Okay, so let’s get this straight. When I fly with my two small children, we stand endlessly in the security line, shuffling along in our socks. My little baggie of overpriced haircare products lies exposed for all to see (and mock), and, when he was younger, Caleb was even made to put his pacifier through the x-ray machine. Because, you know, those binkys–a great hiding place for explosives.

And yet Faisal Shahzad was able to plunk down a wad of cash for a ticket he’d booked only an hour or so earlier, for a flight to Pakistan via Dubai, skip through security, and get on the plane. He was probably deep into his Sky Mall magazine by the time the FBI hauled him off the plane. 

Shahzad’s name had apparently been added to the no-fly list by Homeland Security, but apparently the list isn’t just updated zippety-zip. Instead airlines got an email saying that an important name had been added to the list.

An email. Don’t they know that email is so twentieth-century? 

I mean, I can twitter to all my followers (okay, mostly it’s just Husband and a few friends who know how to work their phones, but for the sake of argument let’s pretend I’m dooce and have 85 gazillion followers) about a new pair of shoes and even send a picture of my patent-leather clogs, which they can all see immediately, but Homeland Security has to send an email telling people to check updates on the no-fly list?

Don’t get me wrong – kudoes to all who helped get this would-be bomber into custody – but would someone please gently take Janet Napolitano by the hand and show her how twitter works?