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Security Theatre has lost its porno channel in Europe, but the ones operated by TSA agents in U.S. airports are still showing.

The European Union announced this week that the X-ray scanners the TSA loves so much are being banned because of safety concerns. There are two types of advanced scanners being used in U.S. airports — X-ray machines and millimeter-wave scanners. Only the X-ray machines are considered a health risk. About half of the advanced scanners in use in the United States are the X-ray type.

The TSA claims that in almost two years of use, all of the advanced scanners — of both types combined — have detected “more than 300 dangerous or illegal items.” Of course, if those 300 items were actually dangerous things — as opposed to a a water bottle that was too big or something nutty such as that — they’d tell us what the “dangerous” items are.

Scientific estimates of cancers caused by the X-ray scanners each year range from about six to about 100. Given the fact that Security Theatre is mostly just to make the public feel safe — instead of providing actual safety — it’s time to shut Security Theatre down. But once bureaucrats are committed to a program, they don’t generally back down. Don’t expect the TSA to suddenly start caring about cancer or cost effectiveness. Expect the bureaucrats and politicians in charge to stick to their guns — or, rather, scanners.

We live in a culture that worships ideas, but I’m frequently left stewing in my ideas and getting nothing done. If knowledge is power — and if ideas are supremely important — why do we have so many educated people with brilliant ideas who achieve little or nothing? For me, that’s been a painful question at times.

I grew up with a supreme confidence in ideas — and a supreme confidence in my own ideas. Actual execution was an afterthought for me. When you’re young and nobody expects that much out of you, just a halfway decent execution of your ideas is almost always enough to impress people — and doing that made me happy.

As I got older, though, a funny thing happened. In the adult world, execution matters more than ideas. In so many of the things I did as a child and as a teen-ager, the good idea was enough to carry the day. Teachers and other adults were impressed. “He’s going to do great things one day,” they’d say.

Looking back, I see that the times when I accomplished anything with my ideas, it was always when I had a partner who was working closely with me. The pattern was always the same. The ideas and inspiration were mine. The practical incentive to turn the ideas into reality — to actually finish what I started — was in the more practical partner working with me. At the time, I didn’t know why I needed that. I understand now.

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Last week, we saw what happened when Rick Perry tried to think on his feet during one of the debates. It was 53 seconds of embarrassing video that put a serious crimp into his campaign. This week, it’s Herman Cain shooting himself in the foot. In an embarrassing five-minute segment of an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Cain was asked a very simple question about Libya and whether he supported or opposed Barack Obama’s policy on Libya. (See video below.) I think anybody reading this could easily have explained a coherent position on the subject. Cain could not — and spent five minutes trying to avoid saying, “I have no idea what you’re really talking about.”

I can’t figure out why anyone would have supported Cain anyway, but if you can watch his complete ignorance here and still support him, why?

UPDATE: A friend just pointed me to a similarly bizarre Cain performance when he was asked about his views on abortion.