Flying

One small thing I hope comes out of a Democratic victory in 2008 is a rethinking of airport security. Coming off my flight from Washington to Austin today, I am just annoyed.

1. The banning of liquids is just stupid. In a discussion with Duss the other day, he pointed out that it is virtually impossible to mix a bomb in a bathroom lavatory with the liquids you could bring on board. But that was someone's idea once!!! So we must never allow liquids again!!!

2. Why the hell do we have to take our laptops out of our packs?

3. The shoes. For Christ's sake. Does any other country make you do this? The whole shoe bomber thing is absurd. See, here's the thing. The ability of terrorists to use airplanes as bombs now is almost impossible. Why? Who would let them? After 9/11, everyone knows that if a plane is hijacked, they hijackers are likely going to use it as a bomb. If you know that you are dead anyway, would you not die 5 minutes earlier to stop such an evil action? Would anyone not do this?

But our response to terrorism is classic America. Don't do what actually should be done. Instead, implement some really pointless and inconvenient policies that make it look like we are doing something to the ignorant public.

I should note that I this should not come up before the election, since the Republicans would jump on it by saying that Democrats don't care about national security. But I hope that a Democratic administration would quietly bring about sensible governance in so many ways, including airport security.

Ugh.