My family flew out of the Cedar Rapids airport a couple weeks ago. Since 9/11 I’ve been through LAX, Sea-Tac, O’Hare, Sky Harbor, Denver International, Lambert and San Francisco International. Up until a few weeks ago my perception was that O’Hare and Sea-Tac had the tightest security.

Then I went through Cedar Rapids, a small airport just north of the University of Iowa. The security was surprisingly tight. As I went through the screening process, the only thing keeping me from thinking that the country wasn’t on condition Red, was the lack of police dogs or machine guns.

I make no secret that I think the whole airport security system has become a complete joke - I mean a policy that doesn’t allow you to take on a bottle of water that you purchase at the airport but does let you bring on a laptop is either retarded, or a complete farce (or both). However the Cedar Rapids TSA take their job very seriously. Check out this sign “The Faces of Global Terrorism” posted in the airport lobby:

Yes, that’s Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri in the upper right! Because, if Bin or Al come through the Cedar Rapids, you’ll want the general public to be able to pick them out from the Iowa crowd.

Feeling secure yet?