Originally Posted by Bart
The only objection I have to your position is that you are accepting the odds that you will probably never be victimized by a shoe bomb, and you are most likely correct in that assumption. But what about the poor souls who do become victimized (assuming that another attempt is made this year, next year or even five or ten years from now)? Are you going to be one of those who accuses TSA of failing to do its job?
There are so many, many things in life to be concerned amount that, quite honestly, being killed by a shoe-bomber is not even on my radar screen. And it really shouldn't be on anybody's mind IMO. As the OP said earler, the trip to the airport is fraught with danger. Statistically, once one arrives in an airport terminal until they leave same at their destination is quite possibly the safest they'll ever be in this lifetime. Always has been and, IMO, always will be. We need sensible, non-invasive security to assure that the majority of the bad guys are caught but no matter how close we search there will always be those who will be undetected. Stepping up the scrutiny as we are progressively doing serves no purpose other than to frustrate the traveling public and run up the cost of security and airline operations.
As to the last part of your comment above about who's going to blame who if a shoe bomber actually succeeds in the future, I'm personally going to blame the shoe-bomber for the deed and not the TSA for failing to find same.
Others opinions may vary.