Has anyone been to an airport lately? Today, I decided to take a visit to Houston, and I knew the routine pretty well. Shoes, notebook, cellphone, and all liquids are suspect. I walk through security, and I am told to rewalk through. Okay, I forgot to put my cell phone into the container, and I walk through again. "step into this box," the security barks at me. I stare at her blankly, and she barks again "step into this box". I feel pretty confused at this point and I walk in. Whatever happened to traditional wand wave? At this point, I am socked and without any of my possessions. I hear by distinctive Hello Moto ringtone, but my enclosure prevents me from picking it up. A large man sporting his white TSA outfit lets me out. He asks me to sit on a black chair and tells me to lift my legs. Are my legs a threat to national security, I think to myself. He proceeds to feel both legs completely. The thin tells me to stand up with arms and palms facing up. The metal detector makes its way up and down my body a few times, with each pass showing a new metallic item: a metal zipper on my pocket, my belt buckle, and something completely unexpected. My United States Passport triggered the search. I rarely travel with it, but I decided to use it. The man then feels me over once more, probably hoping to find some dangerous contraband. To his disappointment, I come out clean. I thought to myself, finally I can actually get to my terminal and wait for my flight. Wrong again, the TSA official decided he was going to run my belt through the scanner one last time. How embarrassing! These events made me realize how fascist the airline industry has become. They tell us to jump, we jump. They tell us to hop on one foot, we hop on one foot. They even tell us to bark like a dog, and we bark like a dog. We never stop to ask why. Why are liquids above 3oz banned, when chemistry shows that 3oz of liquid cannot provide enough energy for anything dangerous? Are we so afraid of flying that we readily trade away our rights as US citizens everytime we enter the airport? As for the capitalism, this is not about the capitalism. The airways are public domain, and as such thi means they are controlled by the US government. If an airline treats me poorly, I can choose a new company. When the US government treats me poorly, I cannot do anything. Am I just less of a citizen for thinking I should be treated with dignity and respect? Or are the airports ust providing the government with the data it needs: the American people accept fascism.
That is not such a bad deal for security on flights. I have had the pat down before....pretty standard, really. Sounds like you are a tad sensitive about it. DD
I am usually the first to complain about government intrusion in the private sector, and I mostly don't have a problem with the TSA inspections. I think your complaints are a little over-the-top.
You don't have a right to air travel. They can really have pretty much whatever security they deem necessary and you just have to deal with it. I don't know if you heard about it, but there were these 19 guys about 6 years ago that nobody patted down at the airport. They ended up killing thousands of people. In order to prevent it from happening again, you have to submit to a couple of minutes of security procedures. That is hardly the US Government becoming fascist.
My friend worked for the company that essentially interviewed and hired all the TSA workers after 9/11. The problem is that they had to hire these guys so fast that they pretty much hired anyone with a pulse that didn't have a criminal record. Its also a tedieous and boring job.
yes The purpose of THE NEWS is not to inform but to Scare you into giving up various rights Rocket River
Would it have been as big a deal if they were courteous about it? Nobody likes being accused, but everyone is still scared witless over another airline attack.
Well, I am part of the government, with ID and other means to prove it, but if anything, I get worse treatment. Whenever we fly to a fire we get one-way tickets within a few hours of the flight. This sets off all kinds of alarms and you get put through the wringer, automatically going to the automatic search and wand line, and practically stripping in public. We also get hassled because our bags, which hold 2 weeks of t-shirts, underwear, and socks, 2-3 pairs of pants, hardhat, boots, fire shelter, tent, sleeping bag etc. weighs over 50 pounds... even though we're allowed to go over the limit. To top it off, there's usually "explosive" residue on our bags or clothes from the stuff we use to light fires, which adds another layer of hassle and inevitably gets law enforcement and supervisors hovering about and talking in hushed tones. .. I've missed flights because of this. If you're lucky, 20-30 minutes later, you get to write out a statement saying you are who you say you are and you're doing what you say you're doing and you're on your way... until the fire's out and you get a one-way ticket home that leaves in 4 hours... then you're dirty and smelly and unshaven on top of all the other stuff. What's hilarious is when you have a whole crew of firefighters going through this process and everyone is stacked up in the "bad" line and having to go through the exact process. You'd think after 4-5 years of this crap they'd figure out a way to make it a little easier on us, save themselves some work, and maybe look at other people who aren't flying on govt purchased tickets to govt run incidents... but everytime it seems like I'm the first fire guy they've ever seen.
