If you have traveled by airline lately – domestically or internationally – you know the meaning of the word "hassle."

Ordinary people who pose no possible threat to life and limb are forced to take off their shoes, their belts, walk through metal detectors, get their bags X-rayed and stand on long security lines.

Meanwhile, as we saw last weekend, a man with "significant terrorist connections" boards a plan in Nigeria with the components of a bomb and nearly succeeds in detonating it as it approached Detroit.

In other words, all the best efforts of government's politically correct, non-profiling of airline passengers proves worthless once again.

In fact, if it hadn't been for the alert passengers on Flight 253, all 278 of them might have perished in the latest act of Islamic terrorism. Passengers, not crew members, jumped over one another to subdue the fiend. There was not a TSA agent or a sky marshal in sight.

The government's response to the latest incident is to increase its meaningless security charade in which all passengers – elderly grandmas and newborns – are scrutinized with the same level of enthusiasm as those with "significant terrorism connections."

Maybe you're asking yourself why someone with "significant terrorism connections" is permitted on a commercial airliner headed for the U.S.

What is the purpose of the "no-fly list" if not to keep those with "significant terrorism connections" from getting on board?

Don't expect to get an answer to that question. Just expect your own personal airline hassles to increase.

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Remember, the people running the U.S. government are now in the process of granting a New York City civilian trial to the confessed mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Remember, the U.S. government determined years ago that arming the cockpit crews of airliners would be a bad idea.

Remember, the U.S. government determined a long time ago that giving extra scrutiny to passengers who actually fit the terrorist profile would infringe upon their civil rights.

In fact, this incident, like so many other terrorist attacks and attempted terrorist attacks, would probably have been covered up as a non-event if the would-be mass killer, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, had not confessed to acting as an al-Qaida operative.

It's time for some common-sense security measures in this country – but I'm not holding my breath. I don't expect a government applying civilian-style rules of engagement in the war in Afghanistan to come to its senses over airline security.

Remember who is writing this column – an Arab-American. I'm telling you something you will not hear from any of the "professional" Arab-American spokesmen. We need guns in the cockpits, and we need to screen airline passengers like every flight El Al-style.

Of course, that's not about to happen.

So, let the flyer beware.

And to every American reading this column, know that your personal security is up to you. The government is not watching out for you.