Randy Cassingham's Blog

Thank you so much for this! I'm SO tired of airport ZT (school ZT disgusts and worries me more, but since I've been out of school for awhile, airport ZT is more a part of my life). I no longer fly much, but until recently I had a job that involved a decent amount of traveling; I got so annoyed with the constant stream of new rules being put into place. The one that really got me was the whole banning of liquids on-board (I know they've relaxed this one now, but I flew once while they were still very uptight about it and wouldn't let you take ANY liquids on-board). The thing that got to me was that the person trying to use the liquid terrorist materials (forgive me my impreciseness; it's been awhile and I don't remember all the details) was CAUGHT using the procedures they ALREADY HAD IN PLACE. Yet because of that one person, the entire rest of the world was subjected to draconian new rules. It seems to me that this means that person WON. Sure, maybe they didn't manage to kill anyone, but they still managed to singlehandedly (or with just a few people; I no longer remember how many people were involved) control the flights of everyone else around the world (or close enough; I'm sure some airports don't follow the new rules). Not only that, but now the security workers have to waste their time confiscating deodorant and lotion, thus taking more of their time away from looking for REAL weapons. At least they've relaxed these rules a bit, but it's still a pain.

Furthermore, it doesn't make us any safer. Besides my point about how it takes up time and energy so that those who are trying to keep us safe are more thinly spread, there's also the fact that (as you pointed out here, Randy), there are plenty of other ways to get around the rules. The easiest has always seemed to me to be taking martial arts so that you yourself are a weapon. If you've studied some of those enough then you don't NEED nail clippers and bookmarks to overcome those around you; you can do it anyway. Now, I know that most people wouldn't want to put the time into learning a martial art just to hijack a plane. I also know that most martial arts schools (at least the good ones) put a lot of focus on discipline and good ethics, reminding you that using your skills for anything other than self-defense is NOT okay (and will probably get you kicked out of the school).

But still. Can we use some common sense here? I wish people would think about this, instead of getting scared and jumping on the bandwagon of, "We need more RULES, so it won't happen again!" No, we DON'T need more rules. We need to watch people carefully when they go through security, we need to pay good attention, but adding lots of rules won't help with that.

This reminds me of something my Aunt said to me once, "An educated fool, is still a fool."

The terrorists have WON!

The US traveling public is now under the thumb of a tinhorn gestapo that mindlessly makes travel a royal pain in the posterior!

And we, the taxpayers, get to pay for the largest bureaucracy ever conceived.

Boy oh boy, have the taliban scum ever won a great victory over us! They have us doing it to ourselves!!!!

The letter from Gary in Florida reminds me of the college educated and degreed TSA screener a friend encountered at JFK in NY last year. We were heading to the Caribbean to go sailing. The id screener was checking documents.

My friend's ticket had his first name as 'Bob'. His passport listed him as 'Robert'. I could not believe the following conversation.

Screener 'Who is Bob?'
My friend 'I am.'
Screener 'Than who is Robert?'
My friend 'It's me.'
Screener 'It can't be. You can not be both Bob and Robert.'
This went on for a couple of minutes. I and other passengers were snicerking, trying not to laugh out loud.

Finally, a supervisor can over to see what was holding up the line.

She allowed Bob/Robert to pass.

That day we all felt safer knowing that all the Bill/Williams and Jack/Johns had to get supervisor approval to fly.

Wait a second... isn't making new rules based on terrorist's actions uhhh... giving in to the terrorists?

I agree with this one hundred percent. A few years ago, I flew out to Texas with my family to visit my grandparents. Upon leaving the Austin airport, I had a "dangerous weapon" confiscated from my luggage and taken to be destroyed. The weapon was a small pair of sewing scissors that had fold-down handles. What REALLY upset me was that they confiscated my scissors while I was still on the other side of the metal detector, struggling out of my belt and combat boots so they didn't set off the alarm.

Two years ago, I flew to France on a school trip. On the way back, when I flew through Chicago-O'Hare, they confiscated parts of my sewing kit again. I think this time it was the needles. It should be noted that in the Norfolk airport--near one of the busiest naval bases in the US--I got BOTH of these things out of the airport without triggering an alarm. However, officials did get incredibly concerned over a long, straight, metal thing in my purse on top of my sewing kit. This long, straight, metal thing turned out to be a six-inch comb with plastic teeth.

Another friend of mine once shared a story of flying out somewhere with her family, two years after 9/11. Her father, an avid fisherman and a dentist, flew out a few days ahead because my friend and her sisters were still in school. His fishing tackle was in his carry-on luggage, including a knife and several hooks. He was practically arrested. When my friend and her family flew out to join him (once he was released), she had brought her homework with her to do on the plane. An official pulled her compass out of her binder, snapped the point off, and returned it to her. Uh...what was she supposed to DO with it? Half the point was the point.

Zero tolerance should not equal zero sense, but alas, this is the sad state of the US today.

