We may have a disconnect here. I think you are talking about one possible action you might take based on a profile match. What I have seen proposed is *not* asking the extra questions, taking a second look at paperwork, etc. of those people who clearly *do not* match the profile.

What's the difference? In both cases, you are treating one group to
more harassment and inconvenience, based on a superficial resemblance to
the hate-club-of-the-week.

Keep in mind that banning sharp things serves only to reduce collateral damage to the passengers.

Here we have a disconnect. I have never heard this as a stated reason,
nor is it a plausable reason. If a terrorist decides to crash the
airplane I'm flying in, I'm not sure what collateral damage to me will
result from my carrying a nail clipper.

Sadly, this is impractical since jittery, untrained passengers would probably spend more ammo shooting each other than the very occasional terrorists anyway

Darwin.

Except that in the case of terrorists we have long lists of them that are in the country using fake ID. Seems like a good idea to look for them.

Fine. Look for them. But that's different from filtering people as
they enter an airport.

I don't like [the DC TFR] either but if you have ever launched to the North from DCA you can see that its not practical to shoot down an attacking aircraft before it nails the capital or white house.

So the solution is to 1: allow airliners, which can do huge amounts of
damage, to take off to the North, because, well, they are airlines.
And 2: to prohibit the little guys (who would have a hard time breaking
a window) from doing the same thing, because, well, they are little
guys. I think I get it.

There does not seem to be a good solution for this.

Bingo. And where there is no solution, one should not try to solve it.
Accept the fact that there is no solution. Either that, or find a
number that's greater than six and less than four. Do that and I'll
accept any solution you provide.

Airlines are clearly the biggest tank of jet fuel but if a PC-12 loaded with TNT make it to the Mall I don't think people would be happy with that either.

They wouldn't be happy with it making it to the mall either, and there
are many more malls than Malls.

The DC TFR is much like putting am eight foot door on the border between
the US and Mexico, and then insisting that a big lock on the door will
stop illegal immigration.

Jose
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