On my way out to ESUG, I ran into bozo security at BWI - including being told that the list of banned items is classified (never mind that you can view that list online, here). Well, not to be outdone, the security folks at Heathrow have also removed their capacity for thought.

Consider two things:

• In Prague, the fellow in line in front of me had a huge bottle of orange soda in his laptop bag. No problem - on the plane to the UK he went. Apparently, bad actors only care about flights between the US and the UK
• At Heathrow, I arrived with my laptop bag and a small paper bag. The bag held my headphones and camera bag, because I didn't want to crush either one. Nope: one bag limit. I could carry my book, drape the headphones around my neck, and stuff the camera into my laptop bag, so long as I only had one bag. What that did to improve security, I have no idea.

Here's the really stupid part about all this. The bozo security checks generate huge lines outside the secure area. What do you call a huge mass of people that have been herded into a central area, where there's no security check? I don't know what the morons at TSA call it, or what the equivalent set of morons in the UK call it, but I call it a target waiting for a bad actor to notice it.

Technorati Tags: security, stupidity