about a recent security test of the TSA there and the pathetic performance of the operation. While I cannot dispute the data and conclusions, the false assumption is that the purpose of the TSA is to provide transportation security. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Certainly, if the screeners confiscate a loaded gun or jumbo-sized toothpaste tube, it's not a bad thing. But that's not the high-level purpose of the TSA.

Did you know that in 2016, the TSA screened 738,318,264 passengers, according to their year in review article? That is over twice the population of the U.S. From what figures I can find, it appears they have screened about nine billion passengers since 9/11. Those are just passengers flying in the U.S. Other countries have similar jumbo toothpaste investigative operations with even more hundreds of millions of screenings annually.

I propose that the true purpose of the TSA is to train the population of the U.S. to submit to invasive, embarrassing, and demeaning searches in exchange for the perception of increased security. It's not as though we are actually getting increased security, judging from the article – just the perception thereof.

Acquaintances of mine who travel frequently just shrug off the pat-downs. "What can you do? We're safer for it." That's the desired response: resigned submission.

Through blackmail...uh, agreements with other governments, the TSA extends these "security" requirements to every airport launching flights into the U.S., and those requirements affect every passenger, not just those traveling to the U.S.

And since only the world's upper crust travels by air, we can conclude that those billions experience not just one security screening per year, but several. I know I have. And with every contact, the air traveler shrugs less and less, until he doesn't even remember being fondled.

You know the TSA drill. You have lived it: having some prison guard-looking person rub that blue glove all over your person. But I want you to think beyond that. It's obviously not about security.

What could it be about? What are they training us to endure, for the sake of security?