You know, I agree with much of what else you had to say, but I do get tired of cheap shots like this. I understand that it's fun to feel superior to people that are in a lower caste in life. Yay for us "smart" people.
But I think shots like that are unfair and needlessly demeaning. Security staff like TSA agents have a difficult job to do, every day. All day they deal with nothing but smug, rude and obnoxious jerks that all know how to do the job better and who take out their hatred of flying on the "help".
No, I don't work for the TSA or anything like it. I'm just somebody that does travel a lot and I see a lot of screeners at airports. I've never been treated rudely by anyone other than obnoxious passengers. I happen to have some sympathy for the screeners because the only thing that'll get their name in the paper is to fail once, and they put up with a whole lot of really REALLY stupid passengers without losing their cool. I'm not sure I could.
Like the lady in line ahead of me a while back that must have, I kid you not, been wearing every piece of freaking metal jewelry she owned, a studded belt and collar, studded shirt, and thigh-high lace-up boots with metal studs all over them... she was a freak show. Did she not know she was getting on a plane when she got dressed? And then... SHE has the nerve to get all bent out of shape and whine and bitch about the "hassle" she was getting just trying to get through the metal detector. You wanna talk low IQ's? There's one, and there's a line of people like her that hit that checkpoint day after day.
So yeah, I cut 'em a little slack.
Yes, you're right. Just because someone is stupid doesn't mean he is a bad person. But the point is: if we want to catch terrorists shouldn't we hire people in a little bit higher "caste" in life? I mean after 9-11 we had thousands of ex-military, ex-cops and other professionals who volunteered to do the job for free. They were turned down in favor of the usual affirmative-action, political patronage hires.
That's why I say we should get the government out of it.