At last, a policy that never made anyone safer or stopped a terrorist act is falling by the wayside.

Beginning immediately, the airlines will stop asking baggage questions.

"Ticket agents have been required for the past 16 years to ask passengers two questions: "Has anyone unknown to you asked you to carry an item on this flight?" and "Have any of the items you are traveling with been out of your immediate control since the time you packed them?"

"The questions are being phased out because they create a hassle and have never prevented a bombing or hijacking, said James Loy, head of the Transportation Security Administration."

Loy has other positive changes in store for us:

Passengers "will be allowed to carry drinks in paper or foam cups through metal detectors.

Next on the agenda may be random screening of passengers at airport gates, he said."

Mr. Loy is to be commended for getting these changes through after only one month at the helm. We need more like him.

And we hate those "random" screens.