The key to this issue is just where are the security measures taking place, in America. That’s right, in the land of the not so free, and the home of the not so brave.
Our founding fathers fought and died so they could give us the freedom and liberty that we are so afraid of enjoying. We fought wars so we would not have tyranny and the search checkpoints like the nations we waged war against. In the name of security, we’ve since given up our Liberty.
Today millions of Americans line up like sheep when we enter government buildings, airports, bus, train and even mass transit subways. We allow the unlawful invasion of our privacy, papers and body by the likes of rent-a-cops.
Instead of the courts protecting our freedoms the judges charged with that duty jumped on the bandwagon to engage in this vile practice themselves in their own courthouses.
The airlines and the FAA were and are a danger to Americans. They created unenforceable weapon free zones that facilitated the horrible events of 9/11. They disarmed the thousands of well trained, off duty local and state police officers that regularly fly in these planes. They will never be able to plug all the holes in the system to violent attacks and they know it.
Despite their crackdown on old ladies knitting needles and children we are no safer then we were before. Of course taxpayer’s money was thrown everywhere by our politicians making their incumbency a sure thing with the help of the new government contractor’s political contributions.
The government needed a fix for the airlines that were hemorrhaging passengers. Was that because passengers were afraid to fly for fear of terrorists? Was it because of people like me looking to avoid the degrading contact with low paid, poorly educated, arrogant, little airport Nazis?
The “fix’ was the TSA. That sounded impressive until you find out that the upper management is not made up of law enforcement professionals but by patronage hacks. You see the TSA is not even a law enforcement agency. These civilian hacks have a force of Federal Air Marshals under their supervision.
Instead of simply turning over the police work to cops, the very same bureaucrats that brought us to 9/11 created and are now in charge of the new, TSA.
To cover their ineptitude the TSA learned to classify otherwise public information to hide nearly all of their failings.
Let’s examine some jewels of the TSA. The, “no fly” list come to mind. That’s a database that contains names, lots of names. I guess these experts somehow believe that terrorists would always use their own names when making airline reservations. There is no major city in the United States where you can’t get convincing looking identification documents for a small price. If you have the know how of any college freshman you can even make your own
The low wattage, rent-a-cops or the airline employees screening passengers don’t even know what they’re looking at or looking for when they examine those ID’s that passengers flash.
As for improvised weapons TSA has not learned anything from our own jails and prisons. Without giving a primer on weapon making the average jailbird after he’s searched can quickly make weapons much deadlier that the box cutters used on 9/11.
The searching and bomb sniffing at our airports is nothing more than a lot of really expensive smoke and mirrors.
Instead of keeping weapons off planes they need to figure ways of getting more real trained cops on planes instead of the federal air marshals that lack street crime experience that real cops have. That means that they should encourage cops to fly armed.
Pilots are trusted with a multimillion-dollar aircraft and thousands of lives. We need to train and arm all of them. The pilots that don’t want to participate can go flip hamburgers somewhere.
Our founding fathers fought and died so they could give us the freedom and liberty that we are so afraid of enjoying. We fought wars so we would not have tyranny and the search checkpoints like the nations we waged war against. In the name of security, we’ve since given up our Liberty.
Today millions of Americans line up like sheep when we enter government buildings, airports, bus, train and even mass transit subways. We allow the unlawful invasion of our privacy, papers and body by the likes of rent-a-cops.
Instead of the courts protecting our freedoms the judges charged with that duty jumped on the bandwagon to engage in this vile practice themselves in their own courthouses.
The airlines and the FAA were and are a danger to Americans. They created unenforceable weapon free zones that facilitated the horrible events of 9/11. They disarmed the thousands of well trained, off duty local and state police officers that regularly fly in these planes. They will never be able to plug all the holes in the system to violent attacks and they know it.
Despite their crackdown on old ladies knitting needles and children we are no safer then we were before. Of course taxpayer’s money was thrown everywhere by our politicians making their incumbency a sure thing with the help of the new government contractor’s political contributions.
The government needed a fix for the airlines that were hemorrhaging passengers. Was that because passengers were afraid to fly for fear of terrorists? Was it because of people like me looking to avoid the degrading contact with low paid, poorly educated, arrogant, little airport Nazis?
The “fix’ was the TSA. That sounded impressive until you find out that the upper management is not made up of law enforcement professionals but by patronage hacks. You see the TSA is not even a law enforcement agency. These civilian hacks have a force of Federal Air Marshals under their supervision.
Instead of simply turning over the police work to cops, the very same bureaucrats that brought us to 9/11 created and are now in charge of the new, TSA.
To cover their ineptitude the TSA learned to classify otherwise public information to hide nearly all of their failings.
Let’s examine some jewels of the TSA. The, “no fly” list come to mind. That’s a database that contains names, lots of names. I guess these experts somehow believe that terrorists would always use their own names when making airline reservations. There is no major city in the United States where you can’t get convincing looking identification documents for a small price. If you have the know how of any college freshman you can even make your own
The low wattage, rent-a-cops or the airline employees screening passengers don’t even know what they’re looking at or looking for when they examine those ID’s that passengers flash.
As for improvised weapons TSA has not learned anything from our own jails and prisons. Without giving a primer on weapon making the average jailbird after he’s searched can quickly make weapons much deadlier that the box cutters used on 9/11.
The searching and bomb sniffing at our airports is nothing more than a lot of really expensive smoke and mirrors.
Instead of keeping weapons off planes they need to figure ways of getting more real trained cops on planes instead of the federal air marshals that lack street crime experience that real cops have. That means that they should encourage cops to fly armed.
Pilots are trusted with a multimillion-dollar aircraft and thousands of lives. We need to train and arm all of them. The pilots that don’t want to participate can go flip hamburgers somewhere.
We need to have the Supreme Court revisit the Fourth Amendment and give us back or right against these unlawful and unreasonable searches.
An update:
12/25/05
At appears that many rank and file TSA screeners have serious concerns about the management at the TSA. Some of them contribute to a web site which you will find here: Screeners Central http://www.tsa-screeners.com/
Comments
Experienced cops can spot bad guys without the need for all the rent-a-cop rigmarole the TSA now has in place and would certainly be more valuable than the marshalls now riding around in our airplains.
The people they use couldn't have much more training than r-a-c's have to pass the test for a "guard card".
In my post you probably read my mention of the Swiss Army knife I'd forgotten about that passed right through a bunch of airports in my computer bag, well when I arrived here in Charlotte I discovered that so had a cigarette lighter, LOL, which I found.
When I attended the ASIS conference in Orlando in September, we were talking about the TSA at a table I sat at during a networking luncheon.
I brought up the bit about not being able to carry a cigarette lighter in your pocket and got the whole table laughing when I announced, "I em Mohammed an' thees ees Rashid! We hev Zeepo! Nobody move! We are tekking thees airplen!"
The public is so brainwashed.
They are just not that smart!
Be fair. What could be more dangerous than an old lady with knitting needles? At any moment she could suddenly start knitting an Afghan (blanket)!
That's what the British do and they have had 40 years of terrorism. I also doubt the Israelis are much impressed with Shaneequa and her underpaid and under trained cohorts.