At this very moment, tens of thousands of people are patiently inching through airport security lines at a snail’s pace. Few are complaining, because we look at it as an important piece of homeland defense. “Hey, we’re all in this 9-11 thing together.”
OK. Of course. We all want safe air travel. We all want to keep terrorists from committing violent acts. But let’s not be afraid to call it what it is: The current process of screening passengers at U.S. airports is a joke. It’s not protecting us from very much. Did you ever notice that your likelihood of being pulled out of line for a special check has more to do with the TSA staff/passenger ratio than if you’re likely to be carrying a bomb? I swear that I only get pulled out of line if they’re not very busy. Don’t you think a terrorist could figure this system out?
You may have guessed: I just went through an inane complete search of all my belongings, just by the luck of the draw as I went through security in Phoenix. With 2 guys busy analyzing my toothpaste and making sure my iPod Mini wasn’t really WMD Mini, all I could think was that Senator Proxmire would be having lots of fun with this if he were still exposing stupid government waste.