Originally Posted by DCAmateur

TSA is being purely political. Nobody, not DHS or the administration at large, wants to be accused of being lax on terrorism, especially if someone tries something similar in the future and pulls it off.

Still, the new security measures are (mostly) horrifically useless and inconvenient to boot. May this comment stand as a vote against their permanent adoption.

This is all about the great-aunts in Topeka who fly once every other year and are perfectly happy to spend three hours in TPA "if it keeps us safe" because they refuse to accept any risk whatsoever during air travel. Sadly, this divorce from reality has outsized political influence, and certain provincial politicians (read: Congress) will fight each other to show their anti-terror bona fides before recognizing the debilitating economic impact of imposing untenable restrictions on air travelers.

From one frequent flyer: if the cost of maintaining present security measures is a marginally increased risk of terror, I'll take it. When travel becomes infeasible, we lose.