Why are we still fooling ourselves into thinking all this security stuff actually matters?  It’s all just window dressing. Take for instance this story in the Chicago Tribune:

More than 20 workers were arrested today at O’Hare International Airport after authorities said employees at a suburban staffing agency used fraudulent security badges to gain access to unauthorized areas of the airport.

Twenty people? Surely we must have uncovered a major terrorist cell, and prevented a big attack, right? Read on:

According to criminal complaints unsealed today, Ideal Staffing managers told workers they needed identification to work at O’Hare, but that the documents did not need to be legitimate. Federal authorities allege more than 100 temporary workers employed by the agency were in possession of fraudulently obtained airport security badges, which allowed the workers to gain access to secure areas of the airport while loading pallets, freight and meals for companies doing business at O’Hare.

Look. When a staffing company tells its employees that they need badges but they don’t need to be legitimate, that’s a sign of just how impotent our national security window dressing actually is. Sure, it’s illegal, and they should be punished. But is terrorism legal? No. The point of national security isn’t to stop the people who are following the rules, it’s supposed to be there to catch the people who are breaking them!

This is the same as the gun control laws that only take guns away from good citizens while doing nothing to stop criminals. The security badges only stopped legitimate, law abiding citizens who follow the rules from being in areas where they don’t belong. Meanwhile the people with fake IDs - potential threats to our national security - were granted full access to the airport.