You know, the problems I have with this, and I think the IOC as well, is if you answer honestly, a reasonble person would see this situation for what it is. I have a 13 year old who doesn't like to do his homework. Not at all unusual, I think. Not doing his homework buys him an extra chore or two which usually consists of extra homework that I assign.

He lied about it once. That brought wrath down upon him in a form that only an ex-marine drill instructor could comprehend. Frankly, I could care less if he honestly flunks out of school. But if I were limited to one thing I could teach him, is that it is better fail miserably honestly, than to succeed beyond reason dishonestly.

Unfortunately, our government, through its actions and attitudes is teaching just the opposite. This is a man who has a past. I suspect nearly all who went to college in the past, at least in Ann Arbor, have a past. He was honest about it, there was an error in the government database and now he may lose his job because our government is too stupid to amend its databases and too arrogant to care. This is the insanity that rightfully led to our severing of ties with England. Yet, 250 years later, we appear to be returning to where we started.

First, the government has absolutely no business asking about arrests. The presumption of innocence doctrine means that this person is completely innocent of a crime. The police can arrest anyone at any time for any reason, or for no reason whatsoever. Hell the TSA threatens it for carrying cash. Asking about a conviction, sure, but arrests? Arrests are as meaningless as the filing of a civil lawsuit, until a judge and jury say they are meaningful.

Our government is increasingly forcing us to become deceitful, to live our lives. This is wrong. We here have been focussing on the TSA, but DHS (otherwise should be known as the Committee for State Security) owns the TSA, and CBP, and INS or whatever newspeak they are presently called, owns all these agencies. And the fish rots from the head down.

This is why many on this board refuse to speak at all to the TSA. Anything that is said, voluntarily can be taken down in evidence and used against you. Bierfeldt's replies were brilliant.