fast company’s quick out of the box on the spectacle we’ve come to know as TSA, joining the growing chorus of adults clamoring for a better solution to the critical need for effective, efficient security screening techniques.

Nitpicker and general pain in the ass Christopher Hitchens weighed in with a surprisingly on-target dissection of the agency’s shortcomings in a snarky even by his acerbic standards takedown of TSA’s latest security strategy.

By now it’s pretty clear how the government (for these purposes defined as grandstanding politicians) will react when there’s a crisis, starting with armflapping that’s quickly followed by flapdoodle. I’m simply gobsmacked that the country that won World War II, built a coast to coast interstate highway and then sent humans to the moon’s surface in machines designed with slide rules – for those unfamiliar, just google – and ‘computers’ less powerful than the Timex Ironman watch I wear, is made to look foolish and ineffective in this paramount effort to thwart evil.

Public relations professionals instantly recognize the need for crisis management in the wake of unsympathetic coverage of airport shutdowns and agonizing replays of Continental’s for want of a nail flying episode last summer. We need better. We want better. We deserve better. As fastco clearly points out, “They employ people making $9/hour to defend our national security.”