Security Theatre in Manzanillo

I recently came back from a great trip to Manzanillo, Mexico.  I always know that a vacation is over when I feel the first brush of the long arm of US airport security.  In this case, it was at the ticket counter for the sole US-bound flight.  All passengers had their bags thoroughly hand-searched before getting their tickets.  Our carry-on bags were then handed back to us and we passed the time milling around in the small front lobby, going into and out of random parked cars and grazing at the souvenir shops.  I asked the guy searching my bag about the logic of doing this outside of a controlled environment and with no attempt to prevent someone from adding contraband to their bags after the search, and was cheerfully told, "rules for American".  Of course there was another, proper, security checkpoint that everyone had to go through to get to the gates.  It's nice to know that folks traveling to the US get the added benefit of a bonus "warm up" search, even if it obviously doesn't count.

Geech says that this isn't Security Theater anymore, it's maybe Security Circus.  I'm afraid of clowns.