Obama and Napolitano apparently want to treat terrorists the same as they would shop-lifters - as criminals who need to be "arrested" and "tried" in civilian courts. This is no small thing - because instead of being immediately taken into military custody as an illegal combatant, where he could be interrogated for valuable information on his contacts in Yemen, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has now instead been given a lawyer, and has stopped talking. Incredible. One wonders how we have gotten to the point that a President's administration seems staffed with so many unbelievably naive and incompetent boobs.

And truth be told, neither George Bush nor Bill Clinton did anything to deal with the aviation "security" problem either - no better than Obama, they, too went along with the politically correct, and ultimately futile, policies of their predecessors.

The real question, though, is how long the traveling public is going to sheepishly go along with taking off their shoes and submitting to "random" screening procedures, and worse. How long before the American people reach the same point as Howard Beale, the fictional character in "Network" who famously yelled:

"I'm mad as hell! And I'm not gonna take it anymore!"