I don’t think the public would go bananas. I think the press would go bananas, and tell everybody to panic, and then they go bananas. Pants-wetting Republicans are like amplifiers for terror, and the New York Times is their eleven.
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My, what an ignorant jerk the TSA employee is. The Greyhound isn’t a valid alternative given that the DHS/TSA also has jurisdiction over planes trains and automobiles.
If the public went bananas over another 9/11, it would probably be because for the last 14 years we have been compelled to engage in pointless security theater that has accomplished precisely nothing, aside from inconveniencing and sometimes embarrassing the vast majority of airline customers.
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Nothing we have done with the TSA has made us safer EXCEPT for the locking of cock pit doors. The most prudent, logical, reasonable action would probably stop another 9/11 attack.
I argue we are less safe. If I had my pocket knife like I would have pre-9/11 I’d have something to fight with.
There will NEVER be another 9/11 style attack in the US. Why? Because on 9/11 everyone assumed it was a “regular” hijacking. The plane would be diverted somewhere, hostages taken, negotiations,etc. Most hijackings in the past resulted in most everyone living. Why play a hero if the thought is you can keep your head down and everything will work out.
Now with the idea that these people are going to crash the plane, you’re not going to get everyone to just sit in their seat and die. They will fight back, which is what happened with flight 97 when they figured out what was going to happen.
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I wish I could say this was surprising.
I offer the following story without any real ability to back it up, so take it for what it’s worth.
Back in 2007 or 2008 I wrote a blog post about TSA baggage handlers stealing stuff. I was actually threatened by a guy claiming to be a TSA agent/employee/mall-cop in the comments of that post. He went on and on about stopping “terrorists” and “plain splitter” bombs, then came back and said people like me should be put on the “no fly list”, and that I might get a “surprise” next time I was at a TSA checkpoint. The guy must have been really incensed because he made two different posts almost an hour apart. At first, I figured it was just a troll, the posts were in poor grammar, and used weird abbreviations/symbols like something a pre-teen would have in an SMS message cerca 1999. But when I looked at the comments originating IP address, it came from the Charlotte North Carolina Airport, so I guess it may have been an angry TSA employee (flaming me on taxpayer time no less).
I had not done much flying between 2002 and 2009, but when I did start traveling again, I realized that the average intelligence, competency, and social skills of the typical TSA goon is about on the level of a pre-teen cerca 1999, which only added to the bona-fides of my little TSA flamer.
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Charming.
I disagree with anonymizing the commenter. Allow him the opportunity to stand by his words. And spelling.
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It’s OK. As it’s facebook, and therefore foreign, The NSA has this chap’s name permanently on record.
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It’ s quite sad really. You guys had such a tremendous feeling of sympathy and goodwill directed towards you right after 2001-09-11. I know that was certainly true here in the UK. We had our three minutes of silence and all that - a small gesture, but meant. And then your politicians went and pissed it all away with their invasions and repressions.
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The general public, by itself, wouldn’t get too crazy. However, once the “news” agencies and political manipulators got going, then there’d be a firestorm.
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This. Exactly.
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I’m sure, once you get past the boarders, things are generally fine most places. My brother lives over there and seems to enjoy himself much of time.
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I want to point out that it took all of an hour for the US to solve 9/11. This is what pisses me off so badly. The solution wasn’t to cower and beg the government to strip us of basic constitutional protection or piss away trillions in defense spending. The solution was for people to beat the shit out of people trying to hijack planes. Bonus points for installing slightly meatier doors on airplanes to give the passengers more time to beat the shit out of hijackers. So, that is the solution. Not turning off immigration, not having the NSA see how far up they can crawl up everyone’s asshole, not having the TSA inspect everyone’s asshole, not arming yokel police with tanks, and not pissing away trillions of dollars in “defense”. The solution was to just show a little bravery; and a bunch of boring old Americans figured it out pretty much instantly.
What pisses me off so bad that it makes me see red is that after brave Americans solved 9/11, Bush instantly pissed himself in terror. A brave leader with a spine would have slammed his fist down and pledged not a single step back from liberty. If he had had a fraction of the bravery that gets people to attack armed hijackers, he would have told congress to shove the hilariously named and completely unpatriotic and unamerican PATRIOT act up their ass, vetoed it, and challenged the cowards to try overriding the veto. Instead, he got on his knees and groveled in terror. He happily pissed away freedoms that the US had held onto during the Cold War against a real existential threat. He babbled about defending our freedoms and then stripped us of freedoms that terrorist could never have dreamed of touching. To add insult to injury, after that groveling cowardly piece of shit Bush left, the next guy in line, Obama, turned out to have sloppy shit for a spine as well who accelerated our pathetic capitulation in the face of a threat that kills as many Americans as fucking bathtubs.
If you want to see what courage looks like, look to the likes of Edward Snowden who sacrificed his liberty so that we have at least a slim chance in hell of recapturing a fraction of what we lost. If you want to see groveling, spineless, worthless, piece of shit cowards, look to Bush, Obama, and the rest of the worthless politicians who shit themselves empty and surrender whatever liberties they have laying around every time “terrorism” is mentioned. May those cowards rot in hell.
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I get fairly good service from most places, but then again I expect only a certain level of service to begin with. I have family that works in a bank…and lets just say people (ie customers) can be complete asses sometimes, no matter how much you can and can’t do for them.
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I’d vote for that person. Sadly at this point I think it is anything from an easy sell. A candidate like that would get so much flax in the political arena now it would be a complete farce (on top of the farce it already is…)
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Yes, we yanks call it “foreign policy” these days. We’ve become quite expert at making sure our allies and friends roll their eyes and hold their noses when working with us.
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The sad part is that a spelling mistake like this probably WOULD allow people to bypass some of the TSA’s systems…
Has this public servant read the Declaration of Independence that in it’s second paragraph says ‘That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted’ ?
[quote=“bcsizemo, post:33, topic:37374”][quote=“nungesser, post:27, topic:37374”]
everyone who works for the TSA fully knows that they are actively loathed by everyone in the airport every moment of their workday
[/quote]
So basically like everyone that works for a major bank, internet/TV provider, or major cell phone carrier. No wonder antidepressants are in high use.
[/quote]
But Milton, Ayn, Maggie and Ronnie said it would be paradise. Give it another thirty years for the plan to work.
Coming soon, The War Against Bathtubs.
If somebody famous dies in one, that is…
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Because that would make it easier to attack the messenger and not the message. As someone said upthread - it’s easier to assume that any/all TSA employees all feel the same.
