Patrick Smith writes the "Ask the Pilot" column for Salon Magazine. This week, he starts by discussing the recent alert from the Transportation Security Administration concerning

would-be saboteurs engaged in terror-attack rehearsals have been caught trying to sneak bomb-making materials past airport security. Over the past several weeks, we are told, screeners have confiscated various improvised components -- including, um, wires sticking from blocks of cheese.

He says that he's reluctant to dismiss the concerns out of hand, but that there are other aspects of the story that also finds disturbing.