I agree Craig.  I think that the problem lies in the fact that until 9/11 the US had never suffered from any serious terrorist threat in the modern sense of the world.  9/11 was a shocking wake up call, and in true US style the biggest terrorist event ever.  This has made your government react perhaps more harshly than a government with more experience in dealing with similar problems.

The UK (as an example) has been dealing with terrorism since the early seventies, I personally have nearly been blown up twice by Irish groups.  Security in Britain has always been reasonably high because of this but not as invasive as it seems to be in the States currently.  I think that given time the US will become calm again.  Many of the problems and issues you discuss seem to be beurocracy rearing its ugly head.  The political correctness blights us all.  As a white male middle class person in the UK I am amongst the most discriminated against in my country, it is not OK and it will have to change.

With the switching on of the possible bombs in the airport I think it is seen as the lesser evil to cause damage there than in a flying aircraft.  It takes a very small charge to destabilise a modern jet and cause it to crash.  In an airport it may kill 20 people, in an aircraft the same bomb has the [i]potential[/] to bring down a sky scraper.

I like your rant, feel free to rant all you like.  If you(we)  get locked down there is always the personal messages and we can rant to each other.

All the best mate.

Will

Now see?  We can discuss this without offending anyone.  lol

Craig, I agree with parts and disagree with parts of your rant.  I'll break them down one step at a time.

Switching on electronic devices.  This isn't a new thing.  When I worked for Continental, for the last half of the 90's, I always had to turn my pager on while going through the security checkpoint.  This is more than likely a result of the suspicion that Pan Am 103 was brought down by an explosive device in a portable radio.  This isn't new at all.

The TSA employees themselves.  I'll agree that this is a joke.  However the government didn't make this a private company.  Quite the contrary.  In fact, pre-9/11, airport security was handled by private firms.  It wasn't until after September 11th that they became federal employees. 

Unfortunately, they are the same idiots (mostly) which were running security for the private companies, and its more of a visual impact than anything else.  I can't speak of the training which they've gone through, because I don't know anything about it, but I can say that all the training in the world is useless if the trainee has the intellect of a grapefruit.

As for the volume of TSA staff....its important to remember that we live in a society that can never be pleased.  If there are too many, we'll complain about the money being "wasted".  But when there weren't enough, it was an atrocity because we "allowed" September 11th to happen.  People will never be satisfied, regardless of how many people are manning the checkpoints of our nation's airports.

And now, the racial profiling debate.  This has been going on in the United States for quite some time, with no clear solution in sight.  I, personally see no problems with it.  It's not blonde haired 8-year old Danish girls blowing up airplanes.  The majority of terrorist activities involving airliners in the last 100 years have been accomplished by men between 18-30 of Middle Eastern descent, and the statistics show this.  People need to understand that we, as Americans, want to be safe.  "You" (not you, but my fellow passenger) need to be a little more sympathetic and keep this in mind.  They're not going to treat you with any disrespect, they're just making sure you're not a threat.  If they check you out, and you're not a threat, then you have my sympathy, but not my apologies.  We're trying to save our own lives.  If you're not willing to make a minor sacrifice to protect me, then I'm not going to make any sacrifices to protect you, and I don't want you on my airplane.  Take the bus.

Everyone thinks that air travel is a right, and it isn't.  It's a privilege, and one that you don't have to benefit from.  There are other options available to me, to you, and to anyone else who doesn't want to go through the security measures.

Air travel is a mode of public transportation which arrives and departs a public venue.  There is no, nor should there be, an expectation of privacy.  It's not a private facility. 

I'm not racist either, and in fact, anyone who knows me personally will attest to the fact that isn't even possible with me, for reasons I won't bore you all with.

However, and I say this sternly, everyone needs to understand the severity of this problem.  It's a problem which affects us all, and could potentially kill us.  Anyone who fits the pattern of those who have taken our brothers and sisters should be subject to increased scrutiny.  If tomorrow 10,000 Chinese women were to bomb shopping malls, I'd say let's look twice at Asian women as they enter the mall. 

IMHO, anyone who doesn't is partly to blame.

Rant Rebuttal over.  lol

Craig, I like you, and I'm not intentionally trying to single you out as my "victim" here or anything.  lol

But this is what I always ask people who talk about the security checkpoint taking too long, though usually it's just me screaming at my television.  lol

Let me ask you this...how long is too long to wait to protect yourself?

Your wife?

Your children?

An hour?  Two?  Three?

If it means that I have to get to the airport three days before my flight, so that each and every person can have a full background check and body cavity search, but I'm confident that my girlfriend will get to her destination in one piece, I'll be there.  It might suck, but I'll feel get over it.  Can one get over the loss of one's children?   

But you've got a mother, a father, a distant cousin Marty, a friend....everyone has someone they care about in some way, know what I mean?

And you're right.  They went through your suitcase with no privacy.  But again, what is private about a public building and public transportation?

I'm not disagreeing with your post as a whole, just a few minor points of said post.

Overall, I think we share the same belief.  They need to do a better job.  lol  (Would you believe they're still finding people asleep at the checkpoints, they're still finding security people who have criminal records, and illegal aliens?)

This thread is evidence that we CAN talk about serious issues facing us all without it becoming a flame war.

Now, of course there will be some twit somewhere who makes this all about them, and how we attacked THEM....

But seriously, this is a very good discussion, and you should all be proud of your ability to discuss it maturely.

Good job!

Quote:


Oooh, got THROUGH security...I thought you were talking ABOUT security...haha  My bad...

i wouldnt worry about disagreeing with my points:) i enjoy these sorts of discussions, you get to not only put your point across but also learn others and see new ways of looking at an issue. If you see something i say that might be wrong or stupid please say so:)
obviously i am going from the point of only a passenger, and not an insider, my time working at bristol aiport, wasnt very long so i didnt get the chance to have my security pass done and what not so i didnt have a chance to watch how they operate here fully.
hype your points are all valid i am not going to dispute that one, and your time with the airline business(correct?) has given you a better chance to see how things have changed and worked. like Will said this isnt about having security we aboslutly do, and it needs to be top notch, having really poor security is like opening an all you can eat free buffet at a weight loss center,  every one with intent is gonna be there:) having an open invitation to terrorists is def the last thing anyone wants, but i also believe the TSA are in a way giving them that invitation by not screening middle eastern 20 to 30 year old males as often because they dont want to be seen as predjudice against said people. I have no real problem with being searched my bags being searchd(although a little curtain privacy isnt to hard to provide) but the thing is i am not the one who is planning to dump a plane into some building or blow the thing up in mid air.
i'll end it there:) i will be watching out my windows for the next few days to make sure a group of black SUV's dont suddenly pull up outside my house and the Feds decide they dont like my opinions:) LOL if you dont here from me again you know what happend

i do have to agree they should try something like El Al's security, they seem to have it down almost perfect.