Comments on: (in)security theatre

By: Sail Boffin

Sail Boffin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:26:17 +0000

Looks like the Obama radical socialist, tax-evading, welfare, nanny state is finally showing it’s true colors…

Don’t blame me, I voted for the other guy! Let’s elect Ron Paul in 2012

By: KB

KB — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:47:12 +0000

Bruce Schneier has a couple of good blogs/interviews on this. Stronger cockpit doors and passengers who actively intervene when they see something wrong are the best in flight counters to terrorism.

By: courtney trouble

courtney trouble — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:46:45 +0000

that is the most beautiful and telling photo i have seen regarding this subject. it immediatly drew me in, sleepy sleepy violet and dotben, completely drained by travel and confusion. i am glad you made it home safe. im scared to fly now, and not because of terrorists. because of tsaists.

By: Mojo

Mojo — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:10:47 +0000

I flew today from Detroit (where the underpants bomber was caught) to San Francisco (I’m too jetlagged to make a good underpants joke here, so just pretend I did and it was awesome). Aside from inexplicably long lines at security in Detroit, we had no unusual security measures on our flights. Nothing obtrusive or weird at all. I was honestly shocked. I was all prepared to hide electronics or paperback novels during the last hour of the flight, but they couldn’t care less.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:16:27 +0000

I sure miss the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments. But I’ll bet those bloggers miss them even more. (freedom of speech; secure against unreasonable searches and seizures; nor be deprived of property without due process of law)

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:17:04 +0000

TSA imposed a lot of insane security measure after 9/11. Most of them would not have stopped the terrorists of Al Qaeda. Now we are repeatedly seeing that these measures are still not preventing terrorist acts. Even the lame ones. So why continue to impose these annoyances ? Because they feel that it shows us travellers that the flights are now safe… Yeah right.

Making the honest citizens afraid of taking the plane because of the authorities… that’s playing the terrorists’ game. Terror does not come from the terrorist but from TSA.

My conclusion: if you’re a US citizen, don’t travel. If you’re an European citizen, don’t fly to the US at least for a few months.

By: WHassinger

WHassinger — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:09:26 +0000

I want to point out first off, that this is a terrible situation and really does need to be fixed. I feel for you and everyone else being hit by this. Bloggers, fliers, whatever.

That said, how do we keep the people in planes safe while at the same time not cross into coo-coo land? Something clearly does need to be done, since we do have people doing bad things on planes, but there’s no way the TSA is doing the right thing. I want to know who is doing something about this nonsense.

I wonder, maybe the bloggers who were subpoenaed will actually be able to help bring about change via the courts? I wonder if that might have been part of the reason it happened…

By: qotfw

qotfw — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:45:52 +0000

I remember security at Athens airport once. I actually asked to be patted down again. The female agent was smokin’ hot.

By: qotfw

qotfw — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:42:39 +0000

All airplane passengers should be gagged, handcuffed, diapered…hmmm, maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Can I have a young redheaded flight attendant at least if I’m going to be put through all this torture?

By: sedge

sedge — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:03:05 +0000

Thanks very much for this post. Everyone should be aware of how absurd and dehumanizing these restrictions are– not to mention how ineffective they are at combatting actual terrorism.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:52:38 +0000

TSA is ridiculous and we ought to hold leaders in Congress and the President accountable for fixing this mess, most likely by dismantling it outright. Terrorists can target any public venue they want and we’re wasting precious human time/energy.

If you start with the number of people flying from this great chart (http://gizmodo.com/5435954/the-true-odds-of-airborne-terror-chart), and figure each of them loses an hour of their life coming to the airport early for screening–you end up with 7 billion hours. That’s an entire lifetime * 9,988 people. So about 10,000 human lives wasted sitting in an airport line being harrassed. And for what!!! So some idiot can bypass the whole thing and still attempt to kill 100+ innocent people.

By: Russell Nelson

Russell Nelson — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:45:23 +0000

So … what’s to be done about this? I think it’s time to stand up to the terrorists and say “NO, YOU DON’T SCARE US.” Abolish the TSA! Every time they crank their searching higher, what happens? We get another scare. This is a game we can’t win. The only way to win is not to play. Disband the TSA! Call your federal legislators. Call the White House. Don’t stop until the TSA is dead and buried.

By: ScytheNoire

ScytheNoire — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:50:12 +0000

The TSA have become the real terrorists. They are causing fear, uncertainty and doubt. They are terrorizing people. They are letting those who would want to destroy our way of life win, because they are doing the work for them. This stuff needs to stop. Our world is going to hell all because of fear. They really need to listen to Yoda, fear leads to the Dark Side.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:34:45 +0000

Scared to comment. Scared to fly. Only the honest citizens are scared.