Wesley, you are overlooking the fact that it is possible for TSA to be both invasive and ineffective — which it is. I’d feel a lot better about shuffling around in my socks if people weren’t breezing through TSA checkpoints with loaded guns. Worse, the government keeps information about TSA’s endless failures classified, a point on which Senator Grassley has been reliably sensible.
I agree that security was also terrible before TSA, but that is not an argument for maintaining this crime spree of a federal agency.
We have a porous southern border and a lot of loose anti-aircraft rockets in the world. But please take off your shoes. TSA is not security; it’s ritual.