Sunday, November 27, 2005
Thousands Standing Around
Like the average middle class father that any senescent man my age would be, I have children flying back to campus after the long Thanksgiving Day weekend, and on one of the most heavily traveled days of the year.
As a person in business, I travel a great deal myself, and am personally very familiar with the TSA drill, that is the routine dealing with the Transportation Safety Administration (also known in other circles as "Thousands Standing Around"), those folks who do thorough examinations of 90 year old white Anglo ladies as they wheel chair up to the metal detectors.
My poor teenage daughter was the victim tonight. Mistakenly carrying a tiny pair of scissors designed for clipping nails, she was thoroughly investigated and given a tongue lashing for having the audacity to bring something like that in her carry on bag. The insanity of it all.
Please kindly TSA man, be looking for young to middle aged Middle Eastern men with back packs and beards, and leave the poor little old ladies and teenagers alone.
I had grave doubts when Congress insisted on a Federal work force for these inspectors. There is huge, post office - like inefficiency in what they do. Not to mention the insanity of checking out people from every walk of life, including people like me, who travel frequently, and who are thoroughly inspected every time we travel.
Tonight, as I watched my daughter writhing through the labyrinth, I saw a completely free lane off to one side. Evidently, they keep one lane free for pilots, I guess, and other VIPs. There was one or two TSA officials at this post doing -- you guessed it -- absolutely nothing, while hords of people banging into one another, shoes a-flying, like chaff, are stuffed into the other lanes.
Please, someone, deliver us from this insanity. I see this as another injustice foisted upon us by our enemies - the terrorists, who indirectly coerced our ingenious officials to concoct this mess for us average folk. Only, in this case, I have to admit that the enemy has turned out to be ourselves.
As a person in business, I travel a great deal myself, and am personally very familiar with the TSA drill, that is the routine dealing with the Transportation Safety Administration (also known in other circles as "Thousands Standing Around"), those folks who do thorough examinations of 90 year old white Anglo ladies as they wheel chair up to the metal detectors.
My poor teenage daughter was the victim tonight. Mistakenly carrying a tiny pair of scissors designed for clipping nails, she was thoroughly investigated and given a tongue lashing for having the audacity to bring something like that in her carry on bag. The insanity of it all.
Please kindly TSA man, be looking for young to middle aged Middle Eastern men with back packs and beards, and leave the poor little old ladies and teenagers alone.
I had grave doubts when Congress insisted on a Federal work force for these inspectors. There is huge, post office - like inefficiency in what they do. Not to mention the insanity of checking out people from every walk of life, including people like me, who travel frequently, and who are thoroughly inspected every time we travel.
Tonight, as I watched my daughter writhing through the labyrinth, I saw a completely free lane off to one side. Evidently, they keep one lane free for pilots, I guess, and other VIPs. There was one or two TSA officials at this post doing -- you guessed it -- absolutely nothing, while hords of people banging into one another, shoes a-flying, like chaff, are stuffed into the other lanes.
Please, someone, deliver us from this insanity. I see this as another injustice foisted upon us by our enemies - the terrorists, who indirectly coerced our ingenious officials to concoct this mess for us average folk. Only, in this case, I have to admit that the enemy has turned out to be ourselves.
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