Lynn Swearingen (c) copyright 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I normally don’t read Time Magazine, but today this blog section caught my eye: Stay Classy, TSA.
When it was my turn, I politely said that I would like to opt out. “Seriously?” the first TSA worker asked me with a raised eyebrow. Yes, seriously.
He directed me through the nearby metal detector (the one that would have been good enough if I’d just chosen another line) and motioned for me to wait for a pat-down agent: “Female opt-out!” A female agent led me to a table where she set my bags and then skeptically asked if I knew what the pat down involved. Yes, indeedy (thanks, Jeff Goldberg!) “Do you want to do this somewhere private?” No, thank you. The agent calmly explained what she was going to do before she performed each part of the procedure, and very briskly but thoroughly went through the pat-down. The whole thing was over in a matter of minutes and was a completely professional experience.
Or it was, until a male TSA agent walked behind us and hollered: “Hey, I thought she was mine! I was gonna do her!”
And that, buddy, is exactly why I’m opting out instead of standing in the see-through picture machine. Thanks for validating my choice.
Soooo glad they were able to Unionize so that upstanding individuals such as mentioned above have the opportunity to be retained :
TSA administrator John Pistole is defending his decision to allow his agency’s employees to vote on limited collective bargaining rights. Pistole told a House Homeland Security subcommittee that granting the right to vote is one way he’s trying to change the work environment for the better. House Republicans called the hearing out of concern that unionization could have an impact on national security. Pistole took a rejected that idea. He said he would fire any workers who strike, slow their work due to disputes or who do anything to adversely affect security.
One wonders if “claiming” captive passengers such as one would choose a lamb for slaughter counts as adverse?
Of course all the sheeple of Amerika know that Legislation automatically conveys Limitations, so those in charge have proposed the following:
Proposed legislation introduced this week in both houses of Congress would criminalize the posting of any airline passenger’s body image on the Internet as a result of being electronically scanned for weapons at U.S. airport
With the moniker of Security Screening Confidential Data Privacy Act (SSCDPA) the above failed last year and is now a proposed Amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Reauthorization Bill (FAARB). Interesting – maybe this should have fallen under the FUBAR Bill, a much referred to (but never understood) system of many government agencies Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
Our Time Blogger may want to purchase (and therefore stimulate the economy which is doing so incredibly well) a few products for her little lamb from the “Don’t Touch My Kitty” site. Started by three now probably “flight-blacklisted” ladies from Montana as their personal answer to the whole “Don’t Touch My Junk” movement, they could use the support.
Speaking of TSA Abuses – either they aren’t happening anymore and therefore are not being reported, or Lindsay Lohan recently wore a dress so tight to her recent court hearing thus avoiding the grope factor of passing through the L.A. County Courthouse grab-and-tickle machine that even Egyptian Riots were upstaged for a few hours!
Yeah – that’s a run on folks. Gee – there oughta be a law.
paul cripps
Feb 16, 2011 @ 03:16:07
Big money contracts in security contracts. you may not have teachers but your kids will be safe and submissive. did not spend all that money on hookers for congreesmen so that they can listen to your whinnings about your civil liberties. most americans are now so beaten down its not really a problem for us anyway.keep watching your action hero movies , that will make so manny sheeple feel tough and rightous.
LikeLike
Sum Dum Goy
Feb 13, 2011 @ 17:32:56
A real terrorist would explode and this will most likely spread all kinds of disease.The people are consenting to this it seems,so they must like being treated like animals.I said people but we all know I meant sheeple.They are why democracy never works and stupid seems to win alot more than it should.Maybe the inhumanity of being a dumbed down beast of burden is how hell arrives on earth.Maybe getting kicked and tazered,groped,stripped and on top of it robbed for the payment of abuses rendered is something deserved.Maybe the world really is fair and sleeping on watch is dangerous and you get the government you deserve.Stupid is a punishable offence,the living kick themselves in the head and learn from it.The others who like the stupidness?Are the cause of all the BS.If the sheeple can be stopped the criminlas of the world could maybe be brought to justice.Whatever that means these days.
