Comments | sheltiesong: Random thoughts

sheltiesong

Random thoughts

Nov 19, 2010 11:18

Saw HP7.1 yesterday. So good, but OMGsotired! Glad I took today off. :)

( On a more serious note, I keep seeing all this angst about the new airport security measures ... )

thinky-thoughts

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sheltiesong November 20 2010, 02:41:34 UTC

Back in 2002, I took a class on terrorism, and wrote a paper on legislative and societal responses to domestic terrorism. I had the very same idea, that applying El Al standards might be a way to make our airports more secure. But a talk with my professor brought up a very good point: logistically, it's just not likely possible for the US to do this, because we have so much more air traffic than Israel does. I just did a little research, and was pretty shocked at just how much busier the US is.

In a ranking of the world's busiest airports by passenger traffic (2009), the US had 6 in the top 10, 11 in the top 20, 13 in the top 25 and 14 in the top 30. Israel, which didn't even make the list, had 10.9 million people pass through. By comparison, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta saw a whopping 88 million. Even the 50th ranked airport in 2009 saw over 22 million passengers.

So yes, it's a nice thought, but what works in Israel may just simply not be possible here. The greater the scale, the greater the difficulty in something like this.

bandgeek01 November 20 2010, 03:10:56 UTC

Then why mention wanting alternatives if you shooting anything down that's a good chance of an alternative.

It would take time, but this most definitely could work in the US, we are just too lazy as a country to admit that we didn't get this TSA stuff right.

I'm actually kind of glad I didn't post my first comment now.

sheltiesong November 20 2010, 04:59:30 UTC

Look, I didn't say "Stupid idea. Go away. It'll never work." I simply said that it seems unlikely that it can work and gave some concrete reasons why I feel that way, based on the research I've quoted and the opinion of a professor I trust whose job it is to teach on this subject matter. Did you miss where I said it was something I had thought had enough merit that I wanted to put it in a paper 8 years ago? I'm for it in theory, I only explained why I didn't think it would work. I'm sorry it offended you so much; that certainly wasn't my intention.

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