Pragmatism or perish

[Megan] Quote of the day, from the ever-brilliant Alex Massie:

I'm far from unsympathetic to sensible proposals that might make it harder for the wrong sort of people to purchase guns, but the notion that gun legislation should be modeled on the sort of panicked, knee-jerk, idiocy that has become de rigeur at airports is not an idea, I think, that should be pursued. There may be a virtue in creating the impression of greater security at the expense of convenience and comfort but it's far from clear that that is, in fact, the case.

Although I'd argue that it's completely clear to me that most of the screening is useless flappery designed to give the appearance of security without the substance. I mean, I realise that as long as terrorists can clip their nails on a plane, America cannot really call itself free, but still . . .