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A few days ago I confessed that I was getting a little tired of all the TSA criticism. We already know what we don’t like, after all: patdowns, scanners, liquid limits, shoe removals, etc. etc. Let’s move on. What would a good airport security plan look like?

Luckily for me, MoJo doesn’t just employ bloggers, it employs actual reporters who can ask people about this. So Nick Baumann talked to three airport security critics and asked them what we should do:

After speaking to them, I think Kevin is missing the point: the elimination of existing useless security procedures is the heart of the plan. It’s not about doing something “instead” of the current system—it’s about not doing things that are wasting money and time and not making us safer. It’s quite possible that we’re already as safe as we’re going to get—and every subsequent airport security “improvement” is just reducing our freedom without improving security.

There’s more than just that. Nick also produced a list of five positive suggestions from the critics: (1) Enhance baggage security, (2) Pay more attention to airport workers, (3) Randomize enhanced screenings, (4) Make security lines less vulnerable, and (5) Replicate parts of the Israeli model. To be honest, this doesn’t sound super impressive. #1 is already in progress, #3 doesn’t sound worthwhile, #4 might be a good idea but doesn’t address airplane security, and #5 is also in progress. That leaves #2, which is also in progress but perhaps needs more attention.

Anyway, read the whole thing. To be honest, it leaves me with the impression that no one really has any big bright ideas about this. As Nick says, maybe we’re already about as safe as we’re going to get.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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