Forums

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

The execution seems to include a little trial-and-error -- policies that are announced and then hashed out over a little bit of time. This is hardly the first time anyone has complained about the TSA going overboard. Remember when no one was allowed to bring water on the plane? Eventually, that got worked out in a way that imposes relatively little hassle for (hopefully) substantially improved security.

The TSA has to balance privacy and security, plus other interests like cost. It has to do this in a context where the threats are shifting and evolving (as are the nature of privacy and cost concerns).

If anyone thinks that they could develop policies that score perfectly on both competing concerns, well, that's probably the same person who thinks that he can eliminate the deficit solely by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.

It would be delightful if someone at the TSA were really trying to strike that balance, but what they do is security theater. Wasting people's time is a feature, not a bug, as it conveys the message that they are Doing Something, which is designed to cover asses if something happens.