No. If we don’t take our shoes off, how will we maintain our freedom?!?!
I don’t get it. This country gives me the right to bare arms and yet asks me to show me feet?
Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
51–60 of 144 posts
Re: Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
#52If you're ever wondering why something in the U.S. can't be made better, the answer is often that the existing rent-collectors must be allowed to continue collecting their rent at all costs. This is why we can't have the government file taxes on our behalf: because Intuit would no longer be collecting rent, and rent-collecting must be protected at all costs. This is why we can't have a single-payer healthcare system:…
question: is there another country now doing airport security better?
I did a bunch of international travel a few years ago and found the process to be fairly standard. Didn’t feel as if other countries are quite so obsessed with removing shoes, but they seemed a bit more obsessed with additional carryon screening.
Re: Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember flying pre-9/11. There was still a security checkpoint with metal detectors. It was run by the airport instead of the feds.
Even further back, before the hijacking spree of the 70s, when I was a kid I remember our local airport had no division between ground side and air side. You just got out of your car, walked to the gate, and they checked your boarding pass. This would be in the late 1970s, it was a remote city, so probably the transition to a "secure boarding area" was later than in the big cities.
Re: Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
If there were terrorists, they would just open fire on the crowded security checkpoints and kill hundreds of people without any complex scheme. This doesn't happen because there is no terrorist threat we need to be on guard against.
If it's so obvious, then why didn't this happen on 9/11? Edit: I'm aware that the TSA was created after 9/11. The point I'm making is that it's possible they were able to bring weapons aboard to hijack the planes because security was so lax.
Because a hour-long security line is something that happened after? IIRC there actually was a terrorist attack on a TSA line in the early 2000s.
Re: Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
#55I would love one presidential candidate to include this in their platform. I have yet to hear this (unless I just missed this person!). A massive overhaul & reduction in all of this security theater. NSA and others already do the heavy lifting of identifying people planning bad things. Can we just do a basic metal detector or something and call it a day?
Well one candidate has you covered. He wants to dismantle the DHS. Unfortunately his platform comes with a certain amount of other baggage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
Tangent: Is this something actually serious or is it more of saber-rattling manifesto because good lord it's terrifying.
Re: Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
#56Ronny Chieng's bit on The Daily Show was good. "So now it includes a Zoom meeting?"
Re: Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
#57I don't understand the hate for TSA. Sure, it can be better. But does anyone dare board a plane when none of the passengers have been screened?
If said plane is the only unscreened flight out of Tel-Aviv? Maybe I'd have some reservations. But if all flights were completely unscreened? It wouldn't change what or when I fly. I already board unscreened trains and busses quite often.
When trains or buses crash, the majority of the passengers survive in most cases.
When commercial airliners crash, usually everyone on board dies.
Re: Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
#58I don't understand the hate for TSA. Sure, it can be better. But does anyone dare board a plane when none of the passengers have been screened?
Oh please.
If you have money, you buy Pre+Clear+Global Entry. The "screening process" is nil (three simplistic questions for Global Entry).
That leaves the bag inspections - and I can tell you that at least for the Pre checkins, they're not exactly enforcing e.g. the weird liquid rules. (And there are plenty of articles showing they're not super-great at finding guns, easier)
And yet, it seems air traffic is mostly threatened by carriers & Boeing implementing cost savings to enrich execs.
Also, we did just fine pre-2001, and it's highly doubtful the TSA would've prevented 9/11. So, what exactly does it buy us, outside of an employment program that mostly enriches folks supplying TSA equipment?
Re: Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
#59Just stop with the stupid/useless take off your shoes, and take your laptops/ipads out of your bags, and I'm fine with the rest.
It seems most airports have stopped asking for devices and toiletries to be removed from your bag. That’s been a nice upgrade.
Re: Can We Just Throw in the Towel on Airport Security Theater Already?
#60I don't understand the hate for TSA. Sure, it can be better. But does anyone dare board a plane when none of the passengers have been screened?
yes, the way people dared to board planes pre-9/11, and the way people dare to board trains, buses, and ferries today.
You think people weren't screened pre 9/11? Are you under 24 years old by any chance?