Security Theatre

From the ongoing series this sometimes seems like a libertarian blog:

From the Atlantic:

Medical supplies, such as saline solution for contact-lens cleaning, don’t fall under the TSA’s three-ounce rule.

“What’s allowed?” I asked. “Saline solution, or bottles labeled saline solution?”

“Bottles labeled saline solution. They won’t check what’s in it, trust me.”

[...]

The ID triangle: before a passenger boards a commercial flight, he interacts with his airline or the government three times—when he purchases his ticket; when he passes through airport security; and finally at the gate, when he presents his boarding pass to an airline agent. It is at the first point of contact, when the ticket is purchased, that a passenger’s name is checked against the government’s no-fly list. It is not checked again, and for this reason, Schnei­er argued, the process is merely another form of security theater.

“The goal is to make sure that this ID triangle represents one person,” he explained. “Here’s how you get around it. Let’s assume you’re a terrorist and you believe your name is on the watch list.” It’s easy for a terrorist to check whether the government has cottoned on to his existence, Schnei­er said; he simply has to submit his name online to the new, privately run CLEAR program, which is meant to fast-pass approved travelers through security. If the terrorist is rejected, then he knows he’s on the watch list.

I once had a plane ticket with a mis-spelling of my name (the university services messed up). It did not match my ID. I complained when I checked-in. They said “Oh, don’t worry. It’s similar enough.” I boarded six planes with a boarding pass that did not match my ID. Security never even asked me about it. They did make sure I did not have a bottle of water on me, though.

It’s a sham. A sham which costs $7 billion dollars per year and inconveniences millions everyday (making some of them prefer to drive and causing more deaths in the in the process).