Two from The Weekly Standard

Two articles, both published Friday on The Weekly Standard’s web site, approach profoundly different issues with a surfeit of common sense.

The first is called “High Profile: What American airport security can learn from Israel’s behavioral profiling system.” The main point of the article is that Israel’s system is not based upon racial or ethnic profiling, no matter what those of us who breeze through in appropriate charedi dress might imagine — or what the ACLU’s inevitable lawsuit against Logan Airport, the first in America to try the system, might allege. Rather, the key is to pick up on certain behavioral signals that someone with something to hide will frequently give off. “According to the journal Homeland Security, targeted conversations at Logan International have resulted in dozens of arrests of criminals.”

The second article, “Choosing Life: How pro-lifers become pro-lifers,” takes a similarly common sense approach. He studies five public figures who started off apathetic or mildly pro-abortion on demand, who then shifted to strong opposition. If there is a common thread in the stories, it is that the first time they confronted the issue on a more serious or personal level (in the writer’s own case, it was when his wife was advised to have amniocentesis when she was pregnant with their third child), they found themselves naturally taking a position opposed to abortion, despite strong societal pressures in the opposite direction. I’m not certain that there truly is a common basis to their experiences, but the article inspires further thought.