A Foreign Correspondent Considers the TSA

Check out this piece by Richard Engel of NBC.  To his credit, he filed a complaint.  More thoughts here.  For goodness sake, stop the ever-growing useless TSA security theater antics.  You of course remember this and this.

I add this bit from Engel's essay, which leaped out at me since I know academia all too well:

I was in the subway in New York a few days before traveling to Los Angeles. I grew up in New York. I always read the advertisements on the subways – there's not much else to look at. Generally, they're for acne treatment or public service announcements. 

This time, one of the advertisements caught my eye. It was for quick, inexpensive associate degrees. One of the majors advertised was in accounting, which has long been popular. There always seems to be a need for accountants. The other major was in "homeland security." Standing there, looking up at the ad as I jostled in the subway car, I realized what a growth industry security has become in the United States. 

Uh oh.  And that means that it's going to be rapidly more interested in self-perpetuation than actual effectiveness.