LikeLike
Jen Chen
Feb 13, 2011 @ 17:04:50
we need to do what the Egyptians have done-peaceful resistance do not fly-no one should fly until these evil s are abolished.
LikeLike
farang
Feb 13, 2011 @ 04:24:15
“The agent calmly explained what she was going to do before she performed each part of the procedure, and very briskly but thoroughly went through the pat-down. The whole thing was over in a matter of minutes and was a completely professional experience.”
Conditioned as planned.
You see, rapists enjoy “calmly explaining” the perversions they are about to inflict, it is the exact reason for inflicting it: a feeling of control and power over the victim.
“Professional”…you are nuts lady.
LikeLike
Wimpie
Feb 13, 2011 @ 02:58:35
Let me see if I have this right.
2 million passengers per day (in the US only) for the past 9 years (since 9/11) equals about 6.5 BILLION passengers.
One nut tries to blow up a plane with explosives in his underwear which failed. (BTW: You can’t put enough explosives in your underwear to down a plane) and now OUR GOVERNMENT wants to strip search or physically pat down ALL AMERICAN travelers at a cost of BILLIONS of dollars.
Non-metallic weapons are bull. Nobody can get in the cockpit anymore. Maybe they could harm another passenger? Is this a realistic threat?
Nobody has been killed by terrorists on an American aircraft since 9/11!
Also – TSA (or DfT) has never caught a terrorist – ever!
Odds: 1 in 6.5 billion ? or less? the bombs didn’t work!
Powerball 1 in 40 million?
State lottery 1 in 14 million.
I’m 465 times more likely to win the state lottery, than to be killed by terrorists on a plane!
WHAT ARE OUR LEGISLATORS SMOKING?
Billions to strip search Air Travelers, treat Americans as criminals, and cause additional preventable cancers?
Teachers all over the country out of work?
Cities & Towns going bankrupt?
What about the 300,000 killed in car crashes in the same period?
What’s wrong with this picture?
Picture your family like this:
http://rupture.co.uk/Terminal%204.html
or this:
Print out a bunch of these to hand out in the airport security line!
Meanwhile, if you fly, exercise your RIGHT TO OPT-OUT!
LikeLike
DS
Feb 12, 2011 @ 22:15:51
That is the reason I will not fly anylonger!
Your damned if you do go through the scanners, and damned if you don’t.
Each way your screwed!
You have your choice of getting fried, or put on some insane list and molested.
Gee, which do you prefere?
LikeLike
Lynn Swearingen
Feb 11, 2011 @ 22:54:40
Marti – Well we certainly have enough Fecal material tossed our way from Legislators to imitate the “head monkeys at the zoo”.
Louie – “Sheep that won’t go in the pen are such a problem.” – I agree. Of course once the wolves figure that out, they just keep changing the pen chute configuration. Baa-d idea for those of us who have the ability to think.
LikeLike
ppjg
Feb 11, 2011 @ 22:10:48
Lynn…I never know whether to laugh or cry, get mad or what to do when reading your work. You have such a talent for highlighting the really ridiculous works of our “government”. Makes me feel like we are being led by the head monkeys at the zoo.
Great piece. Marti
LikeLike
ppjg
Feb 11, 2011 @ 21:51:37
Thats why they keep those lists Louie….so they know for sure who we are.
LikeLike
Louie Cocroft
Feb 11, 2011 @ 21:21:26
Marti, my concern is that “they” would be able to identify the Non-sheeples.
LikeLike
ppjg
Feb 11, 2011 @ 18:46:07
Exactly right Louie. More than 50,000 names have been added to these lists since TSA began its sexual assaults on passengers. Never has the definition of sheeple been more appropriate than those who line up for scanners….at least we can identify many of those who will betray us should this country ever get a back bne.
LikeLike
Louie Cocroft
Feb 11, 2011 @ 17:37:24
There is something else of interest–people who object to the invasions of personal privacy are being listed so as to be able to identify “dissidents”. Sheep that won’t go in the pen are such a problem.
LikeLike
Louie Cocroft
Feb 11, 2011 @ 17:31:50
I just heard another interesting take on these scanners. Is this possibly a way to keep people from taking money or valuables out of the country–kind of a lockdown?
LikeLike