(Security) Theater

Kirsten and I just went up to Seattle for a romantic weekend. It was the first time I have been through airport security with the new hip. The surgeon's office had just promised that I would set off the metal detector. I asked them about some sort of card to get me through and they just laughed. If cards worked the bad guys would just get cards so the security guys wouldn't care about them anyway.

I'm not a big fan of all the money we spend on airport security. It is still so porous that most of the security measures are to make the honest people feel good and the government look good. The pundits I like call it security theater. The new part of my theater is the glass box. It goes like this. Strip down to no jacket, belt or shoes. Run it all through then step through the metal detector that hesitates, then goes off. The agent asks if you have anything in your pockets like a cell phone and invites you to step through again. You say no but you have a hip. Never mind the step through again in that case, please step into this glass holding pen. They then call a male searcher. The searcher lets you out of a glass back door after you have stood there for awhile in your stocking feet, stupidly facing the wrong way, holding up your pants, watching folks watch you. The cage, I presume, is to keep a higher level suspect such as myself from bolting. The searcher comes with a wand and goes over you very thoroughly including a lot of pat downs and reaching behind waist bands. It doesn't take much longer.
Do take off your belt. I wore one without a metal buckle but the dude still had me take it off and wait while he ran it through the scanner. There is a slight alternative I didn't have a chance to try. I didn't use it, but Salt Lake has some optional scanners that see through clothing but, I'm told, don't have a metal scanner. With a hip they can see you don't have a weapon that way and you can skip the pat down. The Salt Lake pat down guy told me about it. Seattle didn't have one so I haven't had a chance to try that route.
Sitting for a while still stiffens up my hip. But once I'm up and moving I can cruise the airport, and Seattle downtown, without a limp. As expected, I have to report that I still get museum back when on my feet but not moving much. I had slight hopes for that with a fixed up hip, but I think I still need to work on the ol' core strength and flexibility, and maybe go ahead and rent that wheel chair . . . !