I don't see what exactly the problem was. Regarding the phone and belt, its usually standard procedure that you have to remove them to go through the detector. Perhaps they were a little rough with you, but they're law enforecement - if this was Egypt or Jordan, you would have been thrown on the ground and searched. Given the state of paranoia in this country right now regarding national security, I don't see too much of a problem with the government taking certain precautionary steps. That doesn't mean condoning throwing Arabs off of flights without reason, but a few searches and extra measures for the populace should be expected.
courtesy can go a very long way. ive been stopped and searched at the airport twice and the experiences were night and day. i came thru houston on a return trip from oaxaca and got searched - they went thru my backpack, all my dirty clothes which had been in a seperate trash bag and even unwrapped and opened up all the stuff i had bought there like little ceramic skulls, musical instruments and whatnot. but they were courteous and friendly the whole time, never accused me of anything and were professional. when they were done they thanked me and one guy even helped me repack my stuff. now contrast that with when i came back from europe and landed in detroit. first, i had to wait in a line for about 45 minutes and when i was about 2/3rds of the way up the lady says "this line is now closed, if you were waiting you need to move to another line". so i go thru the other line that takes another 45 minutes and they decide i need to be searched. i go to another line where i wait another 30 minutes or so and the people searching me are two kids in their early 20's and right off the bat they are very pushy and rude and giving me the 3rd degree as if im a criminal - just stupid questions like "how many pairs of pants do you have on?" - "you got anything in your pants?" - "how come you packed so light, where is the rest of your stuff?" - "you hiding anything from us?". they go thru all my stuff while being very rude about it and even turn on my digital camera and scan thru ALL of the 100 something pictures i took. go thru all my books and all the stuff i saved like museum tickets, maps, brochures. very rude and aggressive about it and at the end didnt say anything or thank me, just walked away, leaving me to pick up all my crap which was scattered all around and giving me about 10 minutes to get to my flight, which was in another terminal. i was extremely pissed. as someone mentioned, they hired a bunch of people right away to fill these new government positions and alot of them are young kids (early 20's) and/or just plain dumbasses. the qualifications for that job are not very high - probably the equivalent of mall security.
I'm still under the impression that as long as we are still volunteering to travel, and know about what this will entail, we can't really go ape**** about it. Besides, it amazes me that they actually did something--we always used to refer to TSA as "Thousands Standing Around." /going back to lurking in the D&D because GARM sucks so bad/
Perhaps if you complied and took out your phone and metal objects before you went through like everyone else - and just compliently cooperated with people just doing your job instead of assuming they are part of a larger conspiracy to take your rights away you might have less trouble.
Yes, it sucks, but what does it have to do with fascism? Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests subordinate to the needs of the state, and seeks to forge a type of national unity, usually based on, but not limited to, ethnic, cultural, or racial attributes. (wikipedia)
The Department of Homeland Security's Creators Promised Efficiency. They Delivered Disaster. The consolidation of numerous unrelated government agencies within a single department has led to decades of waste, mismanagement, and terrible abuses of authority. https://reason.com/2021/09/08/homel...-promised-efficiency-they-delivered-disaster/ excerpt: In addition to the inefficient agencies it houses, DHS is also responsible for some downright evil ones. That includes the federal government's various border security agencies—including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Prior to 9/11, ICE and CBP's predecessor agencies had been housed in the Departments of Justice and the Treasury. Moving them into DHS had consequences outside a simple reshuffling of the org chart. "Ensconcing immigration in a department focused on national security resulted in a mentality shift," wrote Shikha Dalmia for Reason in 2018. "Immigrants came to be regarded not as friends but as foes—potential terrorists or criminals." These two agencies have consequently been responsible for some of the worst post-9/11 abuses of the federal government. Those range from the programmatic—like the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" border policy that led to thousands of families being separated—to more one-off episodes, like Border Patrol agents running down migrants with their vehicles or being outed as serial killers. The detention facilities run by DHS's immigration enforcement arms are frequently criticized in watchdog reports and lawsuits for being filthy, overcrowded places where imprisoned migrants are routinely abused by fellow detainees and staff. For some critics, the waste and abuse at DHS's various agencies and offices is a direct by-product of shoving all these unrelated government functions into one single department. "The structure of DHS creates waste and inefficiency. The problem stems from a span of control that is too large and spread across too many disciplines," wrote David Rittgers in a 2011 policy analysis for the Cato Institute. "If consolidation of unrelated agencies were an effective way to run government, the cabinet would have just one member responsible for all agencies—the secretary of Government—and be done with it." There's a libertarian case to be made that pretty much everything that DHS does shouldn't be handled by the federal government or even any government at all. But one need not accept that critique to see that the promised efficiencies of one overarching Department of Homeland Security have never materialized. more at the link
more on TSA security theater Why Don't More Countries Enforce the Airport Security Rules That the TSA Says Are Essential? While liquid limits are common, America's shoe removal policy is nearly unique, and many countries allow small pocket knives. https://reason.com/2021/09/09/why-d...curity-rules-that-the-tsa-says-are-essential/
Three observations: The OP doesn't know what fascism means. lol TSA has done their job. We haven't had another 9/11. (knock on wood) Os steps up his drivel game by bumping a 5yo thread to link another article ...while providing zero commentary. He apparently spends his day scouring the interwebs so he can share his google prowess. He fails to understand the "discussion" component of D&D. I just added him to my Ignore list. Ain't nobody got time for that.
