And here I thought the link would be avout Michael Roberts. Resistance, indeed.

"I got yer resistance right here, buddy."

I appreciated the article, but disagreed with the author's solution. I don't think thorough background checks on passengers is appropriate. If the TSA's current behavior makes it such that I fly a lot less than I used to, background checks (and I have nothing they should care about) would encourage me to never fly in the U.S. again.

I think that, if the same level of security was in place in Australia as in the US, I would probably lose my job before long, as it requires frequent air travel. I accept that the current arrangements we have to go through are reasonable (although most likely completely ineffective), being X-Ray scanning of carry-on luggage, a walk-though metal detector and 'random' swab tests for explosives (I say 'random' only because I get picked about 90% of the time). No taking shoes off unless they set off the metal detector (many people opt to take them off anyway, knowing they will trigger the alarm), no taking off any other items of clothing. The biggest annoyance I have is having to take my laptop and umbrella out and put them through the X-Ray separately, which is hardly onerous.

Background checks of all passengers is a dumb idea that is impossible to implement. I don't have anything to hide and don't really care if people do background checks on me but, any kind of check that could be carried out on every single passenger would be so brief as to be useless anyway. Any measure of this nature has the same effect as X-Rays, metal detectors and pat-downs - it stops innocent people from committing crimes.

Quite simply, anyone who is serious about committing a terrorist act cannot be stopped, particularly if they are prepared to die in the process. All of the current security arrangements have no effect whatsoever on terrorists.

So when will people just quit accepting ever more invasive security theater?

When my wife read this article, she said "That's it," and I think she means it. She goes to a couple of conferences a year, and it looks like transcontinental & international trips are out of the question now. We'll be driving to Indianapolis in a couple of weeks and up to DC in June, but air travel has become such a hassle, I think we're done with it until "security" becomes more reasonable.