How Many Refuse to Fly?

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Cosmoline

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I haven't flown for over two years now, in spite of the fact that I'm in Alaska and it's basically the only way to go. On my last flight in 2002, the screeners basically forced us to strip. My jacket, shoes, belt, etc. all came off. The screener took my wallet, fingered through it, examined my ID and my ticket, and then passed it around the detector while half a dozen people walked by it and I was helpless in line.

At other times, I had witnessed screeners open checked bags for inspection and laugh at underwear and other private objects they found inside--all in the open view of those at the ticket counter. I witnessed them pocket my own best lighter, along with numerous other personal objects. I accepted all this in the interest of post 9/11 security.

But that last time, standing half naked in line, something in me went *SNAP*. Seeing all of us there, shoeless and being pressed along by security guards who were (ironically enough) mostly foreign nationals, all under the watchful eye of men with loaded firearms. It made me think of other lines of half-naked people under the eye of armed men asking for papers. I knew at that moment that had I been singled out on some trumped-up nonsense or asked to submit to invasive searching, I would not have been able to control myself anymore.

One word sprung to my mind over and over again. RAPE. I was being raped by my own government. Not sexually probed, but stripped bare, humiliated and made to submit to their will. That's the essence of rape.

So I don't fly now, and probably never will again even though it means I may never see most of my family. The airports have become a terrifying vision of what the nation as a whole might one day devolve into. And if that day comes, I'll either join a proper revolution or by the allmighty I'll scatter my brains with a 54R.
 
I'm with you on all of this. TSA pisses me off to no end. I have no plans of flying again.

The only thing I'd do differently would be the choice of ammo - 45ACP for me.

:fire:
 
So I don't fly now, and probably never will again even though it means I may never see most of my family. The airports have become a terrifying vision of what the nation as a whole might one day devolve into. And if that day comes, I'll either join a proper revolution or by the allmighty I'll scatter my brains with a 54R.
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What Cosmoline said - in SPADES!
 
I won't say that I am not going to ever fly again. But, I am not planning on it. And the TSA is the reason. I usually fly at least once a year but I haven't flown for several years now. I normally go to visit my parents on the other side of the county for Thanksgiving. This year, I am driving. A couple thousand mile round trip. But, there is a matter of principle here.
 
Land of the free...

The insanity goes rampage. And all this because our PC sissies refuse to "profile" the kind of people nearly exclusively are the ones wreaking havoc. Instead, they search US Generals, blue haired 80 year old grandmas, pregnant American women, babies, and everyone that doesn't look Arab.

No flying for me unless this pathological behaviour called "political correctness" cease to exist.
 
When I to States arrived, this sort of thing "Would have been Unthinkable".

I do not "Submit", I do not "Surrender Dignity&Liberty". I will not an accomplice be in My Own "Incarceration".

I do not "Display Papers".

How so odd, "Vopos" and "Stasi" New employment in States have........
 
I hate flying, only because I hate flying.

Never had a TSA problem...guess its becasue of my beer belly, tatoos, beard and long down to middle of back hair...dont look dangerous

Of course, I never bathe before goin on a plane...ya'll wanna poke in my shorts..go ahead :)


WildflyboyAlaska
 
Nope .... I won't fly either unless there is no other option. I believe in security, but not what is going on now. What goes on at today's airports is a farce - or worse.
 
I fly all the time. In my own plane and am armed as well.

Sometimes I have to do commercial though. Just hold my nose and go for it..
 
I often think, what would George Washington do? Or Thomas Jefferson for that matter. That's pretty easy to guess. They would have refused, and probably would have considered the request an assault on their person. Andrew Jackson would have drawn blood for it, no question.
 
I will only fly if my employer mandates that I travel to place requiring such. Otherwise, I avoid it like the plague SOLELY because of the stupidity of the policies implemented by the TSA.

It's bad enough that the pilots are being giving the runaround about getting armed, as they are the one true hope for keeping air travel safe(r) from hijacking.

What's truly insulting beyond belief is the fact the the TSA airport screeners exist strictly to give the PERCEPTION of improved security, when in fact, all they are really doing is humiliating and intimidating those who are being misled by the perception.
 
