Great new article from the Atlantic: The Things He Carried. Jeffrey Goldberg makes the case that much of the post 9/11 security measures at airports represent “security theater” designed to make people feel safer rather than actually making us safer.  Unlike many similar articles elsewhere, Goldberg actually details some of the tricks to get around security measures, making this not just a compelling read, but an genuinely subversive essay.

Fascinating and scary.  And this demonstrates, as I have long argued, that we just are not serious about the terrorism threat.  We’re seven years after 9/11 and we’ve done virtually nothing to create sustainable frameworks and institutions to genuinely grapple with the problem.  Instead, everything has been about politics and giving the impression of diligence without the requirement to actually accomplish anything.