Airport security - waste of time?

Excerpts from "Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to Know About Air
Travel," by Patrick Smith

=============================

The preoccupation with Weapons of Mass Distraction gets back to a
stubborn fixation with the September 11th template, assuming any
sequel is bound to unfurl around a do-it-yourself arsenal similar to
that used by the original 19 skyjackers.

....while I don't know exactly what an al-Qaida operative might have in
store, I'm skeptical of one thing, which is the likelihood of another
suicide skyjacking.

The skyjack model is forever changed, as never again will anybody
believe a purloined plane is headed...anywhere but into the side of a
building. I can't imagine anybody making it two steps up the aisle, to
say nothing of into the cockpit, with less than a bucket of pinless
grenades balanced on his head.

....the true deadly weapon on Sept. 11 wasn't anything tactile. It was
surprise. The tool of choice, had it been boxcutters, butter knives,
or bare knuckles and a shod foot, was effectively unimportant.

Our zero-tolerance policy toward the carriage of weapons has turned
the predeparture process into a pageant of humiliation. Airports have
become scrap-metal repositories, while thousands of people are asked
to remove their shoes because one man, on one occasion, had the idea
of concealing explosives in his sneakers. At the risk of sounding
flip, are strip-searches to follow? After all, even the stupidest
terrorist will see that sneakers are out, and what more fiendish than
a bomb in your underwear?

I've heard people recount, "I was not allowed to carry through my
coffee without tasting it first. But what if I'd simply filled my
shampoo bottle full of gasoline?"

The ironies and examples are endless: A shattered wine bottle is just
as sharp as a boxcutter; a shiv of snapped-off plastic no less lethal
than a knife. And so forth.

If anything, the ongoing nonsense underscores our vulnerability by
flaunting our refusal to behave rationally. One is reminded of the
movie "Brazil," Terry Gilliam's 1985 film about a totalitarian state
under constant barrage of terrorist bombings, brought to the brink of
collapse and hilarity by its own foolish, hyperextended authority.
Just imagine a platoon of firefighters carting away a locked container
of forks, tweezers and hobby knives.

....we're more than happy to empty our pockets, rat out our neighbors,
pull down our pants. Enough of us, at least, to keep the beast fed and
happy.

This is what we want: if it equates to safer flying, or more
accurately the perception of it, by all means, yes, x-ray my Nikes and
take my nailclippers.

The TV cameras and newspapers have quoted us time and time again,
acquiescing with a sigh: "Well, it sucks, but if it makes flying safer
I'm all for it."

But what if it doesn't?

Neither all the determination in the world, nor the most sweeping
regulations we dare codify, will outsmart a cunning enough saboteur.
Preferring a path of lesser resistance, terrorists will fight along a
moveable and eternally porous front.

Even our leaders admit this, yet over and over, even as we languish in
security lines to have our luggage and dignity eviscerated, we give in
to the notion that just about anything, no matter how illogical,
inconvenient or unreasonable, is justified in the name of safety.

Perhaps the most valuable lesson to be dug from the rubble of
Manhattan is the one we're most afraid of: no system is, or ever will
be, foolproof. Sobering, but we could use some cold water. What colder
than conceding the more or less unstoppable, hit-em-where-they-ain't
resourcefulness of terrorism?

Sound, competent security greatly improves our chances, whether
against the concoctions of a single deranged individual, or organized
terror from the caves of Central Asia. But with the advent of every
new technology or pledge of better safeguards, we correspondingly
inspire the imaginations of those who wish to defeat us.

Hence it's time to address the terrorism issue systemically. Defusing
the rage of angry radicals is a long-term anthropological mission for
our leaders, not an excuse to barricade public spaces or subvert civil
liberties.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of Semtex, and there's little
to gain by bogging down resources in what amounts to a feel-good
fantasy. At best, our implacable quest to protect ourselves makes our
exceptionally safe skies that much safer. At worst, it's paranoid
overkill undermining both security and freedom.

"Steve" wrote"
Excerpts from "Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to
Know About Air Travel," by Patrick Smith
snip

Which reminds of a joke that's making the rounds about
Security arresting a math teacher for being a member of
the Al-Ge-Bra organization, distinguished by its fondness
for steely-edged compasses and indecipherable x-y code.
[Rog']

"Roger B." wrote in message
...
"Steve" wrote"
Excerpts from "Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to
Know About Air Travel," by Patrick Smith
snip

Which reminds of a joke that's making the rounds about
Security arresting a math teacher for being a member of
the Al-Ge-Bra organization, distinguished by its fondness
for steely-edged compasses and indecipherable x-y code.
[Rog']


Sadly people are just stupid enough to go for that.

