Quote:
Originally Posted by mcsluggo
on the way HOME (we flew out of amsterdam on our way back) we were thoroughly frisked by three enthusiastic nineteen year old kristallnachters while 4 others stood around us with machine guns. Oh well. flying is testy stuff. I don't lose sleep over that.
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I've made multiple flights into and out of a s---hole African nation that was in the midst of civil of war. Yeah, it's testy stuff, I get that, but at no time during these trips into and out of a country that was quite literally at war did I have my crotch grabbed by a mouth breathing goon. I never saw little kids or old ladies getting sexually assaulted by low-rent government morons. Our government is going too far by insane lengths. The extent to which we put up with having our genitals fondled is a measure of how completely useless we are as human beings.
The insanity of all this is that the genital molestations wouldn't have stopped 9-11, the porno-scans probably wouldn't have identified the Panty-Bomber (the panty-bomber was carrying a very low density explosive. The porno-scanners, by design, look right through low density materials). We're submitting to federally sponsored sexual attacks without getting any benefit. It's insane.
The thing about the TSA and it's goonage.....it's all just
Security Theatre. It's all about providing the illusion of security while doing nothing substantial to improve the reality of security (see my earlier remarks RE the $11k fine, for example). This has been the case from it's inception and this is obvious upon a moment's reflection.
Take, for example, the much vaunted "No-Fly" list....Does anybody think this accomplished anything? The way it works is a person's name is checked against the N-F-L when they purchase the ticket, and their ID is checked against their boarding pass when they go through security....but the joke is, the ticket they use to get through security need not be the same ticket they purchase or use to board the plane...get it? You purchase a ticket with a stolen credit card and print the boarding pass before you go to the airport, you create a counterfeit boarding pass with your real name (or name as it matches your id) to show to the Walmart Greeter / ID checker, and you use the *real* boarding pass to board the plane. EZ PZ...
Does the TSA know how easy it is to skirt the no-fly list? Yes.
Does every terrorist on earth either know how easy it is to get around this or will they learn in about the first five minutes of planning an attack? Yes
Knowing that the no-fly list is easy to get around, has the TSA altered it's procedures or simply dropped the pretense? No.
We still dutifully show our IDs to the Walmart Greeter and he dutifully colors on the boarding pass, but this is theater, not a security measure. I can put up with theater when it involves humoring an otherwise useless old man at an airport security gate, but when it comes to the prospect of some goon fondling me, or watching goons fondle little kids, I gotta draw the line there.
It doesn't matter how much oversight you put on this...it's still just theater.