Nice sensationalist headline; "FA-18s to protect MCG" . How about instead we take a cue from Bruce Schneier .

From The Age article;

FA-18 fighter jets will patrol the skies over the Commonwealth Games opening and closing ceremonies as part of security measures announced this morning.

A 74-kilometre "security bubble", centred on the MCG, will restrict the operation of small and some commercial aircraft for the duration of the Games.

Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon warned that planes that stray into the zone may be shot down, but only as a last resort and after intense discussions.

I can understand their caution, however, Bruce Schneier has a different view;

Exactly two things have made airline travel safer since 9/11: reinforcement of cockpit doors, and passengers who now know that they may have to fight back. Everything else -- Secure Flight and Trusted Traveler included -- is security theater. We would all be a lot safer if, instead, we implemented enhanced baggage security -- both ensuring that a passenger's bags don't fly unless he does, and explosives screening for all baggage -- as well as background checks and increased screening for airport employees.

This is true, the dynamic changed after three aircraft were flown into buildings, the fourth plane fought back. It was a civil response to a civil issue. One of the great tragedies of September 11th was the militarization of the response to terror. All it has done has collapsed more power into government, who have created more problems with the military response to terror, which in gives government the belief it needs to be more radical in its legislative path to combat terror.

Civilians acting together are armed enough to overcome a terrorist. The State police are well enough armed as well, and in the rare cases they aren't, specialist forces like the Tactical Response Group are more than armed enough. we don't need the SASR, or any other military arm being involved. The state police, State Emergency Services as well as other civilian and state based groups can answer the call.

Republicanism is the political science expression of liberalism. As with democracy, they require the osmosis of interaction, deliberation, competition, discourse and openness for them to have any public legitimacy. When the polis is fenced and the arms of the state oversee - it ceases to be the political republic and instead becomes the state's exclusive executive garden. The polis is temporarily drained until the state leaves and the urbanites come back.

Photo from Sydney Daily Photo: Wrapping democracy in a 3m high fence

As Gary Sauer-Thompson noted urban space and urbanity are important concepts of freedom. Walling off the polis with fences, snipers, helicopters and police who delete photos from cameras is a state-led intrusion into that freedom.

At federation the national government was given a political playground of its own; called Canberra. No level of politics, even international, is worth the intrusion into Sydney's cosmopolitanism.

The politicians can have their meetings in Canberra and if they don't like that, they can set up a tent in a sheep paddock outside Tidbinbilla and stock it with local wine. They can wear Akubras and indulge in unintentional mockery of the larrikin myth.

A recent GAO report finds that the Terrorist Watch-List has ballooned to 750,000 people in the US. The list has been accruing approximately 200,000 new people a year. Tim Berners Lee argues that this large number ensures a high false positive rate and may be contributing to the inefficiency of the TSA. Lee writes:

On the other hand, it's difficult to see what purpose is served by a domestic no-fly list. If government officials have concrete evidence that an American person is engaged in terrorist-related activities, then the government should be doing a lot more than putting that individual on a no-fly list.

They should be actively investigating the individual, tapping his phone, reading his email, monitoring his financial transactions, and generally gathering the evidence required to either clear his name, deport him, or arrest him.

Lee continues:

If, on the other hand, the government doesn't have enough evidence of terrorist ties to justify starting an investigation against an individual, then it's unreasonable, not to mention a waste of law enforcement resources, to ban him from flying on airplanes or subject him to heightened scrutiny every time he goes to an airport.

The sheer number of people on the selectee list and the high rate of false positives may be one reason that screeners do a legendarily bad job finding simulated weapons in security tests. The resources now spent on screening tens of thousands of selectees--most of whom turn out to be false positives--would be far better spent on additional FBI agents to do in-depth investigations of people with actual terrorist ties.

The last leg of my moving from Virginia to Arizona was to transport my kitty out to the South-West. I decided to carry her on the plane with me. Not that big a deal, you can buy specialist carriers, and United charges an extra $85 to transport an animal in the cabin. We worked out the correct amount to drug the kitty so she was calm through the flight, and she was.

To get her through the security at Dulles in Washington DC I had to remove her from the bag. I refused to and a supervisor came and said we could go into a locked room where she couldn't escape. The kitty is a 'jumper' as they are known. Just before we headed off to the room a young fellow in a TSA uniform asked me if this was my bag. I said yes, he then pulled out a tube of toothpaste and said it is too big. Whatever, I am not having my flight held up for $2.99, especially when I have a drugged and stressed cat to transport. I said, "Throw it out."

You can argue about the inanities of the security process. I travel on aircraft enough that I have seen all sorts of absurdities, like when my ex-wife had to throw out her matches. She is a heavy smoker and managed to produce about fifteen of them from the nether regions of her handbag. It was like an archaeological dig (that was in Sydney btw).

The best place to have the security bubble burst is Bruce Schneier's website.

However, the most shocking incident was when I got on the aircraft. I had been told there were two cats on board the aircraft, so when I entered I said, "I am one of the guys with a cat."

She looked horrified and said, "Tell the captain." She was also backing away. I am a bit hazy on the next bit and what happened. But eventually I must have twigged she thought something was wrong and said, "What did you think I said?" She replied, "That you had a gun!"

The only thing I can think of is that I pronounced cat the same as "cap in your ass" or something. I don't know. Too much. I was horrified that she would think that, I also did not want to get kicked off the plane for something stupid like being misheard. I paid through the nose for a direct flight to Phoenix, and I did not want to fight my way through Sunday evening Dulles airport and security again.

No way.

I was not a happy camper.

Update: Forgot to mention, my toothpaste got through Phoenix Airport security without concern, but it was confiscated in Washington DC.

Update II: A Canadian friend points out that a 'gat' [via urban dictionary] is slang for a sub-machine gun or an uzi. So my thick Australian accent probably clashed with her (probably not so good) African American upbringing and led to the mis-understanding.

Update III: Lost opportunities. I didn't rhyme the title with the Ramones' "The KKK took my baby away."