I hate you for saying that, but I fear that you're right. I forget who noticed this (perhaps it was George Orwell), but the bureaucracy of the British Navy kept growing even as the British Empire collapsed.

The response of any bureaucracy is to double down.

Back in my days as a Catholic seminarian (don't ask), I met a well-connected priest who told several of us that the Catholic Church in the United States is going bankrupt, not because of lawsuits stemming from pedophile scandals, not because of the cost of supporting priests or other religious, but in order to make payroll for laymen working in diocesan bureaucracies. He gave the example of the diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, saying that there were a thousand laymen working full-time in the chancery alone.

I still have trouble believing that number. What does it take to get a business with that many employees?

In any case, the principal way in which Catholic dioceses have been responding to the lack of funds is to shut down parishes rather than scale back the bureaucracies. So, yes, I'm afraid that you're right. The TSA will only get more intrusive.

agreed, almost seems as though the taliban would act out in order to prove they are still relevant without osama.