TSA, the Fun Never Ends..

[bluesbro1982]

To Quote George Carlin:

"The whole thing is there to make white people feel safe!"

The problem is one of recruitment and retention of people who want to genuinely do their job well. Generally those who are intelligent enough to understand that exceptions can / should be made for certain things - Like a non-branded Ziploc a la previous post - are intelligent enough to understand that the bureaucracy that they report to is staffed with those retained and promoted because they can play the civil-service game, not because they are necessarily good at their jobs. What a motivator! "Office Space" on a governmental scale!

Another reason:

Person 1: "So, where do you work?"

P2: "Oh, I work for the TSA as a screener..."

P1: "Man, last time I flew xyz happened..."

Who wants that kind of "respected" job? The image / stereotype is unfortunately something that prevents more well qualified people from applying for the positions (Not to mention salary, but I digress...)

I would disagree with the above post that said that the TSA is working *Unless* you define working as making us "feel" safer. The British MI6 uncovered the terror plot with the gel, NOT the US agencies. Also keep in mind that under your feet the 1+ ton of US mail and cargo that most all commercial aircraft carry has most likely NOT been inspected. Ditto for Fedex and UPS shipments, and double ditto if it is coming out of a midsize or small regional airport. Too many people have access to planes to call them "safe" at any point.

 

[Missdirected]

To the best of my knowledge – and contrary to the way it’s been presented in the media – the government hasn’t bailed out or subsidized any airline since 9/11. What the government has done is lived up to it’s obligations under the Constitution for people to be secure in their effects and that includes the airlines rights to conduct legal business. I’m sure any business person with millions of dollars of capital assets and thousands of employees who needed to work them 7/24 to make a profit was arbitrarily told by the feds you have to shut your business down for 7 days, they’d expect to be reimbursed for their lost revenue or at least the capital cost of the unusable, and in essence seized, property. That is what the government did with the airlines and is still doing with some aviation related businesses that were operating within the law, but the government forced them to cease operations.

That is correct and I agree with you. Love the idea about the background check.

Howard, I was speaking prior to 9/11.

One of my two instances goes again to the mentality. You seem to drawing something I am not saying from my posts.

Here is an example of the mentality I speak of: Note, I am not one of those that "tries" the TSA. I have no desire to make someone's job anymore difficult. Anyway, going to pick Johnny up at the airport the other day - he phoned to say he was out at the sidewalk. Perfect. I usually, cruise by slow down where the people are standing, we spot each other, I stay in the car, pop the trunk, he throws his stuff in, and off we go. No goofing or hellos there.

The other day, I go to do the same as usual. As I am slowing to look at the crowd of people, still not at a stop, a TSA woman comes up and begins yelling at me to move along. I stated to her I wasn't parking just grabbing someone. She yells for a tow truck :11: Now I haven't parked, heck I haven't even come to a complete stop (until she came up to the car of course). Honestly, that was extreme. Reality, no one can drive 50 mph and expect to grab their passenger.

 

[HowardE]

That is correct and I agree with you. Love the idea about the background check.

Howard, I was speaking prior to 9/11.

One of my two instances goes again to the mentality. You seem to drawing something I am not saying from my posts.

Here is an example of the mentality I speak of: Note, I am not one of those that "tries" the TSA. I have no desire to make someone's job anymore difficult. Anyway, going to pick Johnny up at the airport the other day - he phoned to say he was out at the sidewalk. Perfect. I usually, cruise by slow down where the people are standing, we spot each other, I stay in the car, pop the trunk, he throws his stuff in, and off we go. No goofing or hellos there.

The other day, I go to do the same as usual. As I am slowing to look at the crowd of people, still not at a stop, a TSA woman comes up and begins yelling at me to move along. I stated to her I wasn't parking just grabbing someone. She yells for a tow truck :11: Now I haven't parked, heck I haven't even come to a complete stop (until she came up to the car of course). Honestly, that was extreme. Reality, no one can drive 50 mph and expect to grab their passenger.

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say... but I'm certainly not trying to argue with you - I'm just sharing my opinion on travel safety, as a very frequent traveler...

Pre 9/11 - there was no TSA. No standardization of security protocols. Each airport could have different standards of what was "secure" and had independent secuirty companies to handle the security. This is obviously not a very smart method for security, especially since the US has recently woken to the fact that the world isn't a safe place. Some could argue that if there had been a TSA in place pre 9/11 that it could have been avoided???

In what other country is airport security NOT a government run agency? (I really don't know)

BTW - Your incident with the sidewalk parking freakazoid was probably one of your local police officers. Every airport I've been to, the outside security/parking/passenger pickup enforcement is handled by local sheriff or police department, and usually not the TSA.

