Smarter measures

How stupid are we? Air travel security screening is a joke. The secretary of homeland security thinks the system worked after being confronted with another failed airline bomb plot ("Ire Rises Over Air Security Lapses," Dec. 28).

So the biggest list of people with suspected terror ties is 550,000. Put them all on a no-fly list. Why make millions of law-abiding Americans who are not under suspicion of any kind shimmy, shake and walk shoeless at the airport every day? Let the 550,000 explain the circumstances that landed them on the list.

Let the rest of us, like me, an Army veteran, former law enforcement officer, former elected official, licensed insurance agent in 10 states with a valid passport have some way to avoid the security "Lambada," which is so annoying and time-consuming but apparently and alarmingly incapable of keeping terrorists bearing high explosives off a plane.

The government has at least a dozen copies of my fingerprints: I once held a top secret, background investigation, security clearance (TSBI) and guarded some of the nation's closest secrets, nuclear weapons and the president of the United States.

I would gladly give my retinal scan, DNA or perhaps my first born in the name of national security or easier travel, but no, despite the fact that no Presbyterian or Pittsburgher, for that matter, has ever taken over an airliner, there is no respite from the ineffective screening and hoax security regime. Dumb, dumber, dumber-er.

ERIC EWING
Pine