Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute on The Pretense of Airport Security
College student Nathaniel Heatwole’s recent, highly publicized hijinks in deliberately and successfully flouting airline-security rules illustrate once more the realities of the government’s sham program to protect the commercial airline industry from terrorists.
The Transportation Security Administration is a joke, and not a funny one, either. As you pass through the TSA’s airport checkpoints, you can expect to overhear mutters about the “gestapo,” the “morons,” and similar commentary from outraged but powerless travelers who have chosen to swallow their self-respect and submit to pointless, degrading invasions of their persons and property in order to avoid offending the thugs who, whenever they choose, can prevent passengers from proceeding with their travel. Something is horribly wrong with a population willing to tolerate such routine degradation and thuggery, especially when the alleged benefits of the humiliation are entirely bogus.
Read the rest here. Higgs' bio is available here.
I'm with Robert on this one. Recent airline security measures, like most of the new "DO SOMETHING NOW" measures introduced since September 12, 2001 are about making people feel secure and to a lesser extent – obedient, rather than actually making them secure. People are gratefully trading their dignity and civil liberties for the false sense of security that allows them to pretend they live in the one place on the entire planet that keeps them safe from harm. Nothing really changed on September 11 – except perceptions of our place in the world and a sudden realization of our vulnerabilities. As we gratefully trade more and more of our hard-earned freedoms for the false hope of safety and security peddled by jackboot opportunists, in the end – what we will have left to protect?
Gee, the TSA has had months to achieve a (pardon-the-pun) “bulletproof” system. You expect it to be perfect already? Travelers to Israel’s Ben Gurion airport know that the methods used in the U.S. and most of Europe pale in comparison. The question is, are the airports in the U.S. more secure now than before 9/11/01? They most assuredly are, though most of the advanced screening is done “behind the scenes” rather than the ‘Gestapo’ referred to in the article. Can you imagine the incessant whining that would be generated if we instituted an Israeli-like security corridor around all the U.S. international links? The reason for advanced electronic baggage screening tools and the CAPPS II system is to provide a higher-level of security that isn’t as noticable as the perimeter mirror/dog screenings used at Ben Gurion. I’m always amused that the biggest whiners on this subject are: A) Ill-informed of the technologies currently used and… B) Are the first people who whine when asked to remove their 5 pounds of metal objects after repeatedly setting off the detectors.
The TSA has done their level best to maintain a sense of decorum while increasing safety. Is the system perfect? By no means. Can an ingeneous person find ways around it? Undoubtedly, just as they still do to this day at Ben Gurion. The biggest difference? The Israeli people don’t demand to know the details of every offender caught ‘in the act’, they actually understand that explaining the whole system undermines its effectiveness. If only the American public were as intelligent on average…