TSA adventures

The Brat flew to Chicago to meet some college friends and go to some Giants games. Games were rained out. Her wallet was stolen. On the way to the police station to file a report (required by the airline to get let on the plane without ID) she saw a car hit a pedestrian. She finally got to the airport and her flight was canceled. For her to stay at the airport Raddison overnight, I had to fill out and email forms, photos of my credit card, and a photo of my drivers license.

But the worst part was TSA. They pulled her into an interrogation room and grilled her for a half hour. All about her life, like where she went to grammar school, where she worked, all that. Name three parks near your house. Then they looked me up and discovered that I has some security clearances. The agencies that got the clearances had, among other things, interviewed my neighbors. So they asked her about those neighbors. Those clearances themselves were supposed to be super-secret, even from her, and here we have unionized ex-security guard goons accessing all this stuff online and telling people about it, where I swore on penalty of treason or whatever that *nobody* would know. That sort of thing gets people killed.

The "S" in TSA is for Security. If The Brat was unarmed and not carrying anything dangerous to the flight, that's all they should check. Buncha KGB goons.

John

Reply to
John Larkin
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No argument. But it's never going to get better. "Security" like that is modeled as a ratchet mechanism: more can be added but nothing can ever be removed. Otherwise, when X happens, whoever or whichever agency authorized backing off from "screening" procedure Y will be the ones "at fault," regardless of whether procedure Y would have had any impact.

Nowadays if I can't drive there, I don't go.

--
Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

We're presently planning our trip to Boston for my 50th MIT Reunion in June, 2012.

Since we want to make this into a multi-week vacation, we've decided to drive. We can carry all the clothes we want, and a corkscrew ;-) And TSA and the airlines can go suck on a lemon ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
               Romneycare is nothing like Obamacare
           Except for those parts which are the same ;-)
Reply to
Jim Thompson

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

You should take a laptop and post pictures and a blog while you go -- after all, otherwise some of us here would miss your daily posts... :-)

Reply to
Joel Koltner

Sucks. A few years ago some friends went downtown in Chicago to catch some authentic jazz.. got an introduction to the area from some gentlemen carrying pointy objects and left somewhat lighter. At least nobody got hurt.

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Sure you would :-) But I'll likely take a laptop along. Being away from SED is like getting a divorce ;-)

Back on topic... I'm really concerned that TSA had security clearance information. If TSA asked me anything like that I'd ask for an FBI agent... NOW!

I'd advise Larkin to tell his tale to the media... except he lives in fairyland where they like to expose security information :-( ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
               Romneycare is nothing like Obamacare
           Except for those parts which are the same ;-)
Reply to
Jim Thompson

I'd like to be pessimistic too but I actually know that in other instances the ratchet can be reversed, and unnecessary crap that is actually counterproductive can be removed.

See e.g. EEUMA 191 "Alarm Systems A Guide to Design, Management, and Procurement".

Now that doesn't mean that reversing the ratchet is easy and perhaps the TSA is so "accustomed to the task" of only ratching things in the wrong direction that they can never be shaken out of it.

Tim.

Reply to
Tim Shoppa

We had a constitution once that emphasized the individual over the state.

The founding fathers learned that government of any kind is not to be trusted.

Unfortunately they did not foresee the scale of government and bureaucracy that we have now.

Gradual socialists have encouraged this mission creep. The coat of arms for the Fabians is a coat of arms depicting a wolf in sheeps clothing.

Communists within the USA have actually gone on record as intending to destroy our economy through loading it with massive social services that are so difficult to say no to in a democracy.

These types of left wing groups actually WANT the USA to collapse and expect the masses to turn to Socialism for salvation without realizing that Socialists got us INTO this mess on purpose.

The Socialist Police State has people probing our underwear yet leaving the southern border open and rather than securing the border they post signs warning of the danger posed by the crime wave flowing across the border.

Reply to
Greegor

She swears she'll never go to Chicago again. In fact, she swears she'll never leave home again!

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Haha.... see what happens when you try to leave Israel.....

Reply to
TTman

Well, they wanted "authentic".

Reply to
Richard Henry

The only things airline security people should check out is whether we are physical threats to airline safety. A simple metal detector scan or search should accomplish that.

We have literally spent about a trillion dollars on security and wars since 9/11. Not to mention enormous wastes of time, and a TSA that apparently has no limits on what their employees can do.

The bad guys *have* won.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Aw, that's nothing. Try losing your passport in Egypt.

(I don't mean to make light of your daughter's situation. Plus, I agree TSA is a total waste of time and taxpayer dollars!) TOTAL WASTE.

-mpm

Reply to
mpm

In Houston I saw a rather, um, large lady getting a full body massage from our vaunted T-ouchers of S-ensitive A-reas as she protested "I've got two artificial hips."

The good news is that'll soon get better--Obamacare will put her medical records online. Then TSA can just Google it to verify she's not a bomb.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Reply to
dagmargoodboat

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They have, and they've thrilled the providers of U-seless S- ervices(tm), a brand of big government.

Q: How do you turn $2 into -$2T? A: With boxcutters.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Reply to
dagmargoodboat

it's big business, i'm sure the guys who build smart bombs, drones, metal detectors, body scanners, bomb sniffers etc. have a great business right now

+30000 die in traffic accidents a year in the US, 10000? get's shoot and killed

-Lasse

Reply to
langwadt

And of course, you can't treat some swarthy, hairy, smelly, broken-English- speaking, nervous guy like that, because that'd be "racial profiling."

Dawg Save America!

Thanks, Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Big Brother is watching your underpants!

Thanks, Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Maybe this is the tipping point and the 21st really Is the Rapture!

At least it's on a Saturday. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

We're driving to VT in a month to spend a week with the brat and his wife, for our 40th anniversary. Fly? Not likely.

Reply to
krw

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