That’s the thing! I’m also wondering if the TSA screener wasn’t actually that stupid. Perhaps they were told that all state drivers’ licenses were valid forms of I.D., and to reject any others. In which case, they’d be doing their job but in a policy-wonk straight line fashion. The District of Columbia isn’t a state, it’s a district. In which case, if you have been hired to strictly follow the rules, the license is invalid.
So, they probably knew that DC is part of America, they were just following the instructions given them while not deviating from them an inch. Which might be worse, I dunno. Devil’s advocate, don’t look at me like that.
When’s the last time a skyscraper was brought down by one of these causes?
Perhaps, but that’s not the point I was addressing. And if we’re only looking at the top ten risks, then I presume we should not be looking at the long tail of government expenditures: the TSA doesn’t rank in the top ten in government expenditures, so presumably we should be looking elsewhere when complaining about costs.
I thought the same thing, but the article makes it clear that (according to the passenger) the TSA agent didn’t know where DC was or that it was in the USA.
I’m surprised we don’t hear more about people from Puerto Rico (let alone Guam or Saipan) having their government IDs rejected, and passports being demanded. It’s probably a combination of it happening but the media not caring and them being conditioned into carrying passports just to avoid the issue.
I’m not going to be the one to say that this comment isn’t much smarter than a TSA screener if you actually think that Congressmen/women carry DC licenses? Ok, I just said that.
I know people forget that all the politicians are sent from the states (they are not bred in some chamber underneath the capitol), people who live in states send them. But really, when elected to office in a state, you do not automatically get a DC residence and ID. You are just someone from a state, who happens to work in the District.
Last time I transferred in DC, the TSA guy said the scanner saw metal in my back pocket. He asked me if there was anything in my back pocket and I said no. Sent me through the scanner again, said it was still there, asked me again if there was anything in my back pocket, I checked and said no. I figured there was a wand headed toward my hindquarters, but instead, he swabbed my hands for nitrates and let me go.
The TSA fights terrorism with carefully targeted bursts of irrationality.
A proof that you can win by asymmetric means, using just minimum of resources both human and material, if you manage to elicit from the adversary what equals to an autoimmune reaction.
Edit: You even don’t have to be competent, as the Underwear Bomber proves.
Once when I flew, I presented my military id for identification purposes and was asked to show another one, because the screener hadn’t been trained to identify fake military ids. On the other hand, my sister used her tribal id for another screener and was allowed to pass. I don’t even know.
The economic, political, and military impacts of terrorism are huge – Middle East war since 9-11 that simply would not have happened seems evidence enough of that. Patriot Act. Guantanamo. Need I go on?
A better response to 9-11 would be a Manhattan Project scale of non-fossil energy R&D, financed with the money otherwise spent on war and “security”. Then give away the results worldwide. Voila, all the tinpot oil empires, from Saudi Arabia to Russia, go dry money-wise as the demand plummets.
No, instead we got Afghanistan and Iraq. Great. So great.
