Being felt up at the airport

[guywithashovel]

Tomorrow, I will be flying from Ohio to Vancouver, Washington. I guess I have some fun stuff to look forward to. I'll keep you guys posted of anything that happens.

[Dreamstalker]

http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/tsnm/g...ng_events.shtm

All that covers is flight zone restrictions. They're just making sure that no-fly regs are heeded.

As far as behavior observation (are there actually TSA uniforms present?)...I covered that in an older post. No way can that work in real life, too many false positives.

[protege]

Yep, you'll get patted down at many sporting events now, especially at the larger stadiums.

But, I'd like to know one thing--why is it that you get felt up at the airport...while security at train stations is a bit Spartan in comparison? I mean, I can walk into any train station in the country, and not only get onto the platforms, but in some cases...onto the trains as well. All of that, without a ticket, or going through any sort of security at all! Have there been any instances of terrorism against the rails? Very few, if any.

[Andara Bledin]

But, I'd like to know one thing--why is it that you get felt up at the airport...while security at train stations is a bit Spartan in comparison?

Oh, that's easy. We haven't had a big disaster dealing with a train to make it so that putting in all these draconian procedures would make it look like the politicos were "doing something" to make us safer.

It's just a massive dog and pony show.

^-.-^

[ditchdj]

Oh, that's easy. We haven't had a big disaster dealing with a train to make it so that putting in all these draconian procedures would make it look like the politicos were "doing something" to make us safer.

It's just a massive dog and pony show.

^-.-^

And some think that the government may very well allow an attack like this to happen so that they would have an excuse to do this. In fact, I wonder if that was the case with 9/11. Personally, I just found it very odd that, with all these departments piled upon departments of the federal government that's supposed to look out for this kind of stuff, that these terrorists pulled off 9/11 like they did. It happened all morning, the feds are completely clueless running around like a bunch of bumbling idiots, and now we're gonna give up all our freedoms and trust and put it in their hands and just walk away.

Yet, when the government talks about making health care affordable people just go berzerk.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Well, there was 7/7... but I guess to the US government it only counts if it's in America. XD

[Andara Bledin]

Well, there was 7/7... but I guess to the US government it only counts if it's in America. XD

If the bulk of Americans don't know about it, they don't care because it won't make them look good to guard against something that hasn't happened here.

Because, in aggregate, people are stupid.

^-.-^

[crashhelmet]

7/7 was the bombing in Madrid, right? There was also the Sarin Gas attack in the Tokyo subway system 1995. If I remember right, they hit 5 different locations at the same time. Terrorists could easily hit the New York City subway system the same way these groups did.

I constantly worry about living here in Las Vegas. All it would take would be a group of suicide bombers to go into each of the casinos or someone to setup something similar to the OKC bombing in their parking garages. There would be countless lives lost and this city would NEVER recover. Hell, the state itself would never recover.

[draco664]

7/7 was the bombing in Madrid, right?

Nope, London.

My wife was on a tube train behind the explosion. She got out an emergency exit and onto a bus to get to work, and ended up on the bus in front of the one that exploded. A freaky day.

[crashhelmet]

My bad. So there was Madrid, Tokyo, AND London. Three different rail systems hit with terrorist attacks.

Further Google-Fu finds attacks in Moscow, Russia and a thwarted plan to strike Washington D.C.

And yet we still molest our air passengers and let the railways go untouched.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Nope, London.

My wife was on a tube train behind the explosion. She got out an emergency exit and onto a bus to get to work, and ended up on the bus in front of the one that exploded. A freaky day.

Sure was. I spent a lot of time that day freaking out and calling my fiance, brother and dad who were working in London at the time, just to make sure that they were alright. Luckily for me, they were all fine but an old friend from primary wasn't so lucky.

However, just a couple of days after that, my fiance and I travelled up to London. We went on the train and the tube, cuz we were damned if we were going to let a bunch of terrorists dictate to us and ruin the day we'd planned for months.

[ditchdj]

Well keeping that in mind as well, there's no doubt there's a need for security. But my main issue with it is that where does it stop???? Too much of ANYTHING, good or bad, is NOT good, period! Is turning the entire country into a fenced-in, East-Berlin-like police state the answer???? I tend to think not. Despite all that's happened I still stand by the belief that the ONLY time you should be searched is, like Jesse Ventura said in the link I posted, is when there's probable cause to believe you have committed a crime and they have a warrant.

[Andara Bledin]

Nothing the terrorists have ever done has cooled me on traveling to the level and degree that the TSA's abuses have.

^-.-^

[crashhelmet]

Nothing the terrorists have ever done has cooled me on traveling to the level and degree that the TSA's abuses have.

^-.-^

QFT

Terrorism isn't killing the airline industry. The TSA is.

I pretty much drive everywhere I go now. Up until this point if I've had to fly, I've showed up to the airport wearing sandals, swim trunks, and a t-shirt. Even if it's winter time. I have no pockets and carry everything I need in a backpack. i used to travel with carry-ons and didn't check anything. Now I do. I take as little with me as I possibly can through that security checkpoint.

I'm curious to see how the screeners will react to the pins and plate I have in my body the first time I walk through one of those scanners.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm curious to see how the screeners will react to the pins and plate I have in my body the first time I walk through one of those scanners.

Not at all. The scanners are completely defeated by flesh and clothing. You could shove a submachine gun up your butt and get it on the plane, no problem.

^-.-^