Yon handcuffed, Joan Rivers booted.
We’re in the very best of hands.
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I don’t travel a lot – but not infrequently either and this whole thing has gotten way out of hand. The degree of incompetence on display would be comical were it not so sad.
My last trip took me to Singapore through Tokyo last October. The people in both other countries were extremely polite and friendly. In Singapore it was just as a friend told me, “You’ll go through customs but you wont even know it.” The reason it was so simple in Singapore is pretty straightforward. If they found out you lied later, and brought in something prohibited, they execute you.
Coming back into the U.S. was something altogether different. Rudeness. Getting shouted at by people who couldn’t speak English as well as the security folks in Japan. And I could almost stomach it if I got something in return – added security or something. But that’s not the case.
I’m pretty fed up and quite frankly feel like I have no option but to bend over and take it.
Could we please adopt the “Singapore gambit”? Deut 19:18-19: The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.
Always amazes me when non-Judeo-Christian countries get it right, and we don’t. Wouldn’t it be great if the feds said to Abdulmutallab, “So you wanted to, but couldn’t… No matter. Turn about is fair play.”
Once the airlines go out of business we can have the USAF fly passengers around on those 10 extra c-17s congress ordered for them. Plenty of retired Navy pilots to retrain to fly the 737 too.
Seriously, the airlines could become subsidized a la Amtrak. None of these goofs are gonna woe passengers back on board and we gotta have airplanes to get around.
Haven’t been on a commercial flight in nearly 15 years. Was thinking about flying somewhere soon, but forget it. I will probably never set foot on a commercial flight again, ever.
Just too much hassle, and wasted time. And morons to deal with.
This is just one more piece of evidence that our government has reached the point of being an oppressive bunch of bureaucrats hired to buy votes, not serve any real national need.
Tyranny. Need to see what the definition is on that. Also, “enemies, domestic.” These are no longer imaginary terms like “Easter bunny.”
I suspect that this situation will not end well for the Border pukes.
I have simply stopped flying within CONUS. No sense in putting up with shoddy service and the TSA Rent-A-Cop abuse. Drive, take the bus or AMTRAK. I can actually get to downtown DC from Boston faster by AMTRAK than by air. That’s not an exaggeration, either.
Counting check in, screening, flight, deplaning, getting through the airport and finding a cab, I can actually save time AND money with the Acela service from Boston to Washington. Plus, even the regional AMTRAK service takes only about an hour longer. Comfy seats, the ability to get up and walk around, get a bite to eat or a beer, etc. Nowhere near the security hassles either.
You need to be quiet about these things Tim. If TSA finds we are bypassing them, they’ll go where we are going and muck up the rest of the country. Before long, we’d have to call them before driving to Mammoth Cave so they can pat us down to make sure we aren’t carrying any C-4 to open new entrances.
It’s a lot easier and a whole lot cheaper to drive to Sandy Eggo from San Jose. Timewise, it’s about a wash, all things considered. With rear seat removed, the Suburban allows us to take half the house with us. The price of fuel – one way – was about $80.00. A lot cheaper than air fare for the family. No wonder Liberals hate Suburbans and love the
lazy buffoonshard working TSA.It will get worse before it gets better. Michael Yon may have been one of the worse choices those idiots could have made. Mike knows what he speaks of, is not afraid to be vocal about his concerns and he has a substantial, active audience/following.
I am waiting for Janet to come out and say that the system worked. No way BHO will fire her unless she becomes a meaningful political liability to him.
There a lot of us that fly commercially because we have to. From NC, for all practical purposes, flying is my only option if I have to go to Houston, or Orlando, or Denver, or…. Not a choice if we want to keep the client and if I want to keep my job.
OMG! Is Napolitano also a Janet? ( I think of the Reno critter)
There’s a song, you know: “Dammit, Janet!” (from the Rocky Horror Show)
JTG, I watched the RHPS again over the Holidays. There are some excellent parts in the movie. A quick Wiki check showed “Still in limited release 34 years after its premiere, it has the longest-running theatrical release in film history.”
There are two movie theaters in Raleigh that show the RHPS every week. I keep telling myself that one of these days I will go to the midnight show just for the entertainment value. Getting harder & harder to stay up that late though.
Shrug.
I flew from St. Louis to Chicago to see the Vikings play the Bears on the 28th and back on the 29th. The only thing that even approached a problem was when they asked what my insulin was at O’Hare.
Sleep tight tonight, your TSA is awake!
I sleep better when I’m sober.
I keep wondering… with the various high profile people that the TSA (and it’s foreign adjuncts) manages to screw with, how many normal people are getting hassled that we never hear about?
On the plus side the just-opened screening center on the new lower level at Dulles (where the soon-to-be-opened train station is) worked like a charm yesterday when I flew back to Dallas. I was surprised they weren’t doing more strip searches in light of recent developments.
TSA is not law enforcement and can not arrest anyone. It is more likely that Customs & Border Protection (Disclaimer: I fly for them) detained him and took him to secondary. I can’t speak for the cuffs. The questions about his income was more likely questions about the amount of currency and negotiable instruments (checks, bonds, etc.) which is totally valid and commonplace.
I’ve been in law enforcement long enough to know that it’s best not to jump to conclusions as to the asshattery of any of the parties involved before more info can be obtained.
I’ve personally never had any issues with the TSA, but the amount of hassle and oversight involved in commercial flying anymore may be the best thing to happen to general aviation in years. I know a used 172 or equivalent is beginning to look really good for my regional traveling.
Wait til you see the price of Avgas. And insurance. And annuals.
