Holiday Travel and Airline Security

I seem to recall blogging about this before, but I just read an item from the NY Times about it, and it reminded me of this ongoing example of stupid government policies and our sheepish accession to them:

Thus, what most people fail to grasp is that the nuts and bolts of keeping terrorists away from planes is not really the job of airport security at all. Rather, it’s the job of government agencies and law enforcement. It’s not very glamorous, but the grunt work of hunting down terrorists takes place far off stage, relying on the diligent work of cops, spies and intelligence officers. Air crimes need to be stopped at the planning stages. By the time a terrorist gets to the airport, chances are it’s too late.

I'm still steamed at the TSA guy who got all huffy when I made some cavalier comment after removing shoes and putting them through the x-rays about how I felt so much more secure. He got in my face about how that was the most severe threat, etc. Oy. I mean, I guess it's important to him to believe his job has a purpose. Mostly, it has the purpose of keeping airline passengers off-base and docile.

Happy New Year!