Try this. Run a Google search on "fake ID". When I did, Google reported about 25,500,000 hits. Some of these are scams, some are supposed to be for "fun"; i.e., maybe if you’re 16, you can get into that strip joint with a fake ID if the light is low. But some could be used to fool government agents. And, obviously, there are ways of making very difficult to detect fake IDs that are not talked about online.

So what? Well, the Government Accountability Office has reported that half the names on the so-called Terror Watch List maintained by the TSA were wrongly placed on the list. The number of such names is in the tens of thousands. What they’re going to do about it, is not reported; I suppose that comes under "aiding the terrorists".

What this shows is how easy it would be for a real terrorist to get aboard an airplane even if the Watch List is fixed. All you need to do is get a good fake ID and try it out at the airport. If you get stopped and questioned, then the name on the ID is one you won’t use again. You’ll try another fake ID and another, etc., until you find a name that allows you to get on a plane without being stopped. This is so obvious a method that it would be used by any non-psychotic terrorist.

The Real ID Act, which will oblige you to carry a card with data that can be scanned electronically and checked against a national database, is supposed to get around this kind of problem in a couple of years. But even then, electronic scanners could be used by terrorists to capture the data from other people’s cards and allow a terrorist to get on a plane. And there are no doubt other ways to mess with the database or the cards. Not to mention that there is 100% certainty that the database and the scanners will be very screwed up when the government puts them into operation.

Yet the government charade will go on. You will continue to be harassed and inconvenienced in the name of protecting you. And the hugely expensive government program, that you are paying for, will do next to nothing to prevent a terrorist attack.

So, what should be done? Shut down the idiotic TSA and get the government out of the airline security business. Return responsibility for security back to the airline companies. They will be highly motivated to provide the best security possible because it will seriously impact their bottom lines. And your tax money won’t go towards maintaining a useless bureaucracy.

Note: I am probably seen by some government bureaucrat as an "enemy combatant" or as "aiding the terrorists" by making this post.