I swear the TSA and our government have got to be a bunch of idiots!
I hate being taken for a fool and god knows the TSA loves to assume the American People are idiots. Worse though is when the TSA assumes that our enemies are idiots.
Years ago, LONG before the TSA existed I got into trouble, as in “detained” for questioning the logic of the people running the metal detectors.
Back in the day, they’d have us turn on our equipment, then they’d look through the lens of our SLR film cameras and wave us on to the metal detectors.
I pointed out once that a variety of explosives are very stable, powerful, and require a blasting cap or its equivalent to detonate. Given these facts, were I someone that wanted to do something bad I’d actually want there to be power in a laptop or similar device.
At that same time I also pointed out that looking through the view finder of an SLR camera tells you absolutely NOTHING about what might be in the film compartment. (Yes, it was WAY back in the day!)
When the nice security men & FBI finished questioning me, one of the agents asked me what on earth possessed me to cause a scene in a boarding line at an airport?
I responded:
I didn’t cause a scene, I simply made some observations… out loud.
I continued, if someone is going to inconvenience me in the name of safety then by god DO IT and be safe about it.
No-one is safe if our safety is an illusion. Simply going through the motions of insuring my safety is an insult and a waste of mine and everyone else’s time. If you’re concerned about a bomb being in a laptop then really inspect the laptop.
If you’re concerned about explosives in an SLR camera then open the damn camera and LOOK inside.
But best of all, make us put everything through the damn X-ray machine. Then you can actually see if something looks amiss inside our computers, cameras, cellphones, backpacks, purses, and god knows what else people may be carrying onto the damn airplane.
The agent smiled.
He told me he didn’t want to see me ever again in one of questioning rooms. He told me I was smart enough to understand that, “Theater” could sometimes be a deterrent, and that I wasn’t incorrect about the stuff that could go boom.
I saw his point, at the time.
I happily flew for many years after that encounter. I also noticed that the security folks began asking all passengers to put all their stuff in the X-ray machines.
Why am I pissed off now?
Because we’ve come full circle!
The difference is that our enemies have access to stuff that is more destructive, and those same enemies aren’t using bombs as a negotiating tool (as the folks who claimed they had a bomb then ordered the pilot of a plane to take them to Cuba). Today our enemies are willing to blow themselves up and take other people with them.
SO why are we engaging in this silly bit of theater?
The DHS says they’re worried about so called undetectable bombs…
Okaaayyy.
Then doesn’t that presuppose that the people building these sophisticated bombs are smart enough to build them so that powering up the devices won’t set the thing off?
Lets give our enemies credit for at least being able to use the knowledge they gained going to western colleges.
I resent the theater today more than I resented it back at the dawn of time.
Theater isn’t going to protect us from Jihadists intent on causing us harm.
If our government is serious about protecting us, then they need to terminate all financial aid and make sure that ALL funds to and from terrorists cells in our country are cut off.
The Hamas mouthpiece CAIR should be deprived of all funding originating outside the US and should be prevented from transferring any funds out of the country. Which means preventing the French bank BNP and others from obfuscating the sources and destinations of transactions.
(For god’s sake it’s an annoying odyssey for honest citizens to open bank accounts with piddly sums of cash. How the HELL can international banks get aways with this stuff?)
We shouldn’t be providing Syria weapons.
The Muslim Brotherhood is another organization that we have no business supporting.
We need to be depriving these terrorist organizations of their funding, weapons, and communications.
It’s interesting that ISIS is waging an impressive recruiting and PR campaign via Twitter! That needs to stop. If that means giving the Muslim countries their dreams of internet isolation from the rest of the world, so be it.
Last, and most importantly we need to stop the politically correct bullshit. I’m not suggesting that we become a bunch of racist xenophobes, I’m saying that we need to have all the information about the goings on in our country.
That means we need to see the reports about honor killings, like those recently uncovered in NJ. We need to understand how Islam is influencing our country for good or ill. We need truth, and fearlessly honest reporting to return to mainstream news.
I firmly believe that in the light of truth, we as a people will be better able to make decisions that are in our best interests.
Make no mistake, it’s not a sin to act in your own self interests.
Even the Occupy Wall Street people figured that out.