How long are we going to put up with this crap? More to the point, what can we do? Our elected officials aren't listening, and there are very few things an individual American can do unless s/he is willing to get arrested to make the point. Even then, some of the otherwise-sensible people I know still think you shouldn't object as long as you have nothing to hide.

We're pretty much screwed - a lot better minds than mine, or at least a lot more of them, have been noodling this problem for ten years and not come up with a solution, and the social control issues just get worse and worse. How many of us will have to get thrown in jail to get something to change? Or is it too late?

> O'Hare airport's TSA officers need sensitivity training.

No they don't.

They need trials and prison sentences.

"Following orders" is not a valid defense.

"We're pretty much screwed - a lot better minds than mine, or at least a lot more of them, have been noodling this problem for ten years and not come up with a solution, and the social control issues just get worse and worse."

Get rid of this stupid idea that "better minds" than yours "have been noodling this problem".

That's wrong.

The real deal is that people in government do not have the same goals you do. Further, they must protect their position, even when huge sunk-cost fallacies loom, by insisting they are right and pointing at phantoms. You can see some of these phantoms in phrases like, "Look at all this contraband we have confiscated! It makes you SAFER for us to take this from you!"

What can we do?

Start thinking first. And this is not complex at all - it's not really a problem that requires a genius to fix (you're not finding one of those at TSA, anyway). Ask yourself, "Who is flying?" Ask yourself, "Can airliners still be used in kamikaze attacks?" Ask yourself, "Just where is this enemy I am supposed to fight?"

And the best one: "Why am I supposed to be afraid?"

I have nothing to say that hasn't been said before, or better, but thanks for posting this. It sure is depressing.

I was going to suggest that next time he refuse to be screened, because they won't arrest a child. But on second thought, yeah, they would.

I hate to say this, but I don't think there is anything we can do. The majority of Americans like fascism, they like being told what to do, they like a vigilante-type justice system and mandatory minimum sentences (until they are affected, of course.)

I'm coming to the painful conclusion that most Americans are so apathetic about freedom they don't deserve it.

I plan on leaving the country when I retire, perhaps before. (I lived in South America for several years when I was a young adult. It had lots of problems, but there was a genuine laissez-faire attitude that I still miss almost thirty years later.)

I realized last night that I had never sent my standard rant to the my State Senator and Representative. I'll post it in a moment.

I was surprised to get this response in my e-mail, and it sounded that it wasn't quite a pro-forma or equivocal response:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the utility of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

I have forwarded similar requests for the dissolution of TSA to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Should this issue come before the Senate, I will keep your thoughts in mind.

Thank you again for getting in touch with me.

If everyone of us sends it to our Senators and Representatives, maybe they will get it and do something. I still haven't had anyone directly address my rant with any logical counter-arguments.

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. ;-) And you can blame it on me if you want to send this to your Senator or Representative.

=================================================
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.

A thousand words...