And the alternative is.....? Apart from a radical shift in foreign policy, the current system seems the most viable immediate option.

Maybe we could have, like, global time-out or something. You know, all join hands for ring-around-the-rosy, maybe dim the lights and haul out the cots for nap time.

I miss nap time. And cubbies. I'm with Jesse, so long as the UN gives us all cubbies.

I second that motion, Geoff. Cubbies for all. Preferrably cubbies that individuals can sit in while they wait for their mommies and daddies to pick them up. Oh, I think we're leaving out fingerpainting.

Where's Pipsqueak? Pipsqueak, I appoint you UN Envoy for Global Nap Time.

how much does "Computer security expert Bruce Schneier" get paid an hour to come up with "[they are] measures designed to make us feel safer but not actually safer."

I was going to make a sarcastic comment about Americans' ignorance and apathy toward world events meaning we're big winners, but then I realized he's right. If the cops nab the terrorists before they can blow up anything, that means it's a blip in people's days (for people who even follow the news) and not a huge event. At my work last Thursday, we spent 10 minutes talking about this and at least 45 discussing whether or not someone who used to work with us did porn.

Geoff, I'm surprised at your uncharasteristic lapse in cynicism...I think the phrase "security theater" is unusually apt for the utter farce that goes on in airport queues. Honestly, it is a whole new form of "feel-good" legislation, very visible and public measures meant to make it appear as though we have adjusted to the "post-911" world with a "never-forget/never-again" attitude that is, in reality, purely cosmetic. Does anyone really think that those poor TSA slobs examining our shoes for poverty-lines wages are keeping us safe?
Anyway...do you know anyone, by chance, who wants to live in your old room starting Sept. 1? Wanna move back?

Do I want to move back? Yes. Will I? Prolly not, for obvious reasons. But on to more pressing matters: my cynicism. The reports of my cynicism's death are greatly exaggerated, Liam! Security theater is an apt description, and I deplore the use of color coded threat levels and the like. You're spot on in calling these security measures cosmetic (insofar as we know the real story behind security procedures and intel). But Schneier's blog's usefulness ends with the "theater" quip. There's value in that, to be sure; he's given us a few niice turns of phrase. But this computer security expert is so far out of his jurisdiction of expertise as to be no more credible on this issue than you or I (assuming, that you're not a TSA agent in Gaultier disguise, Liam).

To steal Schneier's construction: It’s not expert blogging, it’s blogging theater: postings designed to make us feel erudite but not actually more informed.

Did they do porn?

Opinion is divided on the subject. Someone spotted a woman in a porno who's either the same woman or just looks a lot like her. But it's highly entertaining to speculate.

"Poor TSA slobs"?

that wasn't a diss to the tsa employees (though they are hardly my favorite people), but they don't make shit. thusly, the gov. has had a hard time attracting responsible people and all --numerous ex-felons were found working there and baggage theft really rose (however, I understand that those last problems are being reduced)