Sole Morality

Spread 'Em

I have long felt that airport security is a joke. Haven't you? Do you honestly think that what you go through at the TSA checkpoint before proceeding to your gate is truly effective? Sure, stupid people who fill a laptop with an explosive or or put a knife in their pocket are screened out. But someone who was really intent on causing trouble...do you think TSA and the screening processes would catch them?

I was nice to see I am pretty much on the mark according to Jeffrey Goldberg's article for The Atlantic (nice, in the fact that I feel vindicated in my travel security cynicism, not nice in the fact that airport security really is a sham):

[Bruce Schnei­er, a security expert] and I walked to the security checkpoint. “Counter­terrorism in the airport is a show designed to make people feel better,” he said. “Only two things have made flying safer: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.” This assumes, of course, that al-Qaeda will target airplanes for hijacking, or target aviation at all. “We defend against what the terrorists did last week,” Schnei­er said. He believes that the country would be just as safe as it is today if airport security were rolled back to pre-9/11 levels. “Spend the rest of your money on intelligence, investigations, and emergency response.”

I highly suggest you take the time to read the article. It's fairly short and an easy read and guaranteed to change how you look at emptying your pockets and taking off your shoes when you try to catch a flight.

Personally, I see it is as a sad statement on society that

1. the government spends so much money putting on a show of security to make people feel better
2. more people don't see that it really doesn't work
3. there isn't a public outcry about the money that could certainly be applied better in other areas and easily be more effective

Deny every lawful citizen of their means to defend themselves (or clip their nails) and still not provide real security (which is really a farce when you think about what it).

An often paraphrased statement by Benjamin Franklin goes along the lines of "Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither and lose both."

Yeah.