The latter scenario will, of course, completely eliminate whatever “enhanced security” the scanners supposedly provide. But since the entire process is surrounded in secrecy, nobody will ever know what’s happening. And the screening will probably just as effective at protecting aviation.

Name the scanners “Freedom Scanners,” paint them with the Flag (and perhaps a poster of the Twin Towers with the caption NEVER FORGET), and people will be eager to step into them to do their sacred patriotic duty– even if the scanners are nothing but empty plastic boxes with a few LEDs for effect!

I can imagine the fuss next time i travel in a muu-muu and hold up the line to strip down to my undies….and maybe hand some poor underpaid TSA person (who thought this job was going to be as easy as the paycheck would indicate) a rubber glove and invite him to finish his search……ah, airport security theatre at its most undignified and explicit………..curtain rises……

Or better yet, they could hire Karl Rove as a consultant. The Republicans have found a very successful strategy of distilling their view of complicated political issues into simple slogans that are consistently and relentlessly repeated until their “base” accepts them as Established Fact, regardless of whether they contain any truth. Maybe they can get Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to tell their many fans about the new advanced scanners that “protect us from terrorists and protect our privacy,” while mocking those who call them “strip searches” as liberals who hate America. That sort of campaign would probably be the most effective way to get public acceptance, while drowning out those unpatriotic questions about effectiveness and privacy.

Security theater works because people buy into it. The key is to get more people to buy into it and discredit those who don’t. That’s a much easier task than actually providing effective security, or correcting the failures that continue to get in the way of stopping plots before they get to the airport.