New TSA Rules
Feb 10th, 2007, 10:57 AM
#21
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...last time I flew from from SFO-MCO I had a couple wrapped small gifts from friends, and one they asked me to take out so they could run it through the x-ray alone, and I was sweating...thinking, what in the heck did they give me ?..after a WHILE...they finally let me have it back wrapped and I jokily asked of they could tell me what it was since they x-rayed it so much...at least the agent got the joke...LOL, Anyway-when I got home and opened it-it was a vintage pair of ceramic "pickle" salt & pepper shakers with sour puss expressions, shaped like, well, pickles...LOL (I make pickles)...I can only imagine the shape on the x-ray...plus they have little shoes on LOL
Feb 10th, 2007, 02:25 PM
#22
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Michael and tekwriter--
You're quite right about the Transportation Security Officers (the TSA's official term for "screeners"). They're merely at the very lowest level of an inept bureaucracy that's incapable of identifying terrorists, but can only inflict increasing pointless hassles on millions of innocent travelers in the name of pretending to identify terrorists.
Worse than that, the bureaucracy is not merely incapable of training the screeners properly. It ensures that they're unable to exercise any of the common sense that might actually have a chance of providing some minimal protection against terrorists and criminals. The TSA's approach forces screeners to focus exclusively on a lengthy and continually changing list of insignificant things in reaction to past threats. Originally it was scissors, then they added shoes, then toothpaste, then God only know what else. Because screeners are forced to spend so much time looking for the "contraband du jour" on their list (and explaining to passengers that their lip gloss would have been allowed if were in a quart baggie, but must be confiscated because it isn't), they're effectively prevented from noticing things that might be significant but aren't on the list. That's how the baby got on the conveyor belt at LAX (and the bureaucrats in Washington are probably working to react to that by adding "babies" to the list of items screeners look for).
The system is farkled from the top down, but the screeners are the only visible part of it that pokes out from the shrouds of secrecy. While the screeners probably aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, their visible antics represent the end of a chain of stupidity that reaches all the way up to the heavenly heights in Washington. It's probably not fair to blame them for the arbitrary rituals in which travelers are forced to participate. But the people who actually set the policies and make the decisions are insulated from any accountability (and probably travel exclusively on government jets so they never see or experience the results of the decisions they make in secret).
But the bureaucrats will nonetheless insist that the arbitrary stupidity plainly visible to anyone who uses an airport is actually a carefully-conceived and highly effective Security Strategy that protects us by keeping terrorists continually off balance.
You're quite right about the Transportation Security Officers (the TSA's official term for "screeners"). They're merely at the very lowest level of an inept bureaucracy that's incapable of identifying terrorists, but can only inflict increasing pointless hassles on millions of innocent travelers in the name of pretending to identify terrorists.
Worse than that, the bureaucracy is not merely incapable of training the screeners properly. It ensures that they're unable to exercise any of the common sense that might actually have a chance of providing some minimal protection against terrorists and criminals. The TSA's approach forces screeners to focus exclusively on a lengthy and continually changing list of insignificant things in reaction to past threats. Originally it was scissors, then they added shoes, then toothpaste, then God only know what else. Because screeners are forced to spend so much time looking for the "contraband du jour" on their list (and explaining to passengers that their lip gloss would have been allowed if were in a quart baggie, but must be confiscated because it isn't), they're effectively prevented from noticing things that might be significant but aren't on the list. That's how the baby got on the conveyor belt at LAX (and the bureaucrats in Washington are probably working to react to that by adding "babies" to the list of items screeners look for).
The system is farkled from the top down, but the screeners are the only visible part of it that pokes out from the shrouds of secrecy. While the screeners probably aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, their visible antics represent the end of a chain of stupidity that reaches all the way up to the heavenly heights in Washington. It's probably not fair to blame them for the arbitrary rituals in which travelers are forced to participate. But the people who actually set the policies and make the decisions are insulated from any accountability (and probably travel exclusively on government jets so they never see or experience the results of the decisions they make in secret).
But the bureaucrats will nonetheless insist that the arbitrary stupidity plainly visible to anyone who uses an airport is actually a carefully-conceived and highly effective Security Strategy that protects us by keeping terrorists continually off balance.
Feb 10th, 2007, 04:10 PM
#23
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>>>>>
TSA is bizarre.
>>>>>
yes. last time i was in america, the TSA agent was barking, "i recommend your shoes". nobody understood what he was trying to say. so everyone in the queue was trying to figure out if it was required to remove the shoes. he just kept saying over and over "i recommend your shoes". bazaar is an understatement.
just before this incident, a very overweight male TSA agent had an attractive girl of about 16 or 17 (just in the airport, not in the security queue), remove all her stuff from her bag and spread it out on a windowsill. she was crying and he was on a major power trip. it was sick and disgusting to see.
TSA is bizarre.
>>>>>
yes. last time i was in america, the TSA agent was barking, "i recommend your shoes". nobody understood what he was trying to say. so everyone in the queue was trying to figure out if it was required to remove the shoes. he just kept saying over and over "i recommend your shoes". bazaar is an understatement.
just before this incident, a very overweight male TSA agent had an attractive girl of about 16 or 17 (just in the airport, not in the security queue), remove all her stuff from her bag and spread it out on a windowsill. she was crying and he was on a major power trip. it was sick and disgusting to see.
