Comments on: Better Felt Up Than Blown Up

By: Pablo Schwartz

Pablo Schwartz — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:55:34 +0000

eh, do i come here to hear about eating p-rk, Mr Rifle?

.. anyhow, hearing about this TSA situation takes us back to a problem America’s celebrated “founding fathers” never foresaw. in short, THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. oh, if we only had some impregnable barrier between *industry* and State. case in point: one of the .. side-effects of the 9/11 attacks was the rapid, rapid growth of the Security Industry, mainly around the DC metro area. and as we Americans have learned, the instant an industry grows large enough, they wind up editing – if not writing – the legislation our elected officials sign off on. so there is one company who came up with these fancy X-ray machines (no doubt as safe as your average artificial sweetener or bovine growth hormones), they made some vast investment in research and manufacture and, by hook or by crook, they are coming to an Airport near you. but not *everyone* will be subjected to this sort of thing. if you fly private, you’ll be passing through an FBO. a person behind a desk will confirm that you have some business there and buzz you through the door. *presto*, you’re on the ramp. an entire class of people – including many politicians – will, quite literally, not be touched ..

meanwhile: http://pics.livejournal.com/springheel_jack/pic/002z1kdy

By: long_rifle

long_rifle — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:02:07 +0000

All the TSA does is do a “show” for the sheep. If a bomber wants explosives on a plane he sticks them up his butt. They can scan him all they want, they can pat him down as well. But neither would do anything to find it. Then on the plane he goes to the bathroom, squats down and dumps it on the floor. Then he does whatever they do with a bomb.

The scanners are just there for show. Every time w beef up security the Muslims go the next step. Honestly, making EVERY Muslim that wants to board a plane eat pork would stop the suicide bombers as then they won’t get their 70 male virgins in heaven…

By: michael

michael — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 02:26:21 +0000

An option becomes SOP very quickly and we continue to loose freedoms and rights in the name of safety and security. Besides, there is some indication that the companies have been lobbying for the scanners for quite some time. It is about opportunity not safety.

By: Rabbi Kaufman

Rabbi Kaufman — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:25:39 +0000

We need competent profiling and good scanners, not searches. My point is that there may be an IMMEDIATE threat which would mean that something needs to be done NOW. Training and scanners would not be immediate options. Clearly they are vastly superior ones and anyone, including even TSA understands that. This indicates to me that they must be responding to an IMMEDIATE threat rather than a long term concern. The report today of threats against planes in Germany may be indicative of this immediate threat. Remember also that last year, we had the Christmas Day bomber who only failed because he was incompetent and there were capable and aware passengers near him on the plane. We were LUCKY then. Nothing has changed in the interim to prevent another similar attack carried out by a more competent attacker. NOTHING. AND the threat has increased. Using profiling and facial recognition software analyzing responses to a set of questions will be the future, but we aren’t there NOW. NOW is the concern.

By: Rahel

Rahel — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 09:13:21 +0000

On my first trip to Israel back in 1983, we had a brief layover in Amsterdam. I only went out into the airport, and on my way back to the plane, I had to go through security. At one point, a woman officer who was probably not much older than I was at the time took me to a booth and patted me down. (I don’t remember whether the booth had a curtain at the entrance or not.) She did it quickly and professionally and I didn’t feel compromised or attacked. I understood the necessity, and stood quietly and let her do her job. It was over in seconds and I was free to go. I think that every passenger on the plane was frisked similarly, the men by men officers and the women by women officers.

By: michael

michael — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 05:44:59 +0000

Don’t buy it for a minute. Sorry. Most often the threats materialize outside the US. Concentrate our efforts there. We are not criminals and at some point the intrusion becomes part of the landscape. Once our freedoms are gone we are but cattle. (BTW – been to Israel and the security is extensive throughout the country). This is so like the beginnings of total state control that it is sad to see America fading away with hardly a whimper. Indeed, the terrorists have won.