Glad the government is keeping me safe

Yes, I am being sarcastic. In wake of the arrest of several individuals in the UK for apparently plotting to blow up a few aircraft and all the subsequent restrictions on what you can and cannot carry on to the plane, I have to wonder: Is air travel truly made safer by this? As my job with Userful has and continues to involve travelling extensively, it has never been clearer to me that airport security is a giant joke, very much a cargo cult. It is a heavily ritualized affair, with all the players going through the motions without the understanding behind them. A stark example of this was during a recent trip to Ottawa: When I passed through the security at Vancouver, any security person not dealing with a person was turned around, back to the entrance, watching the World Cup on a small television screen. At points this included the entire group of them.

So ask yourself this: If all the security screening vanished tomorrow, would air travel be any less safe? I am finding it hard to answer yes to that question.