 

[PriusDrIVER]

But what isn't working? The TSA (as far as I can tell) is actually accomplishing their mission. There hasn't been any terrorist activity on a flight originating in the U.S. since 9/11. I must admit that heightened security is sometimes annoying, but overall, the TSA security is not an unpleasant experience.

Wow, what a great observation. I haven't been sunburned since I stopped wearing sunblock either, so sunblock causes sunburns. You can overlook that I also haven't seen the sun since I stopped wearing sunblock, thats not relevant....it *must* be that the sunblock in fact was the cause of the sunburn.

Just because an attack hasn't happened doesn't mean it has anything to do with TSA. These false assumptions are what leads to people accepting crap like the "Patriot Act", giving up civil liberties in the name of "protection" from all of those "terrorists".

TSA is a joke. I travel on occasion (100+ flights in 365-days), and no...driving is not an option. There are only 2 things TSA has absolutely done well, wasting tax dollars and making air travel far less convenient.

 

[Diver Dennis]

howarde mentioned this but one of the things that really slows down security in any country is people trying to go through without checking their pockets or knowing what can be taken on flights. All people have to do is talk to their travel agent or if booking on line, check the website. I don't know how many times I've seen people go back and forth through the metal detector or stand and argue with the security people about an item that cannot go on board. Most airports have signs at the beginning of the security line outlining items that are forbidden but I still see problems that slow the process down for everyone.

 

[HowardE]

Wow, what a great observation. I haven't been sunburned since I stopped wearing sunblock either, so sunblock causes sunburns. You can overlook that I also haven't seen the sun since I stopped wearing sunblock, thats not relevant....it *must* be that the sunblock in fact was the cause of the sunburn.

Just because an attack hasn't happened doesn't mean it has anything to do with TSA. These false assumptions are what leads to people accepting crap like the "Patriot Act", giving up civil liberties in the name of "protection" from all of those "terrorists".

TSA is a joke. I travel on occasion (100+ flights in 365-days), and no...driving is not an option. There are only 2 things TSA has absolutely done well, wasting tax dollars and making air travel far less convenient.

Boo Hoo - it's less convenient. If you fly so much, then you should be able to wait in the short line for security anyway. If not, I suggest signing up for a frequent flyer program. They have many perks, including priority check in and priority security lines at most airports

You can honestly say that the old method was better???

I'm not saying by any means that TSA is a perfection and an example for the world to follow. All I'm saying is that people should whine less, and deal with the cards you are dealt. If you don't like airline travel, then don't use it...

 

[ReefHound]

Wow, what a great observation. I haven't been sunburned since I stopped wearing sunblock either, so sunblock causes sunburns. You can overlook that I also haven't seen the sun since I stopped wearing sunblock, thats not relevant....it *must* be that the sunblock in fact was the cause of the sunburn.

Just because an attack hasn't happened doesn't mean it has anything to do with TSA. These false assumptions are what leads to people accepting crap like the "Patriot Act", giving up civil liberties in the name of "protection" from all of those "terrorists".

You're right, the real reason we haven't been attacked must be because there are no terrorists out there, or they really don't want to hurt us and decided to give us peace. It couldn't have anything to do with TSA because then who would we joke about?

The fact is we haven't lost anymore planes to the terrorists. What better way to measure TSA effectiveness? You prefer to use some contrived statistics or anecdotal observations instead?

 

[PriusDrIVER]

I never complained. I deal with it, regularly. In fact, the only time it has ever bothered me was starting with the liquid restriction. Suddenly it becomes difficult to travel by carry on, and when you are in 2-4 airports/week its all about saving time (that part of the day isn't usually billable). Travelling by carryon becomes either not economical or its not environmentally friendly, it increases the number of containers one diposes of for toiletries.

I'm more annoyed with the fellow travellers that are all novices and apparently neither read or speak english. However, i wouldn't attribute an absence of "attack" to the success of TSA. The current liquid restrictions do nothing to prevent someone from using their bladder or other orfice to transport whatever liquid it is they are trying to protect us from.

TSA is like a radar detector, it makes the Average Dumb American feel invincible again.

 

[PriusDrIVER]

The fact is we haven't lost anymore planes to the terrorists. What better way to measure TSA effectiveness? You prefer to use some contrived statistics or anecdotal observations instead?

Ok, so how many planes did we "lose" before TSA was created? How many did we lose before the current administration was elected? How many did we lose before the sun rose on 9/11/01? Again, just because it hasn't happened since doesn't necessarily mean anything...it wasn't a regularly occuring event prior either.

 

[Bob3]

Geeze ... my youngest had his switchblade confiscated after he forgot it in his jacket. :11:
One of the perils of having all those pockets; ya think you've checked 'em all & all of a sudden the bells go off. :no