TSA: The Only Consistent Thing Is The Idiocy
Scott McCartney writes in the WSJ about the security stupidity that is the TSA:
Sometimes you can carry your wallet through the airport X-ray machine, sometimes you can't. Sometimes that trusted-traveler membership speeds you though security, other times, well, sorry. And you might get a surprise check of your driver's license at the boarding gate.For the past decade, travelers have learned to adapt to a changing array of security requirements--shoes off, liquids restricted, bodies scanned and patted down. Frequent fliers try to adjust, knowing that following a routine makes navigating airports quicker and less stressful.
...Six times this year, Laura Aguiar, a frequent traveler and health-care consultant from Albuquerque, N.M., has run into unexpected TSA checks of her driver's license at boarding gates. The identification sometimes isn't even matched to her boarding pass. The screener just wants to see if she has an I.D.
"It's crazy. It's completely unnecessary. How is this keeping me safe?" asks Ms. Aguiar.
...Consider a situation I witnessed last month in Santiago, Chile. Passengers were facing a 10-hour flight in coach and so, worried about dehydration, taking medication and the potential for blood clots, some passengers bought bottled water after passing through security screening. When it was time to board, security agents lined the jet-bridge and confiscated the unopened water bottles.
There were no warning signs in the terminal or gift shops. An agent declared, contrary to rules in the U.S., that "Liquids aren't allowed in the cabin."
Yet clerks then handed passengers their wine bottles purchased in the duty free store.
TSA says security plans for U.S.-bound flights must meet TSA policies. A spokeswoman for American Airlines, the largest U.S. carrier to South America, said some countries don't search for liquids and gels to U.S. standards, and so a special check has to be made at boarding of U.S.-bound flights.
Duty-free liquids are permitted if handed to travelers at the gate because they have been under airport control. Countries with that procedure include Chile and Argentina, American said.
Commenter Mike Sullivan on the WSJ's site:
Oh, yeah -- here's how to get a full pint of any liquid you like onboard an airplane:Go to the drugstore and buy any brand of saline solution for contact lens wearers in the big 16-oz. bottle.
Take it home and empty out the saline solution.
Fill it with whatever you want, leaving the saline solution label on it.
On your next flight, proudly waltz through the security check, keeping the bottle outside and separate from your other 2.7-oz mini-bottles of dangerous shampoos, deodorants, conditioner, etc.
If questioned about the big bottle of liquid, remind the TSA of their official policy (bring a printed copy with you since most agents are ignorant of it), here: http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/medically-necessary-liquids -- note that TSA "will not touch the liquid or gel" during inspection.
Let's hope the bad guys don't figure this out by, say, reading the TSA Web site.
...Consider a situation I witnessed last month in Santiago, Chile. Passengers were facing a 10-hour flight in coach and so, worried about dehydration, taking medication and the potential for blood clots, some passengers bought bottled water after passing through security screening. When it was time to board, security agents lined the jet-bridge and confiscated the unopened water bottles.
There were no warning signs in the terminal or gift shops. An agent declared, contrary to rules in the U.S., that "Liquids aren't allowed in the cabin."
Happened to us when traveling from Johannesburg back to the US a few months ago. At the gate, the TSA workers took all our duty free alcohol (purchased in the gift shop next to the gate), all the water we'd purchased for our 16-hour flight (which we'd bought in gift shops AFTER security) and told me I couldn't bring the little plastic toiletry bag I'd gotten ON my previous South Africa Airways flight because it had the airline's logo on it and was not fully transparent. I didn't have any clear plastic baggies, so they told me they'd have to confiscate ALL my travel-sized liquid toiletries. I had to wait for my sister to go through her check. She then emptied her toiletries out of her clear bag, got back in line, handed me the bag so that I could put my toiletries in it and pass through. I was so sleep-deprived, all I could do was laugh.
Worst part: Because of the lengthy security theater performance, we were left cordoned off in our gate area for more than an hour, without water, unable to board the plane until all the passengers had been checked. My sis and I were sick (running fevers), and I begged the TSA people to let us fill our re-fillable water bottles in the bathroom so that we could have water while we waited. No dice. So I announced I was going to the bathroom to vomit, unless they'd prefer me to do so at the gate. I took a water bottle with me, hid it in my backpack (bundled in clothing), refilled it, got back in line and smuggled my terrorist-water through to the gate.
sofar at November 2, 2012 9:53 AM
For all you regular readers of the Goddess' blog you can skip past this post. I'm going to post my regular rant about not needing the TSA. For all you new readers, please read it carefully and refute any statement or misstatement. ;-)
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The TSA was not needed one hour and one minute after Tower II was hit!
The paradigm, the norm, the expected, what everyone was taught to do was to sit down, shut up and wait for the plane to land and the negotiations happen. That was the model from Entebbe onward.
The passengers on board did not really know what was about to happen on September 11, 2001 at 8:46:30 when Flight 11 struck Tower I.
Even the passengers on Flight 175 probably didn't realize what was about to happen when they struck Tower II at 9:03:02.
The Pentagon crash of Flight 77 at 9:37:46 may have been still a matter of ignorance.
At 10:03:11 on September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after the brave souls counter-attacked and caused the hijackers to crash the plane.
The time difference is 60 minutes and 9 seconds from Tower II being struck to the crash of Flight 93. The shoe bomber and panty bomber were taken down by fellow passengers as well. Recently, JetBlue's Flight 191 pilot was taken down by the passengers once he was out of the cockpit. Additionally how many times have you heard of passengers' concerns and diverted flights?
The TSA is and has always been a joke, no make that a total stupidity, that has wasted our country's fortune going down a rabbit hole.
If you don't believe me look at the 9/11 timeline.
There will never be another 9/11 style attack unless the attackers can arrange planes full of geriatrics, and even then it would be doubtful.
Oh, and someone brought bombs being an issue. If bombs were effective and simple then the Lockerbie bombing would have been repeated multiple times between 21 December 1988 and 11 September 2001. That's 4647 days or 13 years. Where was the TSA in that time. There was one successful bombing that was done in Colombia and two unsuccessful attempts in that time.
Jim P. at November 4, 2012 6:48 PM
One thing to add, again, to Jim's post:
Look here.
If you study, you'll find out that not one commercial airliner has ever been downed by small arms to the airframe. Several have survived SAM and AAM hits.
Radwaste at November 5, 2012 2:53 PM
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