Air Travel, TSA, and DUMB People.....

[Spot77]

After returning home today from a four day stay in the fine town of Nashville, I am COMPLETELY dumbfounded by the ignorance of air travellers.

Even pre-9-11, I knew that I would be walking through a metal detector, and that METAL OBJECTS WILL SET IT OFF.

It amazes me that people STILL try to walk through the metal detectors with (and I witnessed ALL of these today): cell phones, pockets full of change, watches and bracelets, car keys, and wallets full of whatever wallets are full of. And PEOPLE WERE UPSET THAT THESE THINGS WERE STTING THE METAL DETECTORS OFF. Huh?

I'm a very infrequent air traveller, and I know to remove EVERYTHING from my body, even my belt and wedding ring.....and I STILL set the darn thing off at BWI every time.

There are signs posted everywhere reminding people of these things. There are even "amnesty boxes" placed right in front of the screening area (I guess these are for the super deadly nail clippers that people constantly forget about).

Anyway, kudos to the TSA and security staff at Nashville International Airport for remaining polite and efficient in the face of hostile moron travellers. Perhaps people are just more polite in the south?

I still choose to drive whenever possible, but when FORCED to travel by air, at least know that frontline TSA officials CAN be good people.

 

[Lord Bodak]

Last time I flew out of Norfolk, I forgot about my car keys being in my pocket, and they didn't even set off the metal detector! Sure, that made me feel really safe

 

[labgrade]

"Anyway, kudos to the TSA and security staff at Nashville International Airport for remaining polite and efficient in the face of hostile moron travellers."

Sheesh!

When the 9/11-thing went down, knives, box-cutters, et al, were all legal things to carry on the A/C - wasn't any failure regards impliments allowed - only the security & compliance effects already ensured by the airlines to comply with the demands of anyone with the will do what they did. I flew to Singapore with a Swiss Army Knife, etc. in my carry-on.

There was no stopping them with the policies in place at the time - which were none - merely a compliance (sheeple, anyone?) to the whims & demands of those who would shape your future.

Haven't checked into TSA's official web-page lately, but betcha I could carry on a Mini-Mag flashlight - makes a pretty good kubaton.

The whole "necessity" of screening folk for "harmful items" is a total waste, & worse, a joke at our own conceived ideas that we can be "safe."

I flew infrequently beforehand, but will never pay some minimal wage yahoo to look up my butt to ensure my safety. This total madness of you thinking "we're safe" because some .......

Argh!

We used to fly with weapons & ammunition readily at hand. There was a hi-jack! The feds cracked down & ...... the whole thing went south.

Congrats!

You now get to be butt-scanned to pay to travel - to be safe(r) - again.

We've now metal detectors/face-scanning technolgy to go into watch a pro-team play a baseball game, maybe an amusement park, to get on a cruise-ship, to board a train.

Congrats! You've gotten your wish for a more safe society.

I could not be more disgusted.

 

[alan]

Before I gavbe up smokimng cigars, I used to carry cigar cutters. Some were pewrhaps somewhat strange looking metal devices, some were mostly plastic, with a small metal cutter that obviously was an integral part of the device.

Frequently, I walked through airport metal detectors with the things in my pocket. Sometimes bells would ring, horns would blow and lights would flash, though quite often, I simply walked through "the golden archs", and went to the boarding gate. Go figure.

Sometimes "security personnel" gave my cigar cutter an odd look, while other times, those deadly impliments were immediately recognized as what they were. Again, go figure, I gave up some time back.

 

[Oleg Volk]

I'd think that tying up the screeners' time would be as good form of civil disobedience.

 

[alan]

Oleg:

Re"tying up screeners time", given that these bums are "federal employees", one would not be "tying up their time", one would, in effect, by tying up their own time, not to mention MONEY too.

Hell of a situation that our congress critters and miscellaneous bureaucrats/public servants, so-called, have created, isn't it?

 

[Politically Incorrect]

When I went to Hawaii a couple years ago, I didn't set off any metal detectors at the airport. But at a local courthouse recently, I kept setting the detector off. I explained that I have titanium rods down both femurs, my upper left arm, and plates in my lower left arm while showing them the scars (not SARS, scars ). They wanded me down and let me through.

I was ready for them to wand me down when I walked through the detector at the airport, but when I realized that it didn't go off, I lowered my arms and kept walking. I'm not sure how much titanium I have in me, but I'm sure that it could probably make a nice Taurus 85.

