Slowly but surely, we seem to be relinquishing common sense and freedom.Six years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airport security remains a theater of the absurd.  The changes put in place following the September 11th catastrophe have been drastic, and largely of two kinds: those practical and effective, and those irrational, wasteful and pointless.The first variety have taken place almost entirely behind the scenes….  We can only imagine what is next.To understand what makes these measures so absurd, we first need to revisit the morning of September 11th, and grasp exactly what it was the 19 hijackers so easily took advantage of….  What they actually exploited was a weakness in our mindset — a set of presumptions based on the decades-long track record of hijackings.In years past, a takeover meant hostage negotiations and standoffs; crews were trained in the concept of “passive resistance.”

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