There was terror in the skies this week over Texas, caused not by a terrorist but by a pilot -- a Flight Standards captain, no less. JetBlue Airways Capt. Clay Osbon, flying Flight 191 from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Las Vegas, began moving up and down the aisle after the jet was airborne, ranting, according to several passengers, about Iraq, Israel, al-Qaida and bombs, calling on passengers to recite the Lord's Prayer, saying that they were "all going down." An off-duty pilot in the cabin went to the cockpit to help the co-pilot with the emergency landing, while passengers and crew subdued Osbon.

There's an earnest, high-school debating tone to the ubiquitous discussions of airport security. It has many worthy subjects like, Full body scanners: Will they work? High moral concerns such as The invasion of privacy. There's Human rights versus racial profiling, which would be a better topic if it hadn't already been a reality for males of a certain age and hue since 9/11. There's room for witty replies, like Billy Connolly's, who'd like to say, when asked if he packed his own bags: "No, no, a big Arab guy in a hotel -- a nice big man, named Mohammed, who had a flying licence -- packed it for me."