Ah, the good old TSA. When faced with a minute* number of citizens asserting their rights, they simply take those rights away.

And what’s worse? They don’t even take the rights away from everyone, only the loudmouths like us cantankerous civil libertarians:

Passengers who refuse to show ID, citing a constitutional right to fly without ID will be refused passage beyond the checkpoints. Passengers who say they have left their ID at home, will be searched, and then permitted to board their flights. While TSA’s announcement stated that the goal of the change was to “increase safety,” this blogger disagrees. The change of rules seems to be a pretty obvious case of security theater. Real terrorists do not refuse to show ID. They claim to have lost their ID, or they use a fake. TSA’s new rules only protect us from a non-existent breed of terrorists who are unable to lie.

Don’t you feel safer?



* I say a minute number, because as a very frequent traveler, I don’t know the exact regularity at which people are doing this. I’ve often considered trying the “refuse to show ID” thing myself, but haven’t wanted to see my business travel delayed and jeopardize my own job simply to thumb my nose at the TSA.