Why It's Fun to Fly in America...

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...'cuz you get to deal with the Transportation Security Administration.

In this piece by the REALLY libertarian Reason Magazine, various TSA abuses of the last two years have either gone unchecked or uncorrected:

...But before the agency was even a year old, it was clear that it had "become a monster," to quote the chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, John Mica (R-Fla.). Arrogant, abusive, incompetent, and expensive, the TSA is, in the words of the House Appropriations Committee, "seemingly unable to make crisp decisions...unable to work cooperatively with the nation’s airports; and unable to take advantage of the multitude of security-improving and labor-saving technologies available."
The attacks of September 11, 2001, changed many things, but they did not make the federal government more competent or effective, and they did not make it more willing to respect the dignity or liberty of its citizens. For proof, one need only examine the TSA’s sorry record...

However, while the point of the writer was obviously to go on about Big Bad Gubmint fuckin' with us and suckin' down our tax dollars like a crack-thirsty crackwhore who's thirsty for crack, i find the more interesting point to be about the Culture of Fear that's been perpetuated in the last 2.5 years at American airports, how certain folks have an interest in continuing this, and why it's not gunna change anytime soon.

Altho, in my personal experience in the last two years, the TSA guys have all been fine folks doing their job, especially when overwhelmed(e.g. Logan Airport in Boston).

Still, the incidents listed in the article, be they outliers or not, are not encouraging.

― Kingfish Funyun (Kingfish), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

My favorite bit about flying: wearing tiny little high heels, and being told to take them off to be xrayed at times when they're not uniformly making *everyone* take off their shoes. Brilliant.

― lyra (lyra), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)

yup. i wear steel-toed hiking boots, a fact i first discovered while going thru security. Now, i just find it east to toss them on the conveyor belt.

most of the staff never bat an eye at this(knock on wood).

― Kingfish Funyun (Kingfish), Tuesday, 3 February 2004 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm an American but have never flown. In a plane that is. I don't know if that makes me look brilliant or just lame.

― jim wentworth (wench), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 03:45 (twenty-two years ago)

You have flown but not in a plane??

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 03:48 (twenty-two years ago)

kingfish "shoe bomber" funyun

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 03:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry, you missed my drift...

― jim wentworth (wench), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 04:09 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah well the whole federalize airport employess was pointless from the start, 'let's make the airports run better, let's make it like the post office'. how come nobody cares that the irs already has all of this information that is so "abusive" when collected by another federal agency? there needs to be some consistency.

― keith m (keithmcl), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 04:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Apparently they can only 'strongly suggest' you take off your shoes at the barrier, not actually make you do so.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 07:42 (twenty-two years ago)

ha ha, Vicky was made to take her steel toe cap docs at Malmo airport on Sunday as they bleeped on the walkthrough, so off they came and went through the x-ray, on the outward journey though? nothing, just waved through after she told them she was wearing steelies.

― chris (chris), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 09:26 (twenty-two years ago)

When my brother, Sarah and I went to Vegas, on the way there I was beeping the X-Ray machine while they managed to get through without difficulty. On the way back, when we were wearing the same shoes and belts etc., I was fine and they both set the machine off.

I always take my shoes off nowadays.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Also - can this thread clarify if the US visa waiver thing that's made flying there simple on my last 4 visits will still be in operation at the end of April? I don't want to get to the airport and find I'm missing vital stuff.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 12:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark, I'm pretty sure it doesn't go into effect until sometime this fall. Someone else please feel free to be more specific, though.

― sgs (sgs), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 12:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, that's what I thought too, but I'm surprised there isn't a bigger deal being made of it by airlines, travel agents etc. etc.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 4 February 2004 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Is it me, or was it ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENT travelling on a plane now? OK, maybe I was always fairly security conscious and have never tried to take stupid things in my cabin baggage. Maybe Monday night the security guards get tired. All I had to do was take the laptop out of my purse. Oh, and I managed to lose my boarding pass during that manoveur, walked around for an hour, then when I went to security to see if anyone had found it, they gave it to me without even checking ID. That is, like, a scam waiting to happen. Anyway...

― the river fleet, Wednesday, 4 February 2004 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

bit in the NYT about all the TSA screeners who were hired with criminal records.

― Kingfish Funyun (Kingfish), Friday, 6 February 2004 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

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