 

[Spot77]

You guys are hitting on the right points.....

I certainly think all the "feel good" restrictions put on us are a waste of time, but the present is the present, and everybody travelling by air knows this.

I was going to go to the airport with my funkiest shoes and socks on and subject the TSA guys to a nice fermenting treat when told to remove my shoes......

But then I realized that to sterotype ALL of them for the actions of SOME of them is just wrong. And I'm glad I went with a polite attitude because I was treated respectfully, politely, and expediently.

These poor guys at the screening stations didn't make the rules, they just enforce them. How many LEO's here on THR say the same thing day after day?

Oleg, I'm all for civil disobedience when directed at the right people; the people that screwed us into these things in the first place. Wasting what appeared to be some good peoples' time, and embarrassing myself and my company wouldn't have done a thing except give the media more fuel for their fear induced lies.

I think we need to remember WHO made theses restrictions and be as civil and compliant as possible if travelling by air.

Now had these screeners and security guys been jerks.....well obviously this thread would be a moot point since that kind of treatment is what we've come to expect.

 

[labgrade]

"But then I realized that to sterotype ALL of them for the actions of SOME of them is just wrong. And I'm glad I went with a polite attitude because I was treated respectfully, politely, and expediently.

These poor guys at the screening stations didn't make the rules, they just enforce them. How many LEO's here on THR say the same thing day after day?

Same thing claimed by the Nazis, no? "We're just following orders."

At some point people must stand up & say nope, this stuff is killing the whole fabric of what this country was founded on.

Didn't many comment on how polite, how industrious, the German-folk were before the latest fandango?

Isn't there something to be said about paying someone to look up your butt?

Frankly, for the money, I'd pick, at the least a good-looking woman - but, that's just me.

 

[Lord Bodak]

You're right, but we need to stand up and say no to the stupid politicians who made the rules. Saying it to the employees doesn't do any good and fighting them just makes everyone's lives harder.

The new restrictions don't make anyone safer-- after all, sodas are still served in aluminum cans and a torn can is more dangerous than 99% of what's on the restricted items list.

If someone wants to hijack a plane, they're going to do it regardless of what they can or can't bring on the plane.

 

[Chris Rhines]

These poor guys at the screening stations didn't make the rules, they just enforce them. How many LEO's here on THR say the same thing day after day?

Uhh, no. TSA or cop, the "we don't make the rules" excuse falls just as flat.

TSA employees are sapient human beings, they (allegedly) have brains and the ability to tell right from wrong. The things that they do, simply as a condition of their job, are wrong. They choose to stay in that job anyhow, and that makes them just as culpable as Tom Ridge.

No excuses. The TSA screeners deserve every single hard time they get.

- Chris

 

[anapex]

I know at BWI they screw with the sensitivities of the detectors all the time. Sometimes I can walk through with my watch on with change in my pocket other times my normal sized belt buckle will set it off. But yeah I know the detectors are coming up and throw everything in my backpack.

 

[alan]

Spot 77 offered a couple of comments, excerpted as follows:

These poor guys at the screening stations didn't make the rules, they just enforce them. How many LEO's here on THR say the same thing day after day?

He then went on to offer the following:

I think we need to remember WHO made theses restrictions and be as civil and compliant as possible if travelling by air.

Re the first part, those "poor guys" do not have to do that particular job, just like the rest of us do not have to do whatever it is that we do to earn a living. We all must do something, but we do not have to do any particular thing.

As for the rest of it, dealing with who made these restrictions, and related thoughts, it's those congress critters that enacted laws. Otherwise, it is still our congrewss critters that fund these bureaucrats and the various bureaucracies which run rampant over the citizenry.

 

[jfh]

I flew a LOT in the late Eighties

and typically between MSP and SeaTac/Vancouver BC, or from MSP to Switzerland.

Right after the Air Canada (?) explosion West of Scotland, Canada got excited--and all the metal detectors were turned up to high. On one flight internally (Vancouver to Winnipeg), I couldn't get past the detector--even when I took off all metal; we (security and I) finally agreed it must be the fillings in my teeth.

OTOH, as I flew in and out of Switzerland, I learned that the Swiss knew how to do it well. Plus, they had armed patrols in the airport--and since they keep EVERYONE'S money for them, the terrorists generally left them alone.

I've not flown since 9/11, and I really don't want to.