Another Shoe Drops

The NYT carries another article on the matter of airport screening: Another Shoe Drops on the Subject of Airport Security.

As an all-too-frequent flier, I am always amazed at the inconsistency of screening policies between one airport and another. I almost never wear shoes that will set off the magnetometer; usually sneakers or loafers with no steel shank. Yet, some airports insist that you take them off anyway, which is just ridiculous if you ask me.

I mean, really. It is more than just an inconvenience, it means you end up with dirty socks and then there's no convenient place to put them back on unless you walk across the area that has no clean carpeting to a chair... leaving you with dirty socks! Blech. All because one idiot decides to claim his fifteen minutes of infamy by packing his nikes with C4. God help us if some whacko tries something foolish with his boxers!

And why the heck is it necessary to remove laptops, and now apparently camcorders, from their bag? This isn't necessary in Europe. Do european screeners have more powerful x-ray vision? Or, do they simply recognize that it serves only to slow down the screening process without adding to any increase in security?

And why is it that the ones who get targetted for extra screening seem to be someone's great-grandmother? When did Osama start recruiting confused, frail septuagenarians? Maybe Tom Ridge has been watching too much Monty Python. In all my travels, I have yet to see someone who would be more likely to fit the profile of an arab terrorist subjected to the additional screening. What's up with that?