TSA: Do you feel safer?

I recently stumbled upon a blogger's opinions on the new TSA policies. After expressing he or she's frustrations with the inconvenience of the policy, the blogger goes on to offer several suggestions regarding how the TSA could better ensure out safety in flying. It made me think and perhaps it will you as well. A few excerpts are pasted below as well as the link.

"Everyone had to go through the full body scanner, except as I learned if you had a baby or worked for the airport. Now if a terrorist did not want to go through a full body scanner, I reckon it would not be past him to bring a small child with him, or even be employed by the airport, just a side note. As I pushed by bags through the x-ray machine, also an invasion of privacy I think is irrational - I mean have you ever looked at the pictures? You can't tell what anything is. I even put a whole DVD player through it once and they didn't stop me for it. There was a TSA officer standing behind the metal detector that was roped off. I simply asked her, can I go through the metal detector? She said if you would like a thorough pat down. I suppose I could have pushed more, however I was nervous about making my flight. So I showed my frustration in other ways. However the most interesting part was the conversation she then proceeded to have with another TSA agent who said, "people are just scared of what they don't know, new things are always scary, this is the technology of the future". Right the last thing I am afraid of is new technology, what I am concerned about is new technology invading my personal privacy to which I have supposedly been guaranteed by the Bill of Rights."

"We cannot underestimate these people, they aren't stupid! To plan an attack as they did on September 11 requires some level of intelligence, these are not haphazard attempts, like someone wakes up in the morning and thinks, you know I think I want to blow up a plane this morning, call me crazy, but I don't think so. In fact, I think I would argue that if we were to take a random sample of TSA agents IQs and a random sample of terrorist IQs the terrorist would have the TSA beat by at minimum 50 points."

"This is my proposal. First, I do not feel any safer today when I fly than I did pre-9/11. I propose that every flight attendant, pilot, and other crew members have extensive training in hijacking planes and carry a handgun. This would make me feel safer. If I knew that there were at least 3 people who had extensive training on how to handle such a situation why not trust them. I also believe that average citizens should be able to carry whatever weapons they feel they need for their self defense - if that is a gun, knife, taser, whatever I don't care. If there are law abiding citizens carrying guns on planes, good for them! They can be back up to airline crew! I am fine if you had to declare to the airline what you were bringing so that they were aware of it, or whatever that I do not see as a problem, so long as you would be allowed to carry them on the plane. To my point, Switzerland has the least amount of crime of any country in the world, guess what else they have more guns per capita than any other country in the world. Nearly every citizen has a gun, this is party because they have required military service by all males, however the simple fact that they have more guns and less crime. I recognize that seems crazy to some of you, however it apparently works."

To read the full post you can visit www.theholmesagenda.com

Reading this made me realize all of these screenings have made me feel no additional reassurance concerning my safety. They seem to just be invading people's privacy, adding to travel times and making people uneasy and/or frustrated. Do you feel the same way? Please share your thoughts.