THE DAILY BLADE: TSA: We Have Lost Our Stinking Badges
More than 3,600 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) or Homeland Security Department airport security uniforms and badges have been lost or stolen over the past five years, The Washington Times reports. Most of the items are thought to have been lost or misplaced, according to TSA spokesperson Amy Kudwa.
The TSA requires employees to report a missing badge or uniform to a supervisor, who is then to notify local law enforcement – but only if the item is believed to have been stolen.
Kudwa tells the paper that missing uniforms and badges cannot be used by terrorists to gain access to airplanes and restricted areas of airports, because TSA screeners work in teams and an imposter would be spotted immediately. (The Stiletto wonders whether a team of terrorists wearing uniforms and badges vouching for each other would be identifiable as infiltrators.)
The TSA just established a pay-for-performance program, PASS (Performance Accountability and Standards System), that it describes as "a key element in the long term professional development of the Transportation Security Officer."
According to the agency’s Web site, "PASS has three ratings that reward our Security Officers for exceptional work":
† Achieves Standards – TSO hit a high standard and merits a $1,000 bonus.
† Exceeds Standards – TSO excelled. Merits a $2,000 bonus and a 3% pay raise.
† Role Model of Excellence – Awarded to approximately 3% of the workforce. Merits a bonus of $3,000 and a 5% pay raise.
The Stiletto suggests adding a fourth rating:
† Earns Paycheck – TSO is just alert, conscientious and competent enough to know where his uniform and credentials are at all times so that his employers – the taxpaying public – have confidence that the TSO is alert, conscientious and competent enough to spot terrorists. Merits continued employment.
Render Unto Caesar
Evangelical Christians are apparently conflicted over their faithfulness to the Gospels, which some say requires them to minister to illegal aliens in the United States, and their and their allegiance to the government and its laws, according to The Washington Times.
"Most evangelicals are caught in between wanting to have responsible border policy with compassion for the alien. It makes coming up with a fair balance here very difficult," Rev. Richard Cizik tells the paper. Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella organization of about 45,000 conservative churches representing about 30 million people.
Evangelical Christians have also been successful in converting significant numbers of Hispanics in the U.S. and Latin America – which adds bodies in the pews and dollars in the collection plates.
Readers of The Stiletto Blog know that The Stiletto has little patience with Muslims who try to assert religious rights that are at odds with federal, state and local laws and with other people’s rights. Evangelicals who cannot reconcile their faith – and their ambitions to keep growing their congregations – with the laws of our land should keep in mind that Jesus Himself advised, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto G-d the things that are G-d’s" (Matthew 22:21).
The Apostle Paul also instructed the faithful that they have a duty to obey the laws of earthly governments. From Romans 13:1 and 13:2: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from G-d, and those that exist have been instituted by G-d. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what G-d has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment."
There is no conflict here. Evangelical Christians and illegal immigrants alike must obey the law. Breaking or circumventing the laws of a duly elected government makes you a bad Christian.
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