Airport Security Absurdity

[Holman]

I gave up liberty for convenience at a cost of a few bucks. I did the now forsaken Clear program. Since I was traveling multiple times per month, the ability to skip most of the security lines was worth the "cost" of a retina scan, fingerprint and background check (oh and $200).

So *you're* the sleeper agent. Get him!

[Zarathud]

You'll need to factor in the deterrent effect of airport security. Presumably there are people out there who would have committed attacks if they thought they had a 100% chance of getting their bomb onto the plane. No self-respecting terrorist wants to suffer a take-down at the x-ray machine.

Before youtube and last month, I would have thought no self-respecting terrorist would blow off his junk before meeting the virgins in heaven.

There's also the fact that planes are an easy target: delicate machines with lots of potential victims packed tight together. A device that can bring down a plane doesn't need to be very large--apparently you can hide one in your underwear. The same device wouldn't do much more than wreck the lobby of a building, and it wouldn't even scratch the paint on a bridge.

Planes are targets of sensational opportunities. Public flights are more secure, but more troubling than private planes. The last private jet I flew in didn't have keys, but it wouldn't do spectacular damage unless you loaded tanks of gas onboard.

Still, I think a terrorist could inflict more economic and emotional damage over time by hacking the traffic systems in major cities, shutting off all of the stoplights at random. The only problem is that it'd get confused with vandalism, rather than having sensational consequences. Same thing with random shootings.

Bond villians usually failed because of their elaborate schemes and tendency to explain to the agent. Terrorists just skip the explanation part, and try to pull the trigger on the doomsday device already.

[hepcat]

okay, this made me laugh

[stessier]

It appears there was a plan to put explosives in an iPad and that the device appeared normal.

[Moliere]

okay, this made me laugh

This was my favorite part:

404 Not Found

nginx

[em2nought]

I don't understand the need to give our liberties away to everyone else, or to curtail our liberties along with everyone else?

[hepcat]

okay, this made me laugh

This was my favorite part:

404 Not Found

nginx

7 years you waited for that to happen. I salute your patience and dedication to the long game!

[Punisher]

It appears there was a plan to put explosives in an iPad and that the device appeared normal.

I wonder if they had Apple Care...