There's a simple reason the TSA looks for weapons rather than terrorists. They're required to by bureaucrats who are afraid to offend people, and who as a result, in effect, direct their regulations toward inanimate objects instead. It is politically incorrect to look for terrorists (profiling), and political correctness is way more important to these people than keeping a plane from being blown up or hijacked. (The same attitude permeates our border security, as well. That's why they keep streaming in to the US, unabated.)

My last flight, out of the Nashville, TN airport in April, is instructive. I was carrying a few essential toiletries, because I distrust the airlines getting my checked baggage to me on time at the destination (I've been a victim before), and they confiscated a bottle of hydrogen peroxide I used for a mouth rinse. Don't know how I could take over or blow up a plane with hydrogen peroxide, but there you are. Like you said, losing the forest for the trees.

In the same run through security, they examined a sleep machine I carry with me (this due to the fact that the airline I was using, US Airways, now charges extra for all checked bags over one). After they did their test, instead of packing the machine back the way they found it, they left it for me to repack myself. So, there I was, half dressed, trying to put my belt and shoes back on as usual, and had to repack as well. This is just an example of the humiliation they are only too eager to put innocent flyers through, in order to avoid offending the guilty or potentially guilty. As a result, I have lost all respect for my government's efforts, such as they are, to keep me safe in the air.

The only way this changes is if everyone -- congresspeople, CEOs, EVERYONE -- is made to go through the same thing we common people are at airport security. I bet there would then be some changes in the system. Of course, these privileged few have their own lines and special treatments, so how would they have any idea of what goes on? To them, we undoubtedly sound like a bunch of whiners. So be it. To me, the current situation reflects negatively upon THEM just as much as it does TSA or the career bureaucrats pulling the strings on these PC policies and procedures.

My small son and I were traveling home to California from my parents' in Detroit, where my folks had given my son a squirter shaped like a giant snake. The water squirted out from the mouth. There was no problem with carrying it on in Detroit, but when we needed to go through security between terminals to get on our connecting flight home, they said it was "in the form of a gun" and wouldn't let my son carry it with us. First, I had brought it to the airport by air from another airport, and second, it was in no way "in the form of a gun," as it was clearly a giant, bright green, plastic water-squirting snake, but they insisted on checking it, to the very obvious distress of the small boy to whom it clearly belonged.

What hazard could this toy possibly have presented to the safe operation of a flight?

It is disgusting what the screeners put us through in the name of security.

Another incident: I took a friend to the tiny airport in Monterey, CA once. She was 67 or 68 at the time, using a support cane painted in the traditional blind cane pattern of white with a red tip. She had two total knee replacements, used two hearing aids, with which she still had very poor hearing, and was (duh!) pretty obviously blind. When we got to the gate, which had a plexiglass security enclosure around the metal detector and security screeners, we were told that not one of the people on duty there would give her an arm to hold to walk through the metal detector or to hold onto while they wanded her.

I am a quilter, so I had a pair of scissors in my purse. They tried to tell me that the elderly blind lady who needed a support cane to prevent her from falling would have to stand alone, without her cane, to be wanded. I stepped up and gave her my arm anyway. They told me I couldn't walk her the 8 or 9 steps (literally) to the ticket agent at the door (because I had scissors in my purse, and was not a ticketed passenger), that I couldn't leave the purse on the desk for the 8 or 9 steps to the door (while I was in full sight of the three security people and one ticket agent), and that none of them would give an arm to my blind friend. Was I supposed to give her directions? "A little more to the left--no go right, now straight."

I told them they could take the purse out and dispose of it, but I was walking her to the door. Of course, as soon as she walked out the door, someone was there to walk her across the tarmac to the steps and help her up the steps to the plane.

They did not decide to arrest me, but I was pretty steamed at the obvious stupidity.

Just last week I was pointed to a website (don't remember the URL) which documented the petty thievery that has gone on since TSA got into the business of inspecting bags. TSA blames the airlines, airlines blame the TSA, and passengers are left without recourse. It's not just jewelry and electronics, either: shoes, fancy underwear, anything the thief decides is of value.

"Correlation does not imply causality," and so it may be that TSA personnel are not the thieves, but if their insertion into the flow of baggage correlates with the increase in thievery, then something is definitely wrong with the way this country has implemented its security policies.

The same website provided eyewitness accounts of the pilfering that happens at the security checkpoints ("we'll need to run your bag through again"), and offers pointers on how to avoid being a victim of the pilfering -- but again, nobody in the TSA has ever been held accountable for the pilfering.

I suggest that the probability of falling victim to either of these forms of theft is several orders of magnitude higher than the probability of falling victim to an airborne terrorist ever was.

And I find it interesting that through the TSA, we are no longer victims of terrorists, but of petty thieves instead.

We need to distinguish between the scanners and the rules that they enforce. The latter are often plain stupid. But the former need not be.

I used to travel frequently to the US for business. It was astounding that every leg of every trip I was "randomly selected by the computer" for special searches. The searchers were typically cold and humorless.

I suspect that they behaved that way because they were ashamed to enforce to the letter some of the stupid rules.

I'm tempted to buy over-sized trousers the next time I have to fly to the US. See if they charge me for flashing when my trousers drop after having to take off my belt. ;-)