Insecurity Theatre

I admit to falling behind here, but it's summer and I'm on vacation so I make no excuses. There is a fair bit of stuff that gets my goat from time-to-time, but I need to have some sort of answer to the goat-getting happenings before I can get a decent rant going.

Although no promises are made for a neat solution to the security theatre making travel such an invasive chore these days, the creeping Orwellian tendencies of certain agencies are more and more on my radar these days. I have already decided that I will NOT undergo a full body scan of the sort today's link talks about; if they want to know what's under my clothes they'll have to do it the old-fashioned way.

Even better, I'll stay in Canada until the Americans realize that no-one anywhere else in the world is more likely to go on a shooting rampage than they are. Likewise there are enough drugs and explosives available in the U.S. and enough illegals pouring over their southern borders that any air traveller (or driver for that matter) coming from anywhere else is not likely to make a material difference if you let ordinary people and law enforcement do what comes naturally when something bad appears.

The full truth of United 93 can never be known, but we can be certain that left alone the scum who hijacked that plane wouldn't have crashed it in that field. It's not much of a choice, but if I knew I was going to die I'd do whatever I could to not take any (more) innocent people with me, and I'm sure that's what Todd Beamer was thinking in his last moments.

As the underwear bomber of last Xmas showed, the best and last line of defence is a self-preserving public who remember the real lesson of 9/11/2001; don't let the terrorists do what they want. Jasper Schuringa likely had that lesson in mind when he jumped Abdulmutallab, and he was the only thing that took any active role in preventing another air massacre. The system, for all of it's obnoxious security agents, scanners, no-fly lists etc. failed epically.

If the goal was in fact ensuring that transportation and the economy kept moving smoothly, bags would still be x-rayed and metal/explosives detectors would still be used. We would also do what has worked (more often than not) forever and "profile" people.

It is a fact that people who are up to something tend to behave strangely. Those damned "naked" scanners wouldn't pick up the very thing (explosive shorts) that they were rushed into action to prevent, but security or boarding agents doing their job and not afraid of being sued for racism or "islamophobia" would have picked Abdulmutallab up before he even boarded, simply for being just a bit too suspicious. All of these overlapping intelligence agencies that don't talk to each other suck resources for little return, and in general the entire system keeps expanding in an effort to cover every possible angle.

Life is risky, and to live it at all we have to allow for some danger. Determining a point of diminishing returns on something like transportation security is fraught, but it's that difficult because of the zero-fault culture we keep moving toward. I can't sort it all out, but here's how you keep planes safe:

• metal detectors, etc. screen out the guns knives and bombs;
• cockpit doors are locked for the duration of the flight, thus removing physical takeover of the plane as an option, and;
• Attached to the seat in front of each passenger is an 18" hardwood truncheon. Most effective use of the truncheon in close quarters will be demonstrated as part of the safety lecture.

A knife that you could sneak onto a plane vs. a riot stick? I'll tell you where my money is, especially when everyone has their own "kosh". If you insist on Air Marshals, give them a Taser as a stand-off weapon. Giving them a gun is the stupidest idea I've ever heard; that guarantees that there's a gun on the plane after all of the efforts to keep them off.

Yes, most people are sheep, but there are some sheepdogs out there and it only takes one or two to make all of the difference when things hit the fan. Less is in fact occasionally more, at least more effective when all of the "more" keeps tripping over itself and loses its purpose.