I find it incredibly disheartening that the vast majority of you seem to think that by checking Sally's underwire and Bobby's buttcrack airport security is fulfilling their federal mandate in relation to your safety.
Air travel as always been the most delicate of all arenas of mass transportation. Massive groundcrews, air traffic controllers, pilots, et cetera are all required to get that giant flying tube airborne safely. All it takes is one of these guys to have a bad day or their equipment to fritz out and your day gets a whole lot worse.
All that is beside the point, but it reinforces the fact that flying is a complicated business. Airport security is a relatively small part of overall passenger safety. Random screening an even smaller part of that. However, it's the most high profile and more people are affected by "random passenger screening" then any other equally important aspect of airport security so the "enhancements" are more likely to be noticed and all other deficiencies are likely to not be noticed at all.
Get rid of all screening? No way. Screening should be the first step, but certainly not the only step. Run folks through metal detectors, x-ray their baggage? Absolutely. No argument there. But pulling Granny out of line for a "random passenger" check? Give me a fucking break. This is only an effective technique if a) it's not random (read: profiling) or b) you apply it to everyone. They're certainly not going to do either one as it causes public outrage one way and enormous time delays the other. So they placate you by performing checks at random. They serve no purpose, are busy work for your highly trained airport security technician and confuse the vast majority into thinking these updated airport security standards are working.
Millions of people fly everyday. You can't possibly hope to watch everyone do everything at the same time. All you can do is put in a system of checks that will eventually filter out the troublemakers before they get on the plane. Random passenger screening is a joke and "Chad" feeling me up from behind isn't doing anybody any favors. Although, I admit, if I close my eyes.....
Let's start securing the plane. Cockpits should be impregnable. The pilots should be locked up before the passengers get on and not be allowed to leave until the plane is on the ground. Put a bathroom, cot, little door for food to be passed through up there, whatever it takes. The cockpit should be as hard to get it as a virgin's sphincter.
Put Air Marshalls on the plane. Every plane. If they can afford to pay superfluous "airline attendants" to bring me drinks and peanuts then they can afford to pay one of them to carry a gun. One less "Suzi" with an i, isn't going to ruin my flying experience. Being blown up or held hostage with a swiss army knife might.
The point is, and I think SM70 and denim could agree, is that there is no need to give up personal freedom of any kind if airport security (and here I mean federal goverment) could pull their collective heads from their asses and start using some common sense.
There are dozens of measures already in place that don't affect my personal freedom (or whatever you want to call it) in any way, shape or form. I don't mind running through the metal detectors, I don't mind my baggage being x-rayed and I don't mind the cargo holds where my luggage is being scanned...oops...
It's not an inconvenience in the least and doesn't affect me personally in any way.
What does affect me personally is the ruse of random passenger screening and the forced charade of how effective it's been. What I do mind is somebody having the authority to violate my personal space just because I happen to be standing in line. What I do mind is someone singling me out because I
might be a terrorist when all other evidence points the contrary.