Sole Morality

Spread 'Em

I have long felt that airport security is a joke. Haven't you? Do you honestly think that what you go through at the TSA checkpoint before proceeding to your gate is truly effective? Sure, stupid people who fill a laptop with an explosive or or put a knife in their pocket are screened out. But someone who was really intent on causing trouble...do you think TSA and the screening processes would catch them?

I was nice to see I am pretty much on the mark according to Jeffrey Goldberg's article for The Atlantic (nice, in the fact that I feel vindicated in my travel security cynicism, not nice in the fact that airport security really is a sham):

[Bruce Schnei­er, a security expert] and I walked to the security checkpoint. “Counter­terrorism in the airport is a show designed to make people feel better,” he said. “Only two things have made flying safer: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.” This assumes, of course, that al-Qaeda will target airplanes for hijacking, or target aviation at all. “We defend against what the terrorists did last week,” Schnei­er said. He believes that the country would be just as safe as it is today if airport security were rolled back to pre-9/11 levels. “Spend the rest of your money on intelligence, investigations, and emergency response.”

I highly suggest you take the time to read the article. It's fairly short and an easy read and guaranteed to change how you look at emptying your pockets and taking off your shoes when you try to catch a flight.

Personally, I see it is as a sad statement on society that

1. the government spends so much money putting on a show of security to make people feel better
2. more people don't see that it really doesn't work
3. there isn't a public outcry about the money that could certainly be applied better in other areas and easily be more effective

Deny every lawful citizen of their means to defend themselves (or clip their nails) and still not provide real security (which is really a farce when you think about what it).

An often paraphrased statement by Benjamin Franklin goes along the lines of "Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither and lose both."

Yeah.

If you can't trust G.I. Joe, who can you trust?

Geez, I wish I was making this up. This is something you expect to find on The Onion or some other satirical news feed. BBC reports that TSA officials at Los Angeles International Airport stopped 55 year old Judy Powll from boarding because the G.I. Joe doll she had purchased as a gift and had packed in her carry on bags had a gun! And not just any gun, this was a scary, black, machine gun! What's that you say? It's plastic and only two inches long? What's your point?

Mrs Powell said: "I was simply stunned when I realised they were serious. Security examined the toy as if it was going to shoot them and looked at the rifle. I was really angry to start with because of the absurdity of the situation. But then I saw the funny side of it and thought this was simple lunacy."

I have to admit, I'm not sure I would have seen the "funny side" of that sheer stupidity and total absence of any common sense whatsoever. In the end, TSA ended up confiscating the "gun" and allowing her to pack the doll in her checked baggage.

Tax funded stupidity in action, right there.

A spokesman for Los Angeles International Airport said: "We have instructions to confiscate anything that looks like a weapon or a replica.

Boy I feel bad for the guy I saw the other day with a tatoo of an AK-47 on his forearm. I sure hope for his sake that TSA has its employees studying up on amputations and/or skin grafts in preparation for his next foray on commercial flight.

This reminds me of a story my uncle in Hawaii told. Being a federal government employee conducting raids on the various Hawaiian Islands, he often flies with a bag full of his tactical gear: ballistsics vests, select-fire MP5's, and lots of ammunition. Tack on his standard issue sidearm and that makes going through airport security a lot more of an adventure than most of us encounter.

In going through security for an inter-island flight very shortly after 9/11 (I think I remember those details correctly), he showed his badge and signed the form as usual, but the security agent stopped him and insisted on checking his carry on bag. She unzipped the bag and began pushing aside his MP5, ballistic vest, magazine of ammunition and rummaging around. My uncle leaned over and calmly inquired, "So, what are you looking for." The woman looked up and said, "I don't know, but they told us to check every bag."

If I ever found myself in that situation, I'd sure try to see the humor in it and might even laugh, but I think I'd stop short of saying "you guys just kill me" for fear that they wouldn't take my statement in the idiomatic spirit in which it was intended.

(Hat tip: Right Wing News)