I made a snarky post about TSA's new no pee rule. This one is intended to be serious.

[Stinky The Clown]

Let me start by saying it is my view that all of this obvious airport security is bullshit intended mainly to show the flying public that their government is "doing something". This was started by the Bushies, who suck more than we even know.

Obama has continued these policies with *maybe* some changes at the edges. Were I him, I would do the same thing. There are a lot of people who are genuinely reassured by all the show of farce ... er ..... force put in place to protect them. Were the policies to be discontinued in this "time of war", the populace would rise up as one and demand his head on a pike. Dumb ..... but there ya go.

The threat of a successful terrorist attack on an airplane is infinitesimally small. But it does exist. It is as small as it is because of all the anti-terrorism countermeasures put in place. The intelligence. The profiling (you know they do it, you know damned well they do and you know you're glad they do). The covert screenings. The cameras watching you, looking for certain behaviors and patters. The guys "out there" sniffing around for plots being hatched in places like Yemen and Somalia and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The good, solid, mostly boring police work. The concourse pat downs that are obvious, however, do very little. Except prop up nail clipper manufacturer stock futures. And make people feel better.

And how many more Richard Reeds got stopped? None. Because no one tried that again. But we all have to walk barefoot down Foot Fungus Lane on our way to the Airside secure zone. How many box cutter plots have been stopped?

Hardened airplane cabins were long overdue. Going back to those hijacks to Cuba. Crew training is much better. I do have a problem with guns in cockpits, but whatever.

I believe the world remains a dangerous place. People out there do, indeed, wish us harm. And I am grateful we have serious professionals doing the real work of protecting us.

But taking off your shoes and having your Landside-purchased Dr. Pepper dumped out on the order of someone in an ill fitting uniform is pure bullshit. So is not being allowed to pee 60 minutes before landing.

All that invites is -00:65 explosions.

They system needs to be worked and improved. But the stats don't lie. Flying is VERY safe. You run higher risks of death from lightening, food poisoning, drunk drivers, tobacco smoke, a pissed off spouse, a school shooter, cancer, and lots of other things than of being killed by a plane blower upper.

Here's an excellent post that cites some additional numbers:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7336767





So back to today's developments ..... not peeing for that last hour will help us ...... how, exactly?







edit to add one thing I forgot to include:

How about we lose a few of the airport TSA agents and put more air marshals on airplanes? No less than two per flight. They could even pose as flight attendants. Or passengers. Keep 'em undercover. Not like the ones we had that wore I'M A FED WHO IS ON DUTY clothes and haircuts. That would be money well spent. And a real deterrent.

[SmileyRose]

1. But I *LIKED* the visual of you nekkid on a plane

[Warpy]

2. They also need to discipline the TSA martinets

who go out of the way to be assholes because they can.

You're right about the no-pee rule, it's silly. The attack might have succeeded if he'd been able to start a fire in that cabin while the plane was over the Atlantic. Waiting until landing was one of his mistakes, and he made many. The 60 minute rule could be a fatal one.

Actually, given AQ's usual pattern of multiple attacks, I have to wonder how many other planes had passengers with chemicals sewed into their undies but who chickened out at the last minute because the prospect of barbecued balls was such an unattractive one.

The passengers lucked out because this guy was a total fuckwit. The next guy might not be.

We can slow these guys down with good police work (which seems not to have been followed through either in Nigeria or Amsterdam) and international cooperation. Those will break down once in a while, though, and these guys will slip through. Slowing them down is probably the best we can do.

It's a condition of life, nothing is 100% safe. Harassing ordinary people to give them the illusion of perfect safety is just not going to work. People are rebelling, and rightly so. Airline travel is down.

If the airlines want to survive, they're going to have to push for more common sense regulations, not more idiotic and onerous ones.

[glowing]

3. It will last until the 3 yr old wets himself on the seat...

[me b zola]

4. ...or an adult with irritable bowel syndrome craps themselves

:shrug:

I've gotten to the place where I don't want to fly any longer.

[pipi_k]

7. Yep, because once those spasms start...

it's complete and utter gut hell until everything in there comes out in one big brown explosion.

It's not even a matter of not being able to control oneself...which many people wouldn't understand and might think is just someone being a jerk. It's a godawful pain comparable to childbirth. You don't tell someone going through that to "just wait an hour"...

And the worst thing? I can honestly imagine some poor bastard going through this, crapping himself, and then being detained or arrested on charges of "disorderly conduct".


I've never flown. I will never fly. Ever.

[pipi_k]

5. On Air Marshalls who don't look like Air Marshalls...

One of my step-sons-in-law is currently attempting to get into the Air Marshall program.

He has Navy training, including some basic Navy SEALS.

He would be a huge asset in the program, and there's a bit of irony here...his ethnic heritage would probably cause more people to suspect he's a "terrorist" than to suspect he's an Air Marshall.


He really wants to do this...we'll have to wait and see where it goes, though.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. He sounds like exactly the kind of person we need doing that job.

Good luck to him!

[pipi_k]

8. Thanks! We're all rooting for him!

:)

[change_notfinetuning]

9. That was my first thought, too. Or maybe in intelligence, instead of all those

American-looking, suburban businessman types who fit in so well in the local mosque. Or did intelligence activities get axed what with all the war expenses?