While the TSA is, no doubt, guilty of severe overreaction in the aftermath of the Testicle Bomber, (c'mon, confusing honey with PETN), there is one point to keep in mind, and that is one of the basic rules of bureaucracy: Nobody loses their job because they overreacted.
The system that delays millions of travelers and causes millions more to not fly or take another mode of transportation isn't going to be criticized by anyone other than those people who were foolish enough to hold onto airline company stocks. The system that has one "leaker", one guy who gets through to try something, is going to be criticized and some people might be fired.
The reason, of course, is because the fright-based media and our political structure are both populated by people with the emotional maturity of toddlers.
Let's be truthful here: The reason the Dick-Burning Bomber got s far as he did was because nobody flashed on the red flags that were there, indicators that have been known since back before the days of terrorism to the days when what they were concerned with was people smuggling drugs. It did not take the Squarepants Bomber's father ratting him out to the CIA to trigger alarms, the guy's own conduct should have done that.
If adults were in charge, those holes would be plugged, without a lot of fuss or fanfare.
Which is why the answer to the question posed by the title of this post is: Competent adult supervision.
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That's always been the problem with dealing with security folks - they'll never get in trouble by following the rules, no matter how insane those rules might be. At the rule-making level, there's no such thing as too restrictive or too counterproductive.
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