Security a laughing matter. Sort of.

From the web comic xkcd. Owing to my own technical limitations, you will have to visit to the original source (linked) to read the comment that the comic's creator, Randall Munroe, embedded in the original -- explaining the potential explosive power of laptop batteries.

I suppose this is only funny if you understand and accept that real security does not come from bureaucracies. After 9/11 we replaced airport rent-a-cops and ushers with TSA agents, the vast majority of whom are honest, diligent and well-meaning and all of whom probably need the paycheck. But they are there to enforce rules that often make little or no sense.

My favorite illustration of this comes from the early 2000s, only a year or two after 9/11, overheard on an elevator in the Daley Center. A young lawyer was explaining how TSA confiscated the nail clipper from his carry-on... but left him in possession of his Razor scooter:

Which do you suppose might have caused more problems for the cabin crew in the hands of someone interested in causing trouble?

*Sigh*