Are we better off?

Is this opinion wrong just because Maureen Dowd wrote it? Maybe, but it's worth thinking about. At what cost are we destroying American productivity in the form of extra line waiting? Security doors to the cockpit make 9/11 almost impossible to duplicate (I don't know whether these were ever implimented, probably not as they make too much sense). Allowing pilots to carry pistols will probably be enough to stop 90% of cockpit takeovers. That leaves us with shoe bombers and other want-a-be mass murderers. Of course, I would like to round up all these guys and wrap them in bacon. None the less, having every fourth passenger take off their shoes because of a shoe bomber isn't necessarily sensible. What if the next terrorist has a prosthetic bomb hand, will the TSA proceed with requiring all passengers to sumbit to having blood drawn from their thumb? We're not being smart about this problem. We are Americans, we are supposed to be smart and innovative. I'm sure any one of us could come up with a half dozen better ways to handle airport security. Why do we proceed with much stupidity? Hopefully this issue will stay in the public discourse until it gets better.