Via Tyler Cowen at
Volokh Conspiracy, blogger Gary Leff tells us that
Metal knives are back in first class on Northwest and they're coming back on
Continental. The stupid TSA rule that banned them has been reversed.
Airline security is a strange phenomenon. On my flight back from Toronto this weekend,
I was noticing how easily I could have sabotaged the landing wheels of the medium-small
jet I took. Yet we have all kinds of useless precautions that are not only wasteful but
humiliating. In a society with honor, we wouldn't be willing to take off our shoes just
because a government official told us to. Yet nobody complains much-- not even the
intelligentsia who are so filled with imaginary fears about the Attorney-General looking
into which library books they borrow.
The general public, I think, likes the wasteful security precautions because they make them feel safer, and the feeling of safety is what matters, not actual safety. But why do intelligent people seem to agree?
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