Come on TSA, step into the real world.

I'm getting on a plane and heading back home from a visit to Florida. Things were great until I apparently threatened everyone's security by attempting to bring a small container of hot pepper paste with me into the airport. I can only find these peppers at a specific Thai restaurant and always look forward to bringing them home with me. But this time I had to watch some self-important wannabe officer scold me and throw my peppers away. Because what, the paste could be a bomb?

Why are planes sacred now? Are we concerned that another one will be flown into another skyscraper and thousands more will be killed? That's preposterous. Pre 9/11 the protocol for plane hijackings was a subsequent hostage situation. Nobody is expecting that now. We're ready to beat and strangle anyone who looks middle eastern and stands up too quickly on the airplane. Are we concerned that people are going to blow up airplanes mid-flight with water and mayonaise-type bombs? Yeah apparently we've been convinced that that's a thing.

If we're really facing a group of people who want fuck our world up with abject violence, why is it that nobody's lobbing grenades into crowded busses? Anthrax-ing sports arenas? Those acts are super-simple and achievable. But apparently these terrorists that supposedly wish us harm due to our unwavering virtue haven't thought of those methods of terror. They keep desperately trying to destroy our freedom the only way they know how: blowing up airplanes.

It's come to the point where we are trained to do whatever the over-inflated TSA tells us to do: Don't bring any toiletries on your trip; Remove your overgarments and shoes; Allow a security official to view a scanned image of your naked body and submit to a groin pat-down; answer ridiculous questions; leave travel snacks and water behind and make do with oft-broken water fountains and $5 bottles of water. Luckily for those of us who travel often, congress is going to address these issues that "ignore common sense" in March.

Of course we need security, but the current state of airport security is a farce. People do want to bomb and highjack airplanes. Let's keep metal detectors and bomb-sniffing devices and dogs in place. But let's have some respect for the people who travel. In a time where rhetoric involving the amazing freedoms in America is salient in government discourse, why do we submit to so many invasive and even degrading measures? We accept whatever rhetoric is thrown at us regardless of how things play out here on the ground floor, where you and I actually exist.