AIRPORT SECURITY: Norman Mineta should

AIRPORT SECURITY: Norman Mineta should be ashamed to read this example (which may or may not be isolated) on security at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, via Rod Dreher on National Review Online’s The Corner Weblog:

My family and I just returned from Europe via Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, which deserves great credit for making nervous passengers (us) feel better about security. We had our carry-on bags X-rayed once, and when the grommets on my boots set off the walk-through scanner, the security guard gave me a thorough patting-down that was much more serious than anything similar I’ve experienced in American airports. Believe it or not, our carry-ons were X-rayed again at the boarding gate (as were everyone’s), and each passenger was personally, and politely, questioned in some detail about what we did in the Netherlands. The Dutch pulled this off cleanly and efficiently, and we were grateful for their professionalism and thoroughness. On the other hand, this only makes one more aware of the scandalous sloppiness and laxity at American airports — particularly at JFK (which, by the way, is a dirty, dowdy, and altogether crummy place; how embarrassing that JFK is the first look foreign visitors have of our country).

I didn’t think JFK looked all that bad when I departed from it last Tuesday, but there’s no doubt that American airport security is really bad. And items like this one, and this one, make it sound like it’s not going to improve anytime soon.