My snarky side keeps rearing its ugly head. Will I be allowed to sexually assault back. I think the next time I travel thru the states I thin taking a nice Viagra before security check in would be fun. Plus with my own learing, soft whispering and a few eyebrow raises I think I might get waved thru!

You've inspired me to consider pulling a "When Harry Met Sally" at the airport.

I've actually been wondering, given the safety statistics, how many people will die as a result of flight aversion caused by the TSA.

On the lighter side of things, my wife says she wants to wear a strap-on and go through the groping, I mean, "enhanced pat-down" procedure.

Dwatney, your wife is going to give the TSA screener the Willies!

Ridiculous measures, meaningless deaths, yep, sounds like a government idea.

John, that's too fricking funny.

Anyone wondering how often the TSA flunkies thenselves have to be checked?

I've decided the next time I fly I will tape tin foil to my chest that reads:

"Fuck off you perverts"

Makes me smile just thinking about it.

-Julie

...so how're they going to handle someone transgendered?

And we have spent $3 trillion (CBO's number) fighting terrorists in Iraqistan, and another $1 trillion a year for our military-VA-foreign policy archipelago.

And now we learn terrorists are just mosquitos?

And the proctologists at the TSA are wasting our time?

The War on Poverty
The War on Drugs and now
The War on Terrorism

Really they are the Wars on Your Pocketbook ( and groins).

So true...i have driven from the SE PA area (outside Philadelphia) to the following areas this past year:
Birmingham, AL -- 13 hours
Boston, MA-- 6 hours
Hilton Head, SC -- 12 hours
and Richmond, VA -- 5 hours

And that was before the "Touching Sensitive Areas" folks began this madness. Riskier?... perhaps. But i choose the music, the cigars, and the time of departure.
Not as extreme as it sounds- i am 70-90 minutes from Philly airport, plus time to wait on security, etc... Actually now i quite like to travel this way - and anything under 12 hours is a guaranteed drive! (Used to be four hours, but the range keeps increasing as the TSA bs and baggage fees grow.

Come fly er Comply with me...

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2010/11/comply-with-me.html

It is rather amusing that the TSA is now investigating that guy in San Diego and the civil suit would be for $11k now not 10k, "penalty has gone up".

Always remember the first principle of government, nicely expressed by
Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former Chief of Staff.

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You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that, it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.
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Emanuel doesn't just like solving a problem. Problems handed to government are always an excuse to expand the power and prestige of government, and to increase the taxes collected to fund the government.

The TSA is over-defending against visible, political threats. They are not smart or motivated enough to do things more efficiently, or to guide the public to a rational evaluation of threats. So, the expense for "security theater" grows without limit, as real safety remains constant. They are always fighting the last threat.

A bureaucrat has only one fear, that he will seem to allow the same mistake twice and be fired. He can make any number of different mistakes without penalty.

- -
The Brains of TSA
12/21/08 - Econlog.Econlib.org by David Henderson
-- econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/12/the_brains_of_t.html

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When Charley and I tell a story of poor thinking, we almost never name the person, but here I'll make an exception. This high-level manager was Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). [See why at the link]
========

- -
The security expert Bruce Schneier has collected some links to his interesting posts about the TSA and airline security.
-- schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/12/schneier_on_60_1.html

Driving is so much more dangerous than driving, but I'm glad the TSA doesn't monitor our cars and roads.

It's a good question. I just looked up data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics on "revenue passenger miles" flown last year. This is defined as total number of paying passengers x the miles flown by each passenger. Last year, there were 540M domestic revenue passenger miles flown. (I'll ignore international since, for most of the international-flight destinations, driving isn't an available option.)

Let's say for sake of argument that the TSA policy results in a 20% substitution of driving miles vs. flying miles for the next year. Now, there will be differences in routing in driving vs. flying: if you're driving from Louisville to Pittsburgh, you are unlikely to do so via Atlanta. On the other hand, for longer trips, direct highway routes are often not possible and a nonstop flight is shorter in terms of miles traveled. So as a simplification I'll say that those two factors cancel out, and that driving miles are roughly equivalent to flying miles in the aggregate. So, taking our 540M number from 2009, the TSA causes 104M more miles to be driven this year.

How many more fatalities is that? Surprisingly, for the past decade, the rate of highway fatalities is only 1.5 per 100M miles drive, per the Census Bureau. So the additional fatalities caused by the TSA would be insignificant even if no one flew at all. I know, it seems counter-intuitive to me too. The key is: according to the Census Bureau numbers I'm looking at, there were 3.03 *trillion* miles driven in the U.S. in 2007 (the latest year for which they have the numbers). So an additional 104M doesn't add much to the total of miles driven; it's not even 1%.

I keep thinking that I'm overlooking something here. I'd welcome someone else taking a look at it. I'll post the links to the data I used. Here's the link to the revenue passenger miles table:

http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Data_Elements.aspx?Data=3

I'll post the link to the Census Bureau data in the next post.

Link to the Census Bureau driving data:

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/tables/10s1069.pdf

Spinal Tap knew how to do it years ago...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=1808790779