Timex or Rolex? Anything but a Casio.

The fact that wearing a Casio can be used against you in a court of law was at first funny to me. But then I thought about the fact that it is anything but funny to those swept up in the “watch profiling” of our intelligence agencies.

The U.S. military cites the digital watches worn by prisoners when they were captured as possible evidence of terrorist ties.

Now that is what I call reaching for a reason.

"I have a Casio watch due to the fact that they are inexpensive and they last a long time," the 34-year-old detainee told a tribunal. "I like my watch because it is durable. It had a calculator and was waterproof, and before prayers we have to wash up all the way to my elbows."

They take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’!

"The problem for military intelligence in a war like this is determining who is the enemy," said Mark Ensalaco, an international terrorism expert at the University of Dayton, in Ohio

We have met the enemy Mark. And he is us.

In the 1996 trial of Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the first attack on the World Trade Center, a prosecutor described how a Casio attached to a timing device using 9-volt batteries became the "calling card" of Yousef's Philippines-based terror cell

How long do you think it will be before we have to present identification before purchasing a 9-volt battery?

The watch maker, a division of Casio Computer Co., Ltd. of Japan, declined interview requests, but said in the statement that it is aware of the concerns. "Casio continues to work closely with all government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security to help limit any potential threats and deal with security concerns," the statement said.

First we offer up our ports to the Arabs and now the Japanese are supplying our watches. Shouldn’t we just blow the yellow man back into the stone age?

Even if Casios were pulled off the market worldwide, terrorists could easily switch to other commonly available products to make timers for bombs, Williams said. "You give me a half-hour in a supermarket and I can blow up your garage."

God created man equal. The supermarkets help keep him that way.

Ya’ll have a great weekend.