Originally Posted by justageek
(2) The government is obsessed with security on airplanes. They do not care one whit about security at airports.
This is one area where the gov't is actually right, and has even corrected their past mistakes. Many will remember how immediately after 9/11 they prohibited parking in large parking areas (in some cases, entire newly built parking garages were closed) that were deemed "too close" to the terminals. At many airports they blockaded the pickup lanes closest to the terminals as well, forcing passengers to load/unload their cars an extra 10-20 feet away under the "protective" watch of some National Guardsmen in a Hummer.
This idiocy was correctly eliminated, because NOBODY WANTS TO BLOW UP THE AIRPORT!
If you want to kill a lot of people, airports are not a good target. Airports are relatively secure and have relatively low numbers of people-per-square-foot compared to other places like bus/train stations, shopping malls, entertainment venues, office buildings, etc. Airport security is therefore correctly focused on protecting airplanes, which are far more useful to terrorists as mobile hostage prisons, guided missiles or high-kill-rate bombing targets.
Originally Posted by PDXracer
Because of the threat of a bomb outside, they make rules for ground transportation that we cannot, under ANY circumstane, be more than 10 feet from our cars/trucks/busses, or face a $1000 fine for the first offense.
At most airports, they do that to keep traffic moving. The bomb threat is a secondary issue (and an excuse).