Aussie Senator: air security is meaningless

Amanda Vanstone is an Australian Senator who gave a stupendous speech to the Adelaide Rotarians about how meaningless airline security procedures are, arguing that they're in place to "make people feel better as opposed to actually achieve an outcome." I fly about 300,000 miles a year, and I couldn't agree more. Senator Vanstone is the first high-placed public official to say what we all know -- the crap we face at airports does squat to make us safer.

Of course, Vanstone's government isn't very happy about her pointing out its imperial nudity, and they're calling for her head on a plastic airline-safe fork. Bruce Schneier and his blog readers have an excellent discussion of her speech and the response:

"Has it ever occurred to you that you just smash your wine glass and jump at someone, grab the top of their head and put it in their carotid artery and ask anything?" Senator Vanstone told her audience of about 100 Rotarians. "And believe me, you will have their attention. I think of this every time I see more money for the security agencies."

The Immigration Minister also told of a grisly conversation with Mr Howard during a discussion on increased spending on national security.

Senator Vanstone said: "I asked him if I was able to get on a plane with an HB pencil, which you are able to, and I further asked him if I went down and came and grabbed him by the front of the head and stabbed the HB pencil into your eyeball and wiggled it around down to your brain area, do you think you'd be focusing? He's thinking, she's gone mad again..."

"If the day has come when a minister can't say what every other Australian says and that is that plastic knives drive us crazy, I think we're in desperate straits," the minister told commercial radio on Monday.

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