Desperation and Stupidity

This is so stupid it even inspired me to write a blog post.

So there was a terrorist attempt. Thankfully, basically no one was hurt and the plot was foiled. Yay.

Oh wait. No. I forgot the part where things get fucked up.

So supposedly after this terrorist plot, we have to tighten security again. How? Well if you read the rumors of the new rules, it seems like TSA has basically taken a detailed account of how the bombing attempt went and forbid exactly those set of circumstances. Since the terrorist tried to ignite the bomb during the last minutes of the flight while it was landing, everyone must not remain seated and not move around during the last hour of the flight.

First of all, why the fuck stop there? He had explosives strapped to his leg. Why not prohibit passengers from carrying legs on to the plane? Oh, he only had it strapped to one of his legs? OK, then we'll prevent one leg from coming on to the plane. And for added security, we won't tell you which leg we'll allow at which airports so you can't game the system. Also, since the most recent attempt was foiled by a Dutch film director jumping across the aisle to stop the fire, all flights will now have equal numbers of passengers and Dutch film directors. All passengers shall be jumped by said cadre (you tell me the collective noun for Dutch film directors) of directors some time during the last hour of the flight. Phew. Disaster averted.

Second, why are we still playing out this charade? Scanning for explosives and going through metal detectors and x-ray machines at the airport, fine. But there's a shoe bomber and you start checking for shoes. There's a last-minute bomber and you start restricting people from moving about at the last minute. Dear TSA: If the last knee jerk reactionary display of theatrics didn't save you from this latest terrorist attempt, what in the world makes you think another knee jerk reactionary display of theatrics will do the trick?

I know it's not easy preventing terrorist plots. It's probably something on the order of finding a needle in a haystack and then trying to thread that needle by launching it on a crossbow aimed at a thread half a mile away, on horseback, while having sex. Just because it's difficult doesn't mean it helps to just throw some reactionary shit at it and hope that it goes away. I'm thankful there are people trying to keep me safe. I'm thankful that those people care. But making people take off their shoes because there's been a shoe bomber is like telling a murder not to murder, specifically, the person he/she just murdered. Doesn't really address the problem.