This business about the TSA “enhanced” screening is creating a variety of reactions from talk show hosts – they seem to be falling into one of three groups:
- This is a bad idea because I read it on the Drudge Report and everyone is talking about it
- This is a bad idea because [rationale]
- This is no big deal, just comply with the request. There is no right to travel by airplane.
Keep some mental notes for the future when the stakes are even higher.
This has also brought out a flurry of “disinformation” – “person on the street” interviews, one of the most dishonest approaches to advocacy journalism. Talk to a hundred people at O’Hare and ask them a question, and then pick out the one or two that support your point of view and then generalize that as “public opinion”… “Travelers in O’Hare seem to support the enhanced security measures”…..
“The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.”
Adolf Hitler
The safest airline is ELAL, and they don’t have the TSA pat down in Isreal, ( the country the terrorists want to annihilate, Besides the U.S.) If a terrorist wants to bypass all the screening and patdowns, all he has to do is “shove it (what ever it is i:e. C-4) where the sun don’t shine”, because It’s not detectable by the screening or patdown’s unless the TSA gets its way (probably the next item on the Government’s agenda ) It should be against the law for the TSA to grope anybody much less children. Maybe profiling is the answer, if itworks for Isreal it would work for the U.S.
I flew a half dozen times on commercial airlines during the 4 weeks immediately following 9-11. It was great- the national guard was patrolling the airports with M16’s openly visible. Everyone was courteous and the airlines greatly appreciated our patronage. I never felt safer than during that brief period than when the American traveling public and our military were on guard while the bureaucrats in DC were confused. Then the Homeland Security Dept and the TSA was created, and I’ve flown only 4 times since. It was obvious from the very start that they viewed the American public as “enemy #1” and that worshiping at the alter of political correctness would be their standard operational du jour.
If more citizens had simply said “NO” and voted with their wallets when the DHS back in 2002 declared war on the U.S. public instead of Islamic terrorists we wouldn’t be having this controversy today.
OK, I grew up in the early 60’s, born in 1946. I remember “patting down” a couple of girlfriends and getting slapped…..Just sayin’…..
This is criminal.
I have a deterrent. When you are being groped, just point at the groper and say in a very loud voice “Do you have an erection? Are you getting off on this pervert?”
I fly sometimes at Thanksgiving, and every XMAS. This year I’m driving. When the drop in money from the traveling public takes it’s toll on the over-unioninzed airline industry, I bet we know who will bail them out.
How’s that Hope and Change working out for ya?
More like – Hope the groper clipped his fingernails? Hope he changed his latex gloves from the last “body cavity” search they just did?
Great comment about the TSA being a pervert’s, Here’s another idea, How about 2 airplane’s one for those that don’t mind the scan and or pat down, and one for the opt- out, every man /woman for themselves ? I think I would settle for the latter. I’ts obvious that a TSA employee seems to be on the same level as a rent-a-cop mall security.
This has an obvious solution. Allow people with conceal carry permits to carry weapons (not loaded guns) onto the domestic flights. No need to pay air marshals, no need for invasive screenings. Require non-citizens to travel domestically by land or with tight scrutiny like Israel does. 99% of domestic travelers are not remotely a threat – focus resources on those who could be. If that means fewer Germans vacation in Florida, we’ll have to live with that.
Hey everybody … NUDE FLYING! Woohoo!