Go to any U.S. government office in this country or overseas and you will see more of the same (usually no pat down yet) to include no cell phones and possibly bullet proof glass. There are people in this world who do not like the American government or it's people and wish to do us harm for whatever reason. .Pick one?
NSA type thinking has embedded itself with the TSA and I promise their paranoia knows no bounds. The latest with the underwear bomber who was a U.K. embedded spy with the bad guys (good work U.K. bad work exposing him and the methods of gaining intel USA) might make it even more interesting for those of us who have to fly.
My first flight was over 60 years ago so I suppose you could say I grew up flying to include having my own aircraft for several years. It is amazing how much air travel has changed just in my life time; even on International flights the food is gagable in coach with the U.S. carriers that I have flown this last year; used to be eatable and decent; actually pretty good.
Some of the other flag carriers once away from U.S. controlled airports are a lot more civilized and usually just have the metal detectors or hand held devices unless your destination is the U.S. or one of it's protectorates; then it is like a mini USA pat down with apologies in the vicinity of the departure gate. The only line is for your flight.
We used to leave the flight deck and on occasion have people (kids usually) come to the flight deck.
I remember sitting in the Captains lap during take-off ( F.O. was making the t/o) when I was five or six and all the red lighted instruments on the DC-6 and knowing in my soul that one day I to would strive to become one of the people who commanded such an awesome machine. Everyone knew I wanted to fly before then but that sealed the deal.
The Captain was a friend of the family named William (Bill) T. Cherry; google him
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&a...CxGknScLQ..Bill actually hated Rickenbacker and thought he was a pompous %^%$#@. Rest in peace Captain Cherry.
Through a lot of hard work and schooling plus being at the right place at the right time (lucky, lucky, lucky) I achieved my life long goal. The pilots finally said enough and through common sense arguments and the threat of a general strike...... while in uniform and working we no longer had to do the general security checks and were allowed to pass through the crew line with an abbreviated check.
When I was still working we had to do the shoe thing just like everyone else; ( nail clippers and pocket knives were a no, no, even in your shaving kit because our bags were in the cockpit, yet we had a rather large fire ax in the cockpit) I retired before the body scanners became prevalent. Thought some of the things going on then were ludicrous and luckily I was not alone in my thinking but smart enough to know shooting my mouth off at the check points would accomplish nothing good for the cause. Everything comes from the top down in the form of policies and procedures.
Some things have changed yet more complicated now because of the actions of a few; weakest link and all that stuff plus not being a loved country or people ( by some nationalities) anymore does not help.
If someone bombed my neighborhood or killed one of my loved ones I would probably have an ax to grind even if I was a fence sitter before.
No one likes a stranger getting into your personal space or feeling abused. Money
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/0...y-stealing-5000-from-passengers-jacket/stolen , jewelry, drugs being gotten onboard aircraft, hahahha I heard they even got Kissinger at LGA a few days ago! No profiling he might as well have had a table cloth and a fan belt around his head and his favorite AK with all the unwanted attention he got! If TSA leadership focus was more into profiling with their job then things like
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/15/illegal-immigrant-20-year-worker-at-nj-airport/ or a myriad of other news worthy things that have come to our attention these last few years would have never happened. Everyone who has access to the grounds of an airport security badges and codes should be qualified to possess such.
I would like to say clean your own house before you put your hands on the American Public; alas that seems to hard to do with the current leadership and management. With all the money you have spent on intercepting emails, phone conversations etc etc it should not be to hard figuring out who is communicating with supposedly bad guys so put the info to good use. Maybe they just want to track them like the first underwear bomber
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17505 that started all this body scanner stuff that some really good experts say are easily fooled and put out more radiation than the public is being told....??
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/25/tsa-screeners-charged-in-la-drug-trafficking-probe/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ubjected-to-tsa-pat-down-at-new-york-airport/
I could spend all day dragging up dirt on the agency but the bottom line is there are some very good people working there who believe in what they are doing. Management tells them how to and what to do; some obviously abuse their position of trust and power.. There are abuses in any organization and it really makes people mad when some of the abuses stem from perceived stupidity. But hey you can't believe everything you see or read on the Internet.