Bruce Schenier writes in this month's Wired, "Security always involves compromises. As a society we can have as much protection as we want, as long as we're willing to sacrifice the money, time, convenience, and liberties to get it. Unfortunately, most of the government's measures are bad trade-offs: They require significant sacrifices without providing much additional safety in return. And there's far too much 'security theater' -- ways of making people feel safer without actually improving anything." He also notes, "Many of the security measures we encounter on a daily basis aim pinpoint the bad guys by treating everyone as a suspect."

Whenever I go through an airport security checkpoint, I feel like I'm trying to prove I'm not a terrorist. And given horror stories (not apocryphal, but true) about the power that TSA has to detain you without letting you notify anyone -- including a lawyer (the key, you see, is that you haven't been charged with anything) -- I thank my lucky stars I'm white and not subject to scrutiny that others might be ("he doesn't look like a terrorist . . .").