Chalk up another victory for fear and paranoia:
Officials ordered nine Muslim passengers, including three young children, off an AirTran flight headed to Orlando from Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon after two other passengers overheard what they thought was a suspicious remark.
In his last HBO special, the late George Carlin said that "rights" -- as in the Bill of Rights -- aren't rights at all. They're privileges, because they can so easily be taken away on a whim.
All but one of these passengers were American citizens. And all they did was to comment about how close their parked airplane was to another airplane. It required FBI assistance in order to be booked onto another flight.