Back in 1980, Charlie Daniels sang "just go and lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, and I think you're gonna finally understand" as an expression of righteous American anger.
Nowadays you can't even get your Terrible Towel into Heinz Field without getting groped like a drunken prom date by some low-rent mall cop with a metal detector.
From the same era, here's how American theatergoers were treated to a glimpse of the indignities of Soviet society in the 1982 Clint Eastwood Cold War era thriller, Firefox:
The TSA agents from my flight experience at Indianapolis International last year would snicker behind their hands at such light-handed, un-intrusive decorum, and I'm given to understand that Indy's new airport is actually one of the better ones in this department.
If you are old enough to remember air travel pre-9/11 and could watch that scene without throwing up a little in your mouth, I'm not sure we're even speaking the same language. I mean, look at Clint's character in Sheremetyevo Airport in 1982, bowing up with indignation at being treated in such a fashion! At O'Hare or LaGuardia of 2011, his fellow Americans behind him in the queue would tell him to shut up and stop being such a big baby because he's holding up the line.
Oh, and as an added bonus, the TSA seems bound and determined to make every form of travel as safe and hassle-free as they've made air travel.
Rope.
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22 comments:
The first thing you need to do is hound out of office the state level retards who are enabling this.
Note that they have state cops along with them to do the actual vehicle stops. The TSA does not have the power to do this, but state cops can make the initial stop.
Trebuchets.
Rope? Trebuchets? You're thinking small.
Killdozer.
And Romney just came out in support of national biometric ID cards.
Can you imagine if these buffoons get a national database of tissue samples and ID?
You'll have to piss in a cup or give a blood sample in addition to the Blue Hand of Doom in order to go about your business.
I don't know what the fix for this problem is. When discussing this amongst "normal" people, I still hear a lot of "But at least we are safe". What you and I see as an atrocious disregard for 4th ammendment rights, the average Joe just thinks "well I don't really fly all that often" and forgets about it. That pretty much rules out a voting solution because those assholes vote.
The crap at the airports just got the TSA's foot in the door. Now they are trying to take over bus stations and stopping cars to search. Once the populace is used to that, what is next?
I got a discussion about this with a Liberal that I work with. I maintained that Obama is to blame in that he's in charge and could put an end to this kind of intrusion (regardless of the fact that it all started under that idiot Bush). He went back and forth between "it's not a big deal" and "Obama isn't the one doing it/can't do anything about it".
I'm afraid that eventually this will requre a shooting solution. That will be a sad day for our country.
s
You remind me of a good story I might blog about next week involving flying on airlines and stupid rules of the TSA.
I flew for business in the weeks after 9-11 and the rent-a-cop knew that he had to get my explicit permission in order to search my carry on satchel. After he asked, he even paused to wait carefully for my answer. Without my permission, such searches are illegal in America.
Now that the TSA wants to perform its theater in the malls, ask yourself now what you reaction will be then when they stick their hands of blue down your daughters pants and refuse to let you leave unless you consent to it.
The French popularized the best tool for what we need.
We need to get that started.
freedom 4 safety = neither.
I'm reminded of that scene every time I read about another way the TSA is turning into big brother. This is why I was against the federalizing of airport security from the beginning. Not that anybody listens to me. Piss on 'em all.
jf
KilldozerKilldozer
On I-20 yesterday, I saw a flat bed hauling one of the Army armored bulldozers.
Want. Especially for this.
I once suggested mailing congresscritters a box containing a nice, smooth piece of wood, a bundle of feathers and a piece of tar.
Then I considered "What if, when some bunch of CCs are speechifying, they had a roofing trailer and a bunch of pillows stacked upwind of them?"
And the first time some clown in a Official Federal Molester uniform wants to search me in a mall or driving down the road, I'll probably be needing a defense fund myself.
Wait until they decide to start making the 'Information Superhighway' safe for democracy.
WV: purea
New product to clean pee dribbles from TSA gloves. Comes in a convenient EZ spout dispenser.
Like scene in "Dogs of War" (Chris Walken) shows what has long been the status quo in less developed regions. Where the blogosphere has as much influence as it deserves
I have known more than one very experienced traveler to state that the TSA and now, US Customs, are collectively have an attitude more in tune with the customs guys at the Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow during the days of the USSR.
"But we're keeping you safe", bleats DHS/TSA.
Tree.
What was it Claire Wolfe used to say?
Just remember the axiom attributed to Sun Tzu:
"You must win before you fight."
Not enough people are genuinely P.O.'d enough yet to win.
cap'n chumbucket
Pre 9/11? Hell, I remember air travel from the 70's. Even in the mid 80's, I was boarding planes with a big technician's tool kit, containing, among other things, a hacksaw and razor knife, with replacement blades. And of course, my Leatherman and SWAK.
I won't fly now. Too much risk of imprisonment. I think Sun Tzu also said something about choosing your battles wisely.
How long until you get the guard towers along the highways? Where the personnel will keep watch that every car which passes gets noted in the next tower - or they will start searching for you...
I was fifteen when we visited Soviet Union during the 70's, and that is what I was told about the guard points we saw along the roads. If true, of course it's quite likely, with the communist mentality, that half the time the men inside were playing cards and not counting cars.
I have to say, though, that the stories you are telling are starting to sound more and more like what I remember experiencing during that particular car trip. I haven't flown or traveled much during the last decade, and I'm getting rather scared of doing it now. I hate the thought of being treated as a serf and at the mercy of some bored guard with delusions of grandeur.
Do TSA personnel get the same treatment when they travel, or is their work a guarantee of privileged treatment?
Ya know...
There are lots of folks who work for the EPA and the IRS that are that are just tickled pink that the TSA is out in front to take a beating from the public. Now they can sleep well knowing that they don't work for the most-hated Federal agency.
some assembly required ...
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