Before all this current insanity I worked overseas and had to fly often and far.Since then I only fly when it absolutly cannot be avoided."Airport Security" has become our newest oxymoron...
 
Me & the Wife don't fly. Been that way since before 9-11 and doesn't have anything to do with TSA par se but their antics sure do reinforce it for us.

It's more along the lines of 'don't trust anything more mechanical than a knife & fork'...If we ever break down, I'd rather be on the ground than in the air.
 
After a couple of snafus with TSA, I bought a time share on a private jet to do my flying. Can even carry if where I'm going to recip's with Fla.
Had to fly in the early summer and the time share was booked and flew commercial and vowed NEVER EVER AGAIN.
I hope every airline goes into the ground and transportation grinds to a halt for supporting the molesting of American people all in the name of feeling safe.
 
We don't fly, and I can't imagine that we ever will. At this point, I can't imagine *anything* that could get me to submit to the illusion-of-security measures required to board a plane. No job, no business opportunity, no personal want or need, no free trip to anywhere or everywhere in the world, nothing.

The last time I traveled by plane was 1999 (?), and I was incensed at the intrusiveness of the security measures at that time.

There are many periodicals we don't read, television programs and movies we don't view, events we don't attent, products we don't purchase, etc., based on principal. Flying is just one more think we won't miss.

Philip J. Hoffmann
 
Well said, Cosmoline. I haven't flown for over fourteen years, and after hearing all of the post-9/11 horror stories I have no intentions to do so unless absolutely necessary. I drive everywhere I go, even on vacation. True, that fourteen hour trip to Florida was a bit long, but it was worth it not to be subjected to the minimum wage tyranny of the so-called "security" officers.
 
I've been getting more and more disgusted by airport security everytime I've flown. Maybe if I didn't live in Colorado and go through DIA with its notoriously slow security it wouldn't bother me so much. But as it stands, all my vacation plans for the next few years involve driving.
And all this because our PC sissies refuse to "profile" the kind of people nearly exclusively are the ones wreaking havoc.
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Keep in mind that you don't have to fit any profile to be crazy. Optimally, you do both profiled and random searches. If all your searches are profiled, then it is a simple matter of getting out of the profile, or convincing someone who doesn't fit it to do your dirty work. (Kidnap a mother's child, tell her that the kid splats if she doesn't carry a bomb onto a plane successfully. That sort of thing.)

Not that the people you're referring to are shunning profiling for that reason. :mad:
 
I fly a few times a year, but have never had any of the bad experiences described here, with the exception of the one time I flew while wearing a pair of shoes with metal in them. Had to take them off and go thru the metal detector.
 
While I didn't have as bad an experience as Cosmoline, the last time I flew in 2002 left a bad taste in my mouth, to put it mildly. I haven't flown since then. Luckily my job doesn't require me to fly.

I have done several road trips through the western US on vacation since then where I normally would have flown. Even if something wonderful happened and passengers could carry, I still wouldn't fly nearly as much any more. You see and experience so much more via car instead of flying over it.
 
I've carried a knife since I was 8 years old. I've flown once since 9/11 on business and felt naked without it. Never again. I used to actually enjoy the flying part if I wasn't crammed in a seat with a sumo wrestler on either side.
 
Solutions?

So what is the solution then? For those whose jobs force them to fly commercially or for whom travel via automobile is not workable ...

Frankly, I'd rather go through our airports in the USA than have to again subject myself to the torture of flying on some of the foreign-flag carriers I've experienced, and going through their airports ...

My problem with flying is the lack of space, uncomfortable seats, lack of legroom, crappy restrooms, the exceedingly bad air, the grudging service by "flight attendants", the wasted time sitting on the tarmac waiting for take-off (late) or flying circles around metropolitan airports waiting to land (late), the crappy meals on long flights ...

I fly so much now that I don't even notice the crappy service in the terminals; just get to the airports for my flights at least three hours early, keep copies of the TSA/airline regs on traveling w/firearms ...

I'm getting the idea that most of you either have quit flying commercially, or else simply feel that we should cancel all our airport security measures because it's too inconvenient for everyone.
 
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