I'll state that I think the cons currently outweigh the benefits with most TSA practices, but the justification is verifying that you are who you say you are. A

I'll state that I think the cons currently outweigh the benefits with most TSA practices, but the justification is verifying that you are who you say you are. AFAIK this is the only area we do this sort of strict verification in addition to numerous baggage and personal item checks. Well I guess we also do this if you're going to see an important government official or visit the NSA headquarters or something. Where it gets hazy to me is why this is a security add anymore. There was an initial scare of vetting that all travelers weren't secretly terrorists waiting to pounce on the cockpit. So you secure the cockpit (good, simple add-on there) and you add in metal detectors and X-rays for weapons and contraband (literally what we were doing pre-9/11). You need a passport to get into the country, so it's not like they don't have a record or a means to monitor suspected people coming into the country. Just seems asinine that they continue to do the ID checks and x-ray your entire body at this point.