There was a situation here in the UK when
a hospital doctor had her house firebombed because
a would be vigilante didnt know the difference
between a paedotrician and a paedophile

Keith




----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

"Roger B." wrote in message
...
"Steve" wrote"
Excerpts from "Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to
Know About Air Travel," by Patrick Smith
snip

Which reminds of a joke that's making the rounds about
Security arresting a math teacher for being a member of
the Al-Ge-Bra organization, distinguished by its fondness
for steely-edged compasses and indecipherable x-y code.
[Rog']


Sadly people are just stupid enough to go for that.

There was a situation here in the UK when
a hospital doctor had her house firebombed because
a would be vigilante didnt know the difference
between a paedotrician and a paedophile


What's a paedotrician?

Keith




----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet
News==----
http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000
Newsgroups
---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption
=---

"Peter L" wrote in message
...

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

"Roger B." wrote in message
...
"Steve" wrote"
Excerpts from "Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to
Know About Air Travel," by Patrick Smith
snip

Which reminds of a joke that's making the rounds about
Security arresting a math teacher for being a member of
the Al-Ge-Bra organization, distinguished by its fondness
for steely-edged compasses and indecipherable x-y code.
[Rog']


Sadly people are just stupid enough to go for that.

There was a situation here in the UK when
a hospital doctor had her house firebombed because
a would be vigilante didnt know the difference
between a paedotrician and a paedophile


What's a paedotrician?


Someone who plays (for real) Doctors and Nurses with little kids.

"Steve" wrote in message
...

become scrap-metal repositories, while thousands of people are asked
to remove their shoes because one man, on one occasion, had the idea
of concealing explosives in his sneakers. At the risk of sounding
flip, are strip-searches to follow? After all, even the stupidest
terrorist will see that sneakers are out, and what more fiendish than
a bomb in your underwear?



And if TSA didn't check shoes and some other nut job got on an airplane with
a shoe bomb, "journalists" like Mr. Smith would call for the resignation of
the head of Homeland Security and demand congressional hearings because the
government knew there was a risk of shoe bombs but did nothing about it.

That Mr. Smith's only solution seems to be to make nice-nice with the
terrorists tells me he has no real alternative solution either.

It's a no win situation for the TSA. They have no choice but to try and
defend against tactics that have worked in the past and try to predict
tactics that might be tried in the future. I would rather have them error
on the side of caution.

Matt

"Matt" wrote:
It's a no win situation for the TSA. They have no choice but to try and
defend against tactics that have worked in the past and try to predict
tactics that might be tried in the future. I would rather have them error
on the side of caution.

He does have a point about the alleged "weapons" being confiscated,
though - nobody's gonna be able to take over a plane with a box cutter
or just about anything else, now that people will assume they're gonna
die anyway...

"Roger B." wrote...

Which reminds of a joke that's making the rounds about
Security arresting a math teacher for being a member of
the Al-Ge-Bra organization,

Probably mistook it for the Al-gae-bra organization, distinguished by their
green breasts.

Keith Willshaw writes:

There was a situation here in the UK when
a hospital doctor had her house firebombed because
a would be vigilante didnt know the difference
between a paedotrician and a paedophile


What a niggardly thing to do.



Geoff

--
"I've fallen into a local minimum, and I can't get up!"
-- Thomas C

"Miss L. Toe" wrote in message
...

"Peter L" wrote in message
...

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

"Roger B." wrote in message
...
"Steve" wrote"
Excerpts from "Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to
Know About Air Travel," by Patrick Smith
snip

Which reminds of a joke that's making the rounds about
Security arresting a math teacher for being a member of
the Al-Ge-Bra organization, distinguished by its fondness
for steely-edged compasses and indecipherable x-y code.
[Rog']


Sadly people are just stupid enough to go for that.

There was a situation here in the UK when
a hospital doctor had her house firebombed because
a would be vigilante didnt know the difference
between a paedotrician and a paedophile


What's a paedotrician?


Someone who plays (for real) Doctors and Nurses with little kids.


That would be a pediatrician. So what's a paedotrician?