“Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me” is an insanely funny question and answer program of political and social satire broadcast on National Public Radio. Last weekend host Peter Sagal reported on the strange case of Mikey Hicks, an eight-year-old Cub Scout from New Jersey who happens to be on a Transportation Security Administration watch list because he shares his name with a suspicious person. Due for heightened scrutiny because his name appears on the TSA list, Mikey was frisked for the first time when he was two years old. He continues to receive extra attention from airport security whenever he flies with his parents.

The purpose of this story is not to make fun of the government, at least not entirely, but to point out that mistakes with government lists can happen with some frequency, and that those mistakes can be very difficult to correct. So far, according to the New York Times, more than 81,000 travelers have made formal requests to have their names removed from the TSA watch list. Almost one-third of those requests are still pending