Idiotic. Idiotic. Idiotic.
Ten bucks to whomever can give me a common sense reason why we need to take off our shoes at airport security check points.
I can understand (sort of) the use of x-ray machines and metal detectors (when was the last time you had to go through one to get on a Greyhound or Amtrak or Carnival Cruise?). I can understand (sort of) the security questions at check-in (though they are getting less frequent). I can understand (sort of) the scooping up of baggage that’s lying around.
But, some loony puts plastique in his shoes and millions of travelers now need to remove their shoes to board a plane (figure out the cost-benefit for that). Then, some paranoid reporter freaks out watching muslim men chat on a plane and we no longer can wait in line for the bathroom on the plane or stand up for a neighborly chat because that’s congregating (so out of the books of every totalitarian government). And then, some suicide bomber (in some backwater place in Russia, no less!) hides explosives in her bra and the TSA starts feeling up women.
When will we have to strip totally? When will security procedures do more for the government image than for actual safety (I think they already do)? When will airports and travellers begin demanding some common sense (almost there, but we are all good citizens and the procedures haven’t gotten so out of hand for the majority, just for whiners like me)? When will we formalize racial profiling of airline passengers? When will armed guards be placed on all flights?
And while I’m whining, why is plastic silverware any safer than metal silverware? When will they ban black belt karate folks from flying because they could be considered weapons? And so on.
The airline industry is already so messed up that the TSA paranoid policies are finishing it off. At the airlines’ cost, too.
How idiotic.
hi….cool down 😉
Hi Charlie,
I have thought the same things and am frustrated by the bureaucratic lameness of the TSA and the US government. The whole system is set up to punish the many…
Until all levels of the system are willing to think rather than react, we will all be stuck in a ludicrous situations at the airport.
Prime Example:
Yesterday at the Austin Airport, my friend Wanda and I were on the same set of flights back to LA. Wanda being Wanda had four carry-on items of various size (laptop, purse, organizer, a tube full of posters, and a backpack) and I had two (laptop and purse). Wanda tried to condense all the small items into her SXSW carry bag and I took her tube of posters.
As we approached security we were sent to separate lines, she was waved through with 3 items and I was stopped. The TSA person insisted that I could only carry-on 2 items, no matter what size. I called out to Wanda and tried to get her to come back and claim her tube of posters.
Rather than letting us check the tube of posters in at baggage, the security person insisted that I stuff the 4 foot long, 6 inch diamter tube into my laptop carry case. I said, “There is no room.” So the security person took my purse and stuffed it into Wanda’s carry all bag. And made us proceed…
Both of us were stunned. My purse was taken out of my hands and without my permission put into another person’s bag, friend or not, was this not a huge security risk? Why couldn’t we check the tube into baggage?
Asinine. Absurd. Where is Marcel DuChamp when we need him?
Don’t even get me started on the US Post Office. Time to move…