In response to:
I don't even consider flying anywhere I can drive to in 10 hours or less. Counting the time going to & from, & parking/unparking, & spent in airports dealing w/ security, baggage, car rental, or just waiting, I can generally get there faster, & more reliably by road. In point of fact, I haven't flown commercially since the late 1990's.
In a Wall Street Journal op/ed today, Kip Hawley, former head of the Transportation Security Administration from 2005-2009, has some radical suggestions for how to increase airport safety -- and they're in direct opposition to everything we do now.
He argues that the TSA needs to embrace two basic principles before it can make any significant improvements in both travel security and convenience.
First, the TSA's mission is to prevent a catastrophic attack on the transportation system, not to ensure that every single passenger can avoid harm while traveling. Much of the friction in the system...
Our politicians are not defending us correctly. In fact, they are being really stupid.