There’s one derivative thought that I have as well. If these two people with common ordinary first names and a totally common last name are having problems, how many other travelers with the last name Smith (and the same first names) are having similar problems.

Not only is this a huge inconvenience to hundreds, thousands – maybe even tens of thousands of innocent Americans, but think some more about the insanity. The TSA is in effect saying ‘We don’t know which one of these many thousands of ordinary Americans might be a terrorist, and so until we work out which one it is, they are all guilty until/if/unless they prove their innocence’.

That’s not really the way things should be in our allegedly free and just society.

Evidently there are! A former employee of ours with the seeminly innocuous name of (an ordinary first name that I’ll withhold) Smith found out last year that she (and her husband, with about as common a first name as is possible) were on the no-fly list.

They had to go through a lengthy process to obtain DHS Redress numbers so they could travel.

What insanity!