There was a piece in the WSJ today about how certain European air officials are accusing the U.S. of imposing “useless and overly intrusive travel security measures.” These officials called certain practices “redundant” and “burdensome,” and even, in some cases, a violation of travelers’ privacy.

Now yes, I’ve complained about airport rules before. The lines are long. The fees are insane. The people can be rude. But the one thing that you won’t hear me complaining about is the security. Sure, it’s annoying to have to wait in a long line and take your shoes out and pull your laptop out of its case and occasionally be pulled over for a random search (yes, this has happened to me more than I care to remember), but I feel much better knowing that every single person around me is being held to the same standards of the search before boarding the same plane that I am getting on.

That’s not to say that there might not be some redundancies in the system, and that’s not to say that there isn’t ever any corruption, but at the end of the day I still say— if you’re going to give up something that’s redundant within the system, don’t make it within the security system.

In the article the British Airways chairman, Martin Broughton, is quoted as having said, “America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do,” and calling on British authorities not to “kowtow to the Americans every time they want something done.” But the article doesn’t specify exactly what these “things” are that we don’t do here in the airports security-wise. We take off our shoes, too, Mr. Brougthon. We take our laptops out of our bags, Mr. Broughton. If you could be more specific, I know I’d certainly be interested to know what it is that we aren’t doing here (and if maybe we should be).

What are your thoughts?

Bis bald, friends! Tomorrow a post about the lovely upstate Shawangunk Wine Trail!