> You could probably accomplish the same thing much more easily by just packing a stroller full of explosives and detonating THAT in the security line.

Exactly. The problem with all this security theater is that if you wanted to just kill a bunch of people there are 100's of ways to do it, low tech and cheap.

What bugs me about all this is that the 'terrorists' so far have shown surprisingly little sophistication in the attacks they have made, mostly because they didn't have to. (well, maybe the 'shoe bomber' should count).

For the most part, if the stated goal was to bring down western society they're taking their bloody time about it, security really isn't that good.

My guess is that this is all blown way out of proportion.

Sure, there are some bad guys, but there are less of them than seems to be presented, and they're pretty busy doing other stuff.

Blowing up an airliner is a publicity stunt, it isn't going to derail society unless you let it.

Germany had an enormous terrorism flap in the 70's, and 80's, according to the media.

But in reality several tens of people died and somewhat more were wounded.

Much less than a year on the autobahn.