I think everybody who travels has their own story about the arbitrary and laughable measures implemented by the TSA as it tries to show that it’s “doing something” to keep us all safe. Here is a Boing Boing article that purports to show how completely implausible the “liquid explosive threat” really is.
The more we de-emphasize science in schools and ignore scientific achievements in our society, the more we’re going to get policies and decisions based on fear, superstition, pseudo-science and myth. It’s the twenty-first century, surely we can shuck some of our most primitive instincts and stop cowering in the dark, fearful of being smitten by magic means.
We have a congress filled with lawyers, Political Science and History Majors (all of which are necessary to some degree) but virtually no science majors, it’s no wonder they can be swayed toward creating hysterical legislation.