Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 167 posts

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#91

Post by athenot »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #79
ivraatiems wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you 100% on security theater, but you have to be careful with "intelligent profiling." Remember that if it involves singling somebody out by race, gender, religion, etc., it's almost certainly unconstitutional in the US.

by intelligent profiling, I mean more the way the Israelis do it: psychological profiling, looking for telltale signs of nervousness/guilt etc., ranking people by profession/origin/appearance, and randomly singling people out for more extensive scrutiny (but not so random as to nab the 80-year-old grandmother in a wheelchair).

But that kind of profiling involves human judgement in a qualitative way, which is not very popular in the US.

Instead, we prefer to use metrics, which we can mesure, aggregate and compile in neat reports. But metrics are a projection of a multidimensional situation onto a few dimensions, and hoping we picked the correct projection.

I'm all for collecting stats but I wish that was just a tool used in addition to a broader qualitative approach.

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#92

Post by btilly »

Can we just get rid of the TSA?

Current estimates are that hundreds of people die each year in car accidents because they chose to drive rather than deal with TSA lines. This means that every few years the TSA manages to inflict more casualties than 9/11 did. In addition to inconvenience, economic inefficiency, and a demonstrably ineffective screening process that weapons can easily get through. (As many have shown.)

Security theater is a dangerously bad idea no matter how you look at it. Can we do something saner?

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#93

Post by ancap »

rdtsc wrote: post #73
ianhawes wrote: post #34

One of the most irritating aspects of the TSA inefficiencies is that they know the demand at each airport in advance. Because all airlines submit passenger information to the TSA as its booked (often months or weeks in advance), the TSA can shift resources. While I'm all for blaming the TSA, the head of the TSA's union was on NPR this morning and pointed out that Congress diverted funds collected from the "9/11 Tax"…

> Congress diverted funds collected from the "9/11 Tax" (per-ticket fixed fee used to fund TSA) to other parts of the government budget. The union is requesting emergency funding for 8,000 additional TSOs, which would only bring it back to 2011 staffing levels. There is a good chance they are deliberately trying to cause long delays so media will get outraged, and then they can say "it is because of not enough fundin…

This is called the Washington Monument Syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument_Syndrome

It is a common tactic governments employ to spur the people to accepting higher taxes.

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#94

Post by ancap »

dragonwriter wrote: post #72
knowtheory wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not lip service. The budget sequestration deal in 2011 resulted in 10% across the board cuts in 2013: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_budget_sequestra... Likewise, if you look at how Congressional Republicans responded to the Obama Administration's request for funding for Zika research you'll see the same thing. The answer was both "no" and "why don't you divert research funds from Ebola to Zi…

Those weren't neocons driving those cuts (neocons position in the Republican Party -- and thus national politics -- peaked under Bush and rapidly receded after he left office.)

One point of correction is that neocons are in both major US political parties and are know chiefly by their [chicken-]hawk-ish foreign policy.

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#95

Post by exacube »

btilly wrote: post #92

Can we just get rid of the TSA? Current estimates are that hundreds of people die each year in car accidents because they chose to drive rather than deal with TSA lines. This means that every few years the TSA manages to inflict more casualties than 9/11 did. In addition to inconvenience, economic inefficiency, and a demonstrably ineffective screening process that weapons can easily get through. (As many have shown.)…

how do they estimate this stuff?

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#96

Post by ThomPete »

exacube wrote: post #95
btilly wrote: post #92

Can we just get rid of the TSA? Current estimates are that hundreds of people die each year in car accidents because they chose to drive rather than deal with TSA lines. This means that every few years the TSA manages to inflict more casualties than 9/11 did. In addition to inconvenience, economic inefficiency, and a demonstrably ineffective screening process that weapons can easily get through. (As many have shown.)…

how do they estimate this stuff?

Post/pre 9-11 I think

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#97

Post by KKKKkkkk1 »

chrisper wrote: post #68
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #38

I've been to the DMV yesterday. You wait in line for 40 minutes in the sun just to get a number and then wait some more. Once you get a number, you're counted in the official wait time statistics published on their website, so the extra 40 minutes are shaved off for free. Who ever though it was going to be different when the TSA was created?

In CA you can make an appointment. I made one and was in and out in 20 minutes.

But appointments are available only two weeks from now. Sometimes people have urgent issues that they cannot prepare for two weeks ahead. And even if it's their own fault, why should they be punished for it?

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#98

Post by greeneggs »

ttraub wrote: post #45
mindcrime wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think we should replace/get rid of the TSA, but the neo-conservative method of government excision where you cut off the cash flow and wait for everyone to get pissed off ("starve the beast") is incredibly unpopular. I'm not sure that's even in play here. Neo-conservatives talk about "small government" but it's mostly lip service, especially when it comes to anything related to the military/industrial/espionage/…

Here's what the Tea party website has to say: http://teaparty.org/tsa-misconduct-highest-levels-160893/ There are many other articles on conservative channels ripping the TSA as a big government boondoggle.

Note that teaparty.org is definitely not "the Tea Party website." It is just one of many Tea Party organizations, and not a major one. The Tea Party is a decentralized movement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement#Composition

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#99

Post by ivraatiems »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #79
ivraatiems wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you 100% on security theater, but you have to be careful with "intelligent profiling." Remember that if it involves singling somebody out by race, gender, religion, etc., it's almost certainly unconstitutional in the US.

by intelligent profiling, I mean more the way the Israelis do it: psychological profiling, looking for telltale signs of nervousness/guilt etc., ranking people by profession/origin/appearance, and randomly singling people out for more extensive scrutiny (but not so random as to nab the 80-year-old grandmother in a wheelchair).

> ranking people by profession/origin/appearance

So a white computer programmer from Seattle might be "safer" than a brown janitor from Dearborn?

And right there is your discrimination lawsuit. No government agency wants to expose themselves to that kind of challenge, even if they might win.

Re: TSA's Head of Security 'Removed' from Office

#100

Post by btilly »

exacube wrote: post #95
btilly wrote: post #92

Can we just get rid of the TSA? Current estimates are that hundreds of people die each year in car accidents because they chose to drive rather than deal with TSA lines. This means that every few years the TSA manages to inflict more casualties than 9/11 did. In addition to inconvenience, economic inefficiency, and a demonstrably ineffective screening process that weapons can easily get through. (As many have shown.)…

how do they estimate this stuff?

You estimate from survey data how many more people are taking several hundred mile road trips instead of flying, then apply known traffic fatality statistics how many wound up dead from that decision.

See https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/excess_automo... for a reference.

Post reply on HN