Posted on 05/24/2011 5:44:24 PM PDT by depressed in 06
As a less than frequent flyer, last time 5 years ago, I went through TSA security screening without my belt and shoes, passed thru the magnetometer and full body scan, the screener said that he needed to pat my butt, more like a athlete attaboy. But, then he wanted to swab my palms. Clean. Nothing he did seem unprofessional. Anyone have a similar experience?
I had made some hand loads two days before.
Look buster, I don’t understand how you have enough sense to support Herman Cain and yet you still spew the nonsense you do.
I spent a fair portion of my life upholding the Constitution
against ALL enemies, both foreign and domestic. That included spending a great deal of time getting shot at, sleeping in the mud, crawling through tunnels.
I WILL NOT tolerate a TSA agent getting personal with me.
Period.
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
I think they are setting up an international version.
That said, the whole problem is Muslims, and the rest of us are being punished for their evil misdeeds.
>>I think they are setting up an international version.<<
I already have it — GlobalEntry. Handprint, facial recognition, swap my passport and I am through.
The irony is it is easier for me to travel between other countries and the USA than withing the USA.
Sorry. You just made it seem like you moved through it all like it was butter and never gave up an ounce of freedom. None of what we have today existed when I was a child. Those freedoms are gone now, never to be experienced by my children. This, and what is sure more to come, is what they will know. The land of the free and the home of the brave is a fairy tale and a joke now. Most Americans can’t even do fireworks in their front yards on Independence Day anymore. “It” does not make me feel patriotic at all. Freedom is not free, and it is certainly NOT synonomous with “safety”. Safety has never conquered anything. Those “few seconds” that you speak of, that we all acquiese to, last an eternity. I’d rather be a free American allowed to travel freely within my own country and have a government with the balls to ensure that it is so. My countrymen did not bring down the twin towers - so profile the living crap out of anyone who might have ever had anything whatsoever to do with it, then, and now. I don’t care who it offends - it’s worth those precious “few seconds” to me. Do you think Bush, et. al., gives up a “few seconds”? Who lost freedom at the hand of modern politics? You, me, and every other American.
>>Look buster, I don’t understand how you have enough sense to support Herman Cain and yet you still spew the nonsense you do.<<
Maybe because I understand that flying is not a “right.” When a cop pulls you over do you think yelling “4TH AMENDMENT!” will stop him from searching your car? But I bet you drive anyway.
But if you cage yourself as much as you want. I suggest you take a map, a compass (or a string representing about 300 miles), then draw a circle around your house.
That is your world.
Now, look at a globe.
That is my world.
And, as I said, I haven’t had a TSA agent touch me in a long time and when they did it was light and unobtrusive.
Go into a courtroom and scream “4TH AMENDMENT” and see how far that gets you when you have to pay the traffic ticket you got from you driving... oh, wait, you won’t drive when they may SEARCH YOU WITH NO CAUSE!
But that is your tax dollars at work.... NO WAIT! THE CONSTITUTION DOESN’T ALLOW INCOME TAX!!! So I assume you don’t pay taxes either.
We have a system to deal with these things. It is called “legislation.” It is slow, much slower than administrative edicts. But it, in the long term, is our best and only way to make permanent changes.
In the meantime, enjoy your self-defined prison. I hope you don’t have any relatives further than a few hundred miles from your home. Kids, parents, whatever. You have made them off-limits by your purity.
What doesn’t make sense? I walk in the garage and along my flowerbeds and pick up fertilizer on my shoes. The floor of my cars and truck are probably covered in fertilizer residue. If you are going to garden, it happens. Same way all the currency in the US tests positive for cocaine residue.
I keep guns and magazines in various safes around the house including the safe I hold money in. Doesn’t everyone? What good is a gun if you don’t keep it where you are likely to need it?
I stopped overthinking travel years ago. You don’t travel much so you are overly concerned. It takes about 30 seconds for a swab test and it has never been an issue.
MODERATOR, just ban me before I say what I really think of this idiot.
>>Sorry. You just made it seem like you moved through it all like it was butter and never gave up an ounce of freedom. None of what we have today existed when I was a child. Those freedoms are gone now, never to be experienced by my children. This, and what is sure more to come, is what they will know. The land of the free and the home of the brave is a fairy tale and a joke now. Most Americans can’t even do fireworks in their front yards on Independence Day anymore. “It” does not make me feel patriotic at all. Freedom is not free, and it is certainly NOT synonomous with “safety”. Safety has never conquered anything. Those “few seconds” that you speak of, that we all acquiese to, last an eternity. I’d rather be a free American allowed to travel freely within my own country and have a government with the balls to ensure that it is so. My countrymen did not bring down the twin towers - so profile the living crap out of anyone who might have ever had anything whatsoever to do with it, then, and now. I don’t care who it offends - it’s worth those precious “few seconds” to me. Do you think Bush, et. al., gives up a “few seconds”? Who lost freedom at the hand of modern politics? You, me, and every other American.<<
So there were no checkpoints before 9/11? No pat-downs? You could just walk into airports free and clear?
Where the hell did you live? Not the USA! There have been airport checks for 30+ years!
You are just drawing an arbitrary line — which should have been drawn 40 years ago if it is to be drawn at all.
And I assure you those few seconds last — a few seconds.
I can speak, I can move (which you can’t), I can voice my thoughts (which I have, even in the TSA line), I can think — if I wish to I can publish those thoughts — WHILE IN LINE.
Flying isn’t a right. Why do so many FReepers think everything they want to do is a “right?”
Can you post cuss words on FR? Try it and test your “rights” on a private forum.
