Send the Terrorists to Bangor, Maine: There aint nothin up there we need, is there?

No Americans are expendable, but some Americans are more expendable than others.

Diverted Air France Flight Lands in Maine

BANGOR, Maine – An Air France jetliner en route from Paris to Boston was diverted Thursday to Maine so U.S. authorities could check on a passenger, officials said.

Hey, what gives?

Why are flights carrying people with names that show up on the terrorist no-fly list sent to Bangor, Maine?
“We’re not takin’ anybody dangerous here in Boston! Send ’em to Bangor! — Let those rubes up there in Maine deal with the terrorists!”
(Or anybody that might be a terrorist on account of having the same name as someone who seemed enough like a terrorist to get their name put on the no-fly list.)

What will Mainers think of this policy if there is an actual threat — a plane coming in hot, with a terrorist and his dirty bomb on board?
Sure they have plenty of shotguns and hunting rifles and the know-how to use them, but their usual prey, deer and moose, don’t shoot back. Sure they have plenty of flannel shirts and wool pants, but a blaze-orange hunting vest aint a flak jacket, and is no match for an improvised explosive device, or even a shoe bomb.

Mainers are hardy down-home types, and they aren’t to be trifled with; but they don’t flaunt it. Steady and reserved, they don’t unnecessarily provoke danger or ask for trouble. So, what gives? Are Bostonians more worthy of protection from people-sharing-names-with-suspected-terrorists? What is the FAA’s reasoning? Is Bangor International more expendable than Logan Airport?

There is some strange disconnect where a small plane that poses no threat passes through the no fly zone in DC, the whole Capital and White House are abandoned and fighter planes are scrambled; yet jumbo jets with “terrorists” on board are made to land in a populated area. (Yes, though smaller than Boston, Bangor is not out on the middle of an American version of Siberia, and Maine is not part of Canada, and there are United States citizens there.)

Do something else. Make the plane ditch in the Atlantic. Send ’em back to France. Land ’em in New Hampshire. That’s a red state, right? (Just kidding.) We might even consider figuring out a way to make sure the passengers are cleared before final approach into the US. (!?)

Just let the Mainers be.