They will panic if someone carries a butter knife through security but then, once inside the “secure” area, the passenger goes to TGIF and orders a steak and gets a REAL knife and with a little switch can carry it on-board.
Even better. . .if in First Class they GIVE you a steel knife and steel fork when serving your meal.
So much for vigilant TSA keeping us safe.
Oh, and who can forget the dozens of TSA dolt's that are child predators and thief's.
Look, I fly over 150K a year and most of it is international. No one in the WORLD is as incompetent as TSA. No. One.
TSA is NOTHING MORE than security kabuki theater for the ignorant and the sheep of society. . .you know, the ones that think “Oh, boy, look at this. . .we are sooooooo safe because TSA is groping a 4-yr old and an 89-yr old Swedish grandmother using a walker." And, TSA gropes and puts through extra “security” wounded veterans with prosthetics that set the alarm off. Yeah!! I am so happy to see a wounded hero getting groped and given the evil-eye by some criminal TSA goon that can't get hired to hand out towels at a San Fransisco bathhouse.
Best thing is, TSA hires are given a once-over background check when hired. . .and that background check is no more than what someone working at 7-11 gets.
Makes me feel oh so safe.
You hit it exactly, with this statement. I wonder - this is just speculation - if the TSA is the lightning rod, and the real enforcement goes on behind the scenes. For instance, I was in Heathrow (OK, not the US, but still germaine to the topic) and I watched Brit security pick out three middle eastern-looking gentlemen, and quietly escort them out a nearby side door.
Had I not been standing right next to them, and watching and listening, there's no way I'd have known anything happened. So, I think that all of the obtrusive security is little more than a smokescreen for the real work.
I've never had a problem with TSA; the few times that I've flown in the past 10 or so years they've been professional. However, I specifically avoid flying as much as possible because of them, and further incursions (Highway stops? I've heard about these on FR!) are a horrific abuse of power.