Scaremongering wastrels. Shortsighted nitwits. Exploding water. Water??? Who determines protocols and procedures for these guys? Pee-Wee Herman ?? I fly ALL the damned time and from airport to airport the rules change. No consistency. " Sir, no need to take your shoes off here." " You can leave your belt on. " " Please remove your belt, sir." One set of T.S.A. Overlords will rip through my admittedly very crammed and busy backpack on wheels. ( It’s a portable office. The idea that wires and batteries are of concern is completely understandable. That’s not the rant. ) Another bunch won’t give the backpack a second glance.
You want to cast a hard eye at what is going to drive our nation to its knees, T.S.A. ??? Get a clue. It’s the crippling policies that have put us into profoundly heavy debt and are now wrecking the financial backbone of our once great nation.
We’re going to be paying our rent to companies based in Dubai in 2 years and * T.S.A agents are going into paroxysms of frenzied outrage over a 4 ounce bottle of Purell because it is 1 OUNCE too much???*
Yes, I know, the T.S.A. isn’t tasked with saving our nation. They’re tasked with protecting America from explosive H2O. :smack: It is just amazing that there is SO much misplaced paranoia when today, this week, there’s so much about the crumbling of the Empire to be worried about. Besides Purell, I mean…
I’ve been flying a lot recently, and was more than a little disturbed when the TSA person at the metal detector stopped me and told me that he found my t-shirt was “offensive.”
I had forgotten about the liquid/gel restriction when I went through the airport last time, and I’d packed my full-size Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, which of course got immediately tossed. Then when I went back to the store to get more, they’d stopped selling it. :smack: Thanks, TSA.
On September 11, 2008 the TSA in the Denver airport no longer have to be searched to enter restricted areas. That won’t lead to bribes for smuggling will it.
That’s just stooopid. It says as much about the illiteracy rate of T.S.A. employees as it does about anything else. Were you forced to remove it before flying?
No. I just left me feeling a little uneasy, that’s all.
As to my response. I just looked at him to see if he was joking, saw he wasn’t, and walked slowly away. Joking/argumentative responses to someone with the capacity to screw my travel plans over did not seem to be the smartest thing to do.
The inconsistancies are disturbing. At Logan, I have been repeatedly asked to remove my shoes. In Detroit, I asked if I needed to remove my shoes. They looked at me like I was crazy. Why on earth would they want people to remove their shoes?!?
The funniest application of unevenly applied rules happened a few years ago in Providence. It is their policy to search every bag, including checked luggage. This is done behind ropes, but in full view of passengers.
Someone checked a box marked “Live Lobsters.” Perfect place for a bomb, evolution T-shirt, or drawn butter. The TSA agent wasn’t buying it. And she was right. There were no live lobsters in the box. Instead, some nefarious passenger was attempting to smuggle… Live Crabs. Of course, she was only doing her job in thoroughly inspecting the box, but it was pretty funny watching her trying to corral all of the crabs that were trying to get away from her.
I think she went home that night saying “I had a really bad day.”
Long story short, they’re not doing what they’re doing so that they can catch terrorists. They’re doing what they’re doing so they can do what they’re doing. Which is to say, look like they’re doing something. And, as the old saying goes, even a blind pig finds an acorn every once in a while.
This isn’t TSA, but it comes from buying into their rules. Only, of course, not everybody does. And not everybody buys the same parts.
I bought paté at the airport in Bilbao, last time I was flying here. Since it’s bought in the airport, it goes in my bag, no problem.
No problem in Bilbao: the security folks in Stanstead threw it away. Because, you see, as a “paste” it’s considered a liquid :smack:
My favorite remains the sonabitches (had this in Basel and Stanstead… I’m thinking I need to avoid Stanstead…) who, after being asked whether I need to take my laptop out of the bag and telling me “no,” go and take the laptop out of the bag for a trip back into the machine. Ogdamnitalltohades, I could have done that myself and saved ten minutes!
I fly just about every week. TSA is security theater, and nothing more. They don’t aggravate me nearly as much as some of the morons who have not yet figured out things like ‘photo ID’ and will hold up the line for 10 minutes searching every pocket and bag they have to try to find some sort of photo ID.
And then, just to be extra fun, they are also the ones who have about a thousand prohibited items and get mad about having to leave them.
If the purpose of TSA is to make flying so annoying and humiliating that I will drive instead, it is a success.
What with the having to be at the airport at least one hour ahead of flight time, the ritual humiliation at the hands of TSA, flight delays, landing delays, luggage delays, rental car delays, etc, I prefer just to get in the fucking car and drive.
I don’t have to deal with TSA, I can carry all the “contraband” I want, things operate on my schedule…it’s wonderful. The only time I’ll fly, anymore, is if there is an ocean in the way or if there is an emergency reason I have to be somewhere thousands of miles away.
To be honest, if you read more carefully you’ll see that they don’t mention that he actually damaged anything, and that the planes were only grounded because he was able to climb into them.
Bruce Schneier, as ever, makes some good points. Actually I just noticed that the TSA site even has him on their blogroll, despite his almost never having anything positive to say about their efforts. I suppose that’s commendable, if a touch dispiriting that they’re aware of such arguments, and yet ignore them.
catsix, perhaps these “morons” aren’t as accomplished (i.e. frequent) travellers as your august self, and are just understandably less familiar with how dangerous mushroom pate is considered on a week-by-week basis. I would’ve thought confusion to be an entirely rational response to the ever-changing laundry list of inoffensive sundries rendered life-threatening by altitude.
I particularly liked the comment suggesting that they render the airplanes unclimbable by covering them in all that confiscated shampoo.
No, they were grounded for safety inspections (presumably by the airline itself, not the TSA) to make sure the inspector hadn’t damaged an instrument critical to flight safety.
