Why drugs? If you were to travel by car the cops would have to have a reason to pull you over to search you and a warrant to search your car. What makes travel by plane an opportunity for them to start violating your rights? Why not scanners at random places on the sidewalk for that matter? You okay with that? A person with drugs on them is safety neutral to my well being as a fellow passenger.
The bacon requirement keeps away Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and Jain religious fanatics. Baptists are still a problem.
Can you take out my gallbladder while you’re in there?
It’s true what they say. Sometimes debark is worse than the bite.
Like these hot selling items
:smack:
Posting from a mobile device so it’s a PITA to link, but there is indeed a process by which you can do exactly that. We looked at it because we travel a ton, both domestically & internationally, but the lower age limit or the program is 16 and our kids are 9 & 11, so we’ll wait.
The program you’re talking about is Nexus It only works for Can/US right now but that’s enough for me! Hubby and I are starting the process.
Doesn’t the Nexus card just make crossing the US-Canada border faster and easier? I don’t think it allows one to avoid the TSA screening, as I believe aruvqan means.
They already check for drugs, especially if you’re traveling internationally. Same deal with transporting large sums of cash.
I thought there was also separate TSA lines and part of the value of the upfront security checks and interviews was faster clearance on each trip.
Aha! Found it
When my unit came back from Iraq, we stopped briefly at Baltimore International Airport, which at the time closed up at some ludicrous early hour. We left our weapons behind on the plane----M16s, .249s, sidearms, you name it. That was the most heavily armed plane in the world at the moment. A colonel on board demonstrated leadership by ordering a bunch of light colonels to guard the weapons and let the lower ranks off the plane. We got to wander around for about a half an hour, then headed back to the plane.
The TSA made us take off our boots, our belts, and our overblouses. Why? Because there were Al Qaeda agents lurking in Baltmore amongst the cleaning staff, on the off chance that he’d be able to turn a soldier to the other side in a half an hour. Or maybe they were terrified we’d picked up…nail clippers…or something else fearsome to take back to that plane full of guns.
Judging by the smirk on the lead asshole’s face, I kind of doubt it. And that was before I got through and saw them trying to pull aside the only black member in the company—a citizen of more than thirty years’ standing, a member of the military for nearly as long. Yeah.
So, what exactly are the TSA providing us with? It’s the passengers doing all the terrorist catching. Why don’t we just have the fucking TSA screen the luggage and hand out free champagne in line to the passengers? Get everybody nice and relaxed and if somebody tries something, the passengers can use the booze bottles to subdue him.
But, seriously, have they ever caught <i>anybody?</i>
Thanks for the info–if it does speed up the security lines, and ever spreads to western Canada, I may look into it. I fly between Toronto and Calgary often enough to make it worth it.
The problem is we give authority over us to people who are not trained well, not qualified and not psychologically screened. You should expect bad results on a regular basis. When you start an agency, you stress qualifications and training. Then you get bored and put it on automatic pilot when nothing bad happens. Then the training and quality deteriorate. Thats where the TSA is now.
I thought you had updated all cabin doors to be re-inforced now? Seriously, what harm to the plane can one guy with boxcutters do? If the tries to get a hostage, the whole plane will jump him, even without air marshals. Similar for guns. If the smuggler were an assassin (unlikely, given how he was found) that wants to kill one specific passenger (although on the ground in the airport would be much smarter), then a laptop cable or power brick or any other allowed item can be used as murder weapon.
So suddenly, the whole plane would “jump” a highjacker, even if he’s threatening to (say) slash the throat of a baby or infant ? Seeing how many people are too timid to act on the ground (bystander effect)…
A whole plane did jump the hijackers: the fourth plane on 9/11. They heard on their mobiles what happened to three others and knew that keeping still was no longer an option.
And that’s what different to the situation on the ground: bystander effect means that everybody passes the responsibility to somebody else, because it’s a stranger being hurt. In a hijacked airplane after 9/11, everybody knows they will die, and they personally will have to act.
There have been several news reports of false alarms on planes - passengers mistaking something or somebody for terrorists - and other passengers immediatly jumping the suspect.
That’s true, and one of the reasons I try to avoid flying is that most of what TSA does is security theater, intended to show that they’re doing something, regardless of whether it’s anything that actually increases security.
But still, given the enormous amount of money spent, and the enormous amount of inconvenience their strictures cause, couldn’t they at least find the sort of weapon used in the last hijacking? If they can’t even find box cutters, why bother having any searches at all?
First of all, dude, you’re barking up the wrong tree. I would be perfectly happy if they stopped screening for drugs, especially on flights between the U.S. and Canada. However, since they already do look for drugs, the fact that this machine can detect them is a selling point. I think the machines will do a better job of detecting explosives than the current measures in place. The fact that they can be programmed to detect illegal drugs means that they will be programmed to detect illegal drugs, regardless of what you, I, or NORML have to say about it.
My comment came from not reading the OP again before I posted. I forgot that it had mentioned drugs.
But, yeah. I wonder why we think it is okay to give up our rights because of the situation we find ourselves in. What makes airports special? Frankly, I think all the border guards should be able to do is look at my passport and, assuming I am a citizen, wave me on my way, no different than any other type of cop. They can butt search foreigners all they want, afaic (and I’d expect similar treatment traveling to another country).
The dynamics are fundamentally different. On a plane, you simply don’t have the option of not getting involved – you already are involved.
I struggle to explain this to my overlords. I like to drive. I do. I live in NYC. I fly all the time. Boston gig? I’m in the car, baby. D.C. gig? They want me to fly, I push them so I can fly. Atlanta gig? I’d rather fly because the drive is a killer. Detroit? Toss-up. Toronto? Toss-up, though flying is rough because it’s International.
I hate flying. My god I hate flying. I use a CPAP machine. There are plenty of times when two different TSA “officers” ( and yeah, I use that term in quotes. Gimmeafuckin’break. Officers. Epaulets do not an officer make !! ) have been working on my stuff.
The video of the 5 year old boy being wanded and patted down by a TSA “officer” is just pathetic. How about if we put HIS 5 year old through that shit?
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