At present, Avgas is a serious problem because the engine ignition systems are fixed as to plug firing. With FADEC systems, the spark advance can vary and the Octane rating can be dropped to 91-93 even for the higher compression engines (I’m talking general aviation, not the military surplus stuff). When that happens, the 100LL will not be a problem anymore and Mogas will be standard on the ramps. Last Avgas I saw the price of was north of $5 a gallon. It may be cheaper out where Lex lives, but here in the mountains of NC is pretty pricey.
oh, and as far as TSA goes, I won’t defend them…evar! They are buffoons. As a fed, I get to fly armed and skip most of their buffoonery, but the little I do see makes my head spin. The fact that they were recently allowed to wear badges on their uniforms is an affront to every cop/agent out on the streets doing the Lord’s work.
grrrr
Don’t fly.
Don’t.
If you make an exception due to dire necessity, such as a death in the family, then accept the treatment you will receive. Otherwise, don’t fly.
Airline companies are marginal businesses. Full planes are profitable, planes half full are not.
If we want to change the way we are treated by the airlines and the TSA, the only way to do it is to stop accepting the mistreatment. It is the same thing as a battered woman that does nothing to separate herself from her abuser. People that know her shake their head and wonder why she keeps going back, knowing that more abuse was inevitable.
So here’s the plan. Drive. Don’t travel by plane. Take trips closer to home. Take a cruise. If it’s work related, do it by video conference. If 20 % of the people that will fly in 2010 did not, and let the airlines know the reason for their decision, changes would occur.
But if you pay your money to line up and be mistreated, and you already know it’s going to happen, exactly whose fault is that?
I’m planning to drive to Phoenix in April, rather than fly. I have friends in the Albuquerque area I want to see anyway, and it will be a good excuse.
Have you folks seen the logo for DHS?
guys
Fly. Do it, fly, buy fly civvies and keep civilian aviation healthy. Just use fractional fleets or join a flying club. I fly from Charleston To Jax in under 1.5 hrs and enjoy passing the traffic on I-95 whilst the big boys zip along the jet routes above. hit Craig Field, park the Lance, get met with a car at the aircraft door, have a cup of free java in the terminal, hit the weather page, file the return plan, and hit the door. Not a TSA baboon in sight. My company is using fractional now for corporate travel, and THEY CALL YOU BEFORE YOU FLY and inquire about food, dietary restrictions, alcohol, etc.
Heck, I’m sure some enterprising biz guy has a well-thought out business model on how to fly pax coast to coast on a 737 and make it pay.
AMTRAK is ok if you live in the northern corridor. As far as rest of US – forget it. delays of 8-12 hrs not uncommon. In DC the ADM and his peon used to take train to NYC. Coupla hrs, we’d hit Grand Central, taxi to the NYYC, and enjoy the town. But anything heading south? Trains run on molasses. We tried it once to Supships Jax. Not a pleasant memory. And well before cell phones.
I am thinking of sending off for the drawings for a Pietenpol. There are still plenty of rebuildable Corvair engines around. Yah, I know it’s slower than cars, but it’s still flyin, and all by yerself!
P.s. Both Amtrak and Greyhound insist on internal passport, the reason I vowed never again to board an airliner back in the late nineties. I live in the United States of America, where we don’t do ID cards. If I’m not driving a motor vehicle, and otherwise am behaving myself, I reserve the right to buy a plane, train, or bus ticket for cash, without telling anybody my True Name, which I tell only to people I trust, such as Lex, or The Donovan.
ASM826 ~ Your advice is good…for those that can take it. For those of us stuck on a medium-sized turd in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (or, for people such as Mike Yon who make their living traveling to foreign countries which means traveling across oceans) it’s advice we cannot take.
However, the hassles that surround flying SpaceA are starting to seem more and more worth it. Thank God for the United States Air Force.
As for Yon’s detention, it was ICE, not TSA. And, as infuriating as the story is, I agree with Chunk…there are always two sides to every story. However, ICE has not done themselves, TSA, or this administration any good with this move, regardless of how valid and commonplace.
THE Michael Yon? Well, maybe they read his blog and saw the post about his killing a man with one punch. Guy prolly had it coming, and all, but it could look bad to some people.
That, and acting like a free citizen? Obviously a dangerous troublemaker!
P.s. Reminds me of an experience of my own, some years back, when I was twenty-something.
As I have admitted from time to time, I think I might be one of those people who are really, really, earnest, who are very uncomfortable at parties, have no fashion sense whatsoever, and absolutely will not shut up when they get going about their hobbies.
I was riding in a Delta airliner of some kind, and being a bit of a-(ok, a complete nerd) and an aerophile to boot, I had read up on aviation safety, and survivable wrecks, and suchlike. I asked the gate agent for a seat next to the aftermost emergency exit. He said he couldn’t do that, but did put me one seat away.
My seatmate, next to the exit, was a nice old guy who engaged me in conversation, in the course of which he said that he was a retired railroad bull of some kind. Somehow my choice of seat came up, and we talked about that, and my enthusiasm for all things aeronautical, and why I was relieved to be exactly one seat away from the exit; that would make it _his_ responsibility, not mine, to manipulate the thing, if God Forbid, etc.
We had a right pleasant trip and said byebye.
Later, my defective (very slow) social processor figured out that they put that guy there on purpose, because I appeared a bit strange.
All done very politely and professionally, and we parted on good terms, with no .gov people slamming me to the ground and sticking pistols in my ears while yelling and screaming at me.
ASM826-
Happening already, as a reasonably frequent visitor to the US (four times, once for 7 months and I’m 26) I have actually written off the US as a destination for the foreseeable future.