security theatre
n.— «Security expert Bruce Schneier likes to call it “security theatre.” “Elected government officials are concerned about re-election and need to be seen by the public as doing something to improve security.”» —“Security-as-theatre intrusive, ineffective;Smoke and mirrors security fails” by Tyler Hamilton Toronto Star (Can.) Sept. 1, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...
Cat hair may be something you brush off, but cat hair is also a slang term that means “money.” In the same way, cat beer isn’t alcoholic — some people use cat beer as a joking term for “milk.” And imagine walking on a...