I'm curious how you regard the Richard Reid incident. Unlike other scenarios which are based on theory, this really happened. His shoes were really filled with explosives and, had he been successful, the explosion would really have brought the plane down. Nat Wheathole then pushed the point further with his little escapade during which he made it through the WTMD without having to remove his shoes which were filled with putty simulating an explosive compound.

I'm not a fan of the shoe policy myself. However, my military training tells me that this is still a good way to smuggle explosives if the only screening criteria were based solely on metal shanks alarming the WTMD.

So I'm curious what your solution is to this reality? As I've posted previously, perhaps TSA can relax the standard to a more random criteria, say one out of every five passengers gets the shoe treatment. But, this should be based on analysis of intelligence that supports mitigating this threat to a less stringent standard and not based on the policy's unpopularity with passengers.

Please share your solution, if you dare.