Sometimes I think I am on DU...
>>MODERATOR, just ban me before I say what I really think of this idiot.<<
Why would you need banning? This is AMERICA! You should be FREE to say WHATEVER YOU WANT!
Think about it: you willingly give up your 1st Amendment rights to participate in FR.
Now think more — you choose not to briefly give up other rights since they are more important to you than freedom of movement.
I am free to go anywhere. You are chained.
Good choice.
What about your First Amendment rights?
>>I stopped overthinking travel years ago. You don’t travel much so you are overly concerned. It takes about 30 seconds for a swab test and it has never been an issue.<<
Well, like I said, you are a bit more of a free spirit than I am. More power to you. I have colleagues that can do that as well, but after I became a Road Warrior I just had to get everything to “just so” — it has served me well but I am sure your style works for you as well :)
Of course, based on the flak I am getting, you have to accept that you are a tool for The Man and undermining the Constitution when you accept them swab tests... ;)
Nobody. You aren't free to travel without unnecessary molestation, and they aren't free to travel without the same. You may choose to travel, but that doesn't make you free. People who established these laws can at any time change them, to make them unacceptable even to you.
As an example, AQ is very likely to be already fully capable of carrying out a terrorist act with surgically implanted bombs. Existing equipment and methods will not detect those. Imagine that such a plot is carried out and executed, and the method is discovered. What will happen next? Only one thing can happen next - mandatory full-body X-ray, using full power of a medical X-ray machine. You are not advised to do this often. So what will you do? Will you subject yourself to a certain cancer, or you will finally refuse to fly?
The freedom was lost bit by bit, and the latest installment simply cut it down further. Since Godwin's law was already violated on this thread, I can say that German citizens were also perfectly free to walk streets of their towns - as long as they had their papers with them at all times and had a good story where they are going and why. They weren't free, of course, but neither are US travelers. At this point only driving is free because there is no force in this land [outside of border areas] that can stop you for no reason and ask for your papers. Every other mode of transportation needs a nod from authorities, even if it is just a train ticket clerk. Walking, of course, is completely out of question - try walking along an interstate; you'll be picked up within an hour.
The general trend is clear, and it is not favorable. As the USA continues to surrender its industrial and other power to other nations, the government clearly understands that this can't end well. The debt alone is a huge problem. So they expect troubles, and they are preparing the machinery to keep the population under control. Reduction of mobility of the population is method #1; increasing dependency of the population on the government is method #2; disarming the population is method #3. I guess they are doing all of that.
TSA instructed me to place one foot on a step stool. When I thought the TSA agent was going to wand my bare foot, the wand was crammed hard up my skirt all the way to my crotch without warning. It was a humiliating experience, no matter that I am a multi-million mile traveler.
Only a weasel would scoff at people who genuinely don't want to be groped by strangers. Get over yourself.
I am happy for you that your experience with TSA was “light and unobtrusive” and didn’t bother you.
I see you are from California. I have had some very bad experiences with TSA and the worst, hands down, was in San FRancisco. The female TSA agents are as nasty, obese, and as racist as any I have ever encountered.
They are intrusive and very much dislike attractive white females. Not sure what they do to unattractive females. Maybe your experiences have been different.
I'm glad you feel good about that radiation exposure. You are aware, I am sure, that there are a couple of different types of radiation equipment being used. Do you know what kind you are exposing yourself to?
Are you sure those TSA agents are expert enough to ensure that the machines are being calibrated accurately?? Some of them are illiterate. You need to do some more research.
>> have had some very bad experiences with TSA and the worst, hands down, was in San FRancisco. The female TSA agents are as nasty, obese, and as racist as any I have ever encountered.<<
No joke — that is the entire city.
The new rules should reduce such treatment. And get badge numbers and report them (AFTER you finish, of course). There is an email address you can use.
I don’t know why everyone keeps missing what I keep saying: It ain’t a great system! It isn’t even a GOOD system. But we are stuck with it until we get it changed and that will take a mountain movement of legislators and legislation.
And us frequent travelers are working hard on just that.
I know, BwanaNdege, me too. I came very close.
Here we have, the superlative “global citizen,” hawking one world government and Communist terms like “trusted traveler.”
It’s unbelievable.
We all have bad experiences.
I had a terrible doctor one time. That doesn’t mean that I eschew all doctors.
I had a terrible experience in Miami that almost went to the police one time. Because of an “agent.”
My point is you can either travel with the parameters we have (while working to improve them) or chain yourself to your house.
And you should have called for the police at the moment that wand went beyond reason.
>>Here we have, the superlative “global citizen,” hawking one world government and Communist terms like “trusted traveler.”<<
It is very bad FRenitquette to refer (even obliquely) to someone without pinging them (but from you not surprising).
“Trusted Traveler” isn’t a “Communist” concept. If you would do a 10 second Google search you would know it is an OPTIONAL biometric system that definitively identifies someone as who they are and pre-screens them so they don’t have to go through airport screening.
But for you who are chained your porch posts, that wouldn’t offer much anyway.
As I said — I am free, and you are imprisoned.
(ps: look up “GlobalPass” You got that wrong too).
Unfortunately, that's long gone too. They can stop you within 100 miles of the border. As I've found out from going through numerous checkpoints. Dog searches, invasive interrogations, jackboots peering into your things, and that's all in the primary line.
We also have ag and DUI checkpoints, whether you drink or not, smuggle or not, in addition to cameras photographing us on the highways and in the cities. In our state anyway.
p.s. This is not for illegals, as they are free to violate any and all laws, and it would be insensitive to ask them for papers.
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