Homeland security

From RationalWiki

For those living in an alternative reality, Conservapedia has an "article" about Homeland security

Homeland Security is the technique of putting on a ritualistic show of sham "security measures" to make it look like "OMGz0rz we're doing something!". For that reason, Bruce Schneier^[1] has called such measures "Security Theater".^[2]

It consists of such things as:

Making you run a gauntlet of utterly stupid security checks that wouldn't stop any real would-be terrorist (such as taking off your shoes) before getting on an aircraft
Amber Alert signs being used to broadcast "Report Suspicious Activity" 1-800 numbers to Interstate Highway travelers
Drivers licenses having magnetic strips or bar codes on them containing your biometrically encoded fingerprint or something else equally pointless
Adding similar high-tech features to passports (a financial boon for some government contractor, no doubt)
Rent-a-cops and concerned citizens harassing innocent railfans taking photos of choo choo trains
~~More of the above twerps hassling innocent science fans taking microfilm copies of nuclear power plant plans~~
Employers whose idea of stopping terrorism is to conduct background checks on their employees to root out those with 30 year old DUI and marijuana convictions
Installing concrete barricades in front of buildings
A five color security alert scale that will never go below yellow
Surveillance cameras everywhere
Tracking what books you check out from the library

Homeland Security is not to be confused with real security. It's just for show and to keep the people in fear of That Big Threat Out There.

The end effect of Homeland Security is to make life difficult for the 99.999% of people who aren't terrorists while doing nothing at all to hinder those who are.