Today Arthur frommer posted a blog about the TSA and the response he had from the previous blog piece. Mr. Frommer seems to be unaware that the weapons that the 9/11 hijackers used were not prohibited at the time and therefore the airport security was not negligent in letting those items pass.
http://www.frommers.com/community/bl...ded-restricted

"...It was therefore with astonishment that I read the dozen-or-so negative comments that have been made in response to my recent blog post (scroll down for the comments) in which I discussed the campaign to discredit the TSA, or to replace them with the employees of private, profit-seeking companies, or to force them to discontinue certain security practices (like requiring passenger to take off their shoes and place them on the belt, or to permit passengers to carry large containers of liquid onto flights). See the comment to my blog that states we should "get rid of the body scanners, get rid of the shoe removal, get rid of the liquid restrictions." One wonders what world these strident sorts are living in. Have they never heard of Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber," who concealed explosives in his footwear that were capable of bringing down a plane? Have they never heard of the would-be terrorist who attempted to ignite explosive liquids that he brought onto a plane?..
Do the opponents of the TSA really claim that the calibre of TSA's work force is less impressive than the bored and bumbling types that used to maintain the security gates prior to 9/11 and who permitted the 19 hijackers to pass almost effortlessly onto the planes they later seized?.."

A commenter, IMHO, got it right: "I maintain that what has kept the terrorists from seizing planes in the last 10 years is not the security theater of the TSA (more on that in a second), but the mentality shift we as a society have undergone as a result of 9/11. When a pilot went berserk on a JetBlue plane yesterday, it was the other passengers who subdued him -- as it was the other passengers, not the TSA, who tackled the shoe bomber and prevented him from doing any harm..."