Update: The Daily Kos has this comment: 

Improvements in airport security have historically not worked. Yet, in response to a failed terrorism attempt, a struggling industry in a struggling economy, and the poor saps stuck as its customers, will have to deal with more restrictions imposed not because there’s any empirical support for their effectiveness, but so the TSA can appear to be Vigilant and Responsive.

If some terrorist organization wanted to change its stated goals to killing the US airline industry, they could probably declare victory relatively soon.

Starve the Beast: Airlines
Market Ticker is fed up with the appalling service at US airports, specifically the policies and strategies of the TSA, and says from now on he will simply not fly. How many others will follow him?

What set him off was an Air Canada statement about new rules imposed by the TSA:

Air Canada said in a statement that new rules imposed by the Transportation Security Administration limit on-board activities by passengers and crew in U.S. airspace. The airline said that during the final hour of flight passengers must remain seated. They won’t be allowed access to carryon baggage or to have any items on their laps. Flight attendants on some domestic flights are informing passengers of similar rules. Passengers on a flight from New York to Tampa Saturday morning were also told they must remain in their seats and couldn’t have items in their laps, including laptops and pillows.

Market Ticker is particularly incensed because of the complete inability of the TSA to stop the latest terrorist attempt, even with all the restrictive, time-taking policies in place, and this was despite the fact that the man in question boarded the flight in Yemen, had a Muslim name, and was known by authorities to be someone who might have terrorist connections.

An official briefed on the attack said the US had known for at least two years that the suspect could have terrorist ties – but he was not on the “no-fly list“.

Market Ticker also has a scary video of how much damage a 2-oz charge of explosive can do to a tree. The TSA limit is 3-oz. Does that make you feel safer? Market Ticker’s fury is directed at airlines who “depart” on time when all that means is they pull away from the departure gate and close the doors (probably in reverse order), then sit on the tarmac for hours with the seat-belt sign on and the passengers unable to even go to the toilet. Apparently, the time when airlines can insist that passengers stay in their seats just increased. What fun.

But what reallygets his goat is this astonishing fact:

We call the TSA “security” but we refuse to make them legally responsible for the luggage they allegedly have control over from the time we check it until it is on the carousel.  Theft from luggage remains a problem and the TSA is explicitly exempted from financial responsibility.  Why?  If someone can steal something from your bag, they can also put a bomb IN YOUR BAG!  The latter makes you (and everyone else on the plane) dead.  Why do we accept this half-ass claim of “security” when it is not backed up by financial responsibility – that what is in your bag when you check it will still be there when you retrieve it?

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