>It's perfectly possible that the way the TSA works (e.g. knowing that you'll go through body scanners or thorough patdowns) has deterred potentially nasty attacks. Luckily we'll never know.
You can't justify national policy by saying "it's immeasurable, it could work!" That is like proving the existence of god by saying "we haven't not seen him, he could be there!"
>Everyone who criticizes the TSA (and with reason) should also think about what they would do if they were given the task of trying to prevent Black Swan events with minimal disruption to the 99.9999 percent of normal travelers.
A key feature of black swan events is that you'll never be able to predict them. It seems like this fact is behind 99% of the criticisms you hear about the TSA. Perhaps we should stop chasing the boogeyman and start figuring out how to deal with him when he comes.
You can't justify national policy by saying "it's immeasurable, it could work!" That is like proving the existence of god by saying "we haven't not seen him, he could be there!"
>Everyone who criticizes the TSA (and with reason) should also think about what they would do if they were given the task of trying to prevent Black Swan events with minimal disruption to the 99.9999 percent of normal travelers.
A key feature of black swan events is that you'll never be able to predict them. It seems like this fact is behind 99% of the criticisms you hear about the TSA. Perhaps we should stop chasing the boogeyman and start figuring out how to deal with him when he comes.