Airport Security by the lowest bidder or by government employee is like giving the ability to control dirvers licenses and car registrations to the DMV. Oh, wait, thats the way it is now.

Airport Security allows some of us to 'feel safe.' Look at the reaction after Britain foiled a liquid bomb plot by guys who had no ingredients or ability to make a liquid bomb. We ban liquids from airlines when we what? A) Learn about the Threat or B) make arrests? Why, its B of course. The EXACT same threat existed since before 1/1/2000, much less 9/11, but, the high and mighty government does nothing about it until they arrest a bunch of incompetents for talking about it.

Why do we remove our shoes? Because someone tried to light their shoe on fire with a lighter. Do we ban lighters? No, that takes another 3 years. what happens when we discover someone has mercury batteries and creates an explosive with the innards of an aklaline or lithium battery? Guess we'll ban batteries then. Eve though the actual threat exists now.

What was different about the liquid explosive threat on Aug 9 from aug 10? Nothing. They simply arrested a few guys. So, what was the security reaction to the liquid threat from Sept 14, 2001 through Aug 9, 2006? If you think about it, all that happened was they made an arrest public. The actual threat was no different.

Physics and intelligence has nothing to do with airport security. We can stop someone from bringing a metal gun or knife board. Thats about it. carbon fiber blades are not easily detectible. New hard phenolics are the same way. you need to detect guns from shell casings, not from guns ultimately.

Explosives? Binary explosives are virtually impossible to create on an airliner. Dangerous fumes are another issue however. You can kill dozens with poisonous fumes easily. Yet, all manner of liquids are allowed. Too many people objected the liquids ban. so, deadly weapons are allowed because too many people objected.

How about insulin? How many people could be incapacitated or killed with a syringe and an simply an air injection? You may not get control of an airliner, but when it lands with everyone dead, thats a pretty good statement.

Security is reactive and just plain silly in the country. It is 100% about 'feeling safe,' with checks and searches designed to create just enough inconveniece to make people 'beleive' that it is effective.

Security is about politics and politicians not wanting to have people bleieve they are not safe. It has nothing to do with actual security, except from ammunition and metal knives. Everything else is a crap shoot.

The solution is clear. Do away with silly no-fly lists that have not captured a single terrorist but which act to inconvenience only law abiding citizens. Do away with random selectee checks and searching old women and infants. Lets focus on the threat and not on the politics of it. That would require that the bureaucrats actually make an intelligent assessment of what the threat actually is - everyone is not the threat, devoting scare resources to screen everyone makes no sense. Unfortunately, they do not want to be wrong, so they waste effort screening everyone.