TSA Opens Blog — You Can Finally Complain

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The TSA has opened their own blog. According to Ars Technica, it's beginning to attract complaints from people who are sick of removing their shoes and having to forfeit their drinks. 'The blog's first post has 131 comments so far, almost all of which fall into one of two categories: TSA employees who got the internal memo about the blog launch and dropped by to post positive things, and citizens who are really mad about the liquids screening policy.'"

Comments

I can imagine that the comments feature will soon be disabled.

Why? You can say what you want

...and they will listen.

Re:Comments

This isn't insightful; it's ignorant. I just visited the blog, and they make it clear that they won't post profanity or abuse, but they'll let just about anything else go through. I went through the liquids thread, and 99% of the comments were critical from one degree to another of the current policy. No censorship there that I could see. Hundreds of people pointed out the idiocy of allowing up to 10 bottles in your "baggy", all 10 of which could ostensibly be carrying 3 oz of some explosive, which you could then combine on the plane. Or, you carry a bunch in your baggy, and your accomplice carries some in his baggy, and you meet up on the plane to combine them.

And, of course, water. I suggested that the simple solution is for the agent to request that you drink some of the water, and then the agent sniff the bottle. If anyone here knows of a colourless, odourless explosive you can safely drink, I'd like to be apprised of it. They posted my comment unedited.

Why don't you bother to check it out before making such an uninformed comment? Oh, right, this is /.

Re:Comments

No censorship there that I could see.

That's the idea of censorship...

Planes will NEVER be hijacked the same way as 9/11

Blown up? Maybe. Hijacked? NO! Why? Because we know the rules have changed. In the pre-9/11 days, people were told to cooperate with hijackers, because if they did, there was a good chance they'd get out of it alive. Now, we know that the hijackers are willing to kill us all as they use the plane as a weapon, and thus, we have nothing to lose by fighting back. Once the passengers of United 93 learned what had happened to the other plans, they realized this, and they fought back. There will never be another attack in the style of 9/11, and it's not because of the TSA or Homeland Security. It's because we know better.

Re:Planes will NEVER be hijacked the same way as 9

100% correct.

I'll go on record as saying that in the United States there will never, ever, be another successful hijacking. I don't know about you, but if I saw someone stand up and begin the hijacking "process", I'd start the "process" of eliminating the threat.

And I suspect I'd have many passengers coming over my back to assist in the effort.

Even the old ladies and 10 yr olds.

Little do you realize...

that this is just a clever move to find people that disagree with them and put them on the no-fly list.

(Anonymous for obvious reasons, I like flying)

Long story short

The government has no business performing security checks on passengers.

If passengers wish secure flights, the airlines will provide security checks, different airlines might even offer different security levels to cater from the person in a rush to the paranoid.

What if someday, I went to the doorstep of a DHS officer and start requiring every one entering, including his friends and family to strip naked, out of security concern for him. What if, even worst, I decided to charge the service to him, by threatening to put him in jail if he doesn't pay for the service or comply with the security checks. Hey I'd be arrested.

The government is doing the exact same thing and guess what : they're just a bunch of people. They are not different from other people. Just because they're elected by a majority and have a nice nametag saying "Hi, I'm from the government" doesn't really give them super-moral powers. If a normal person is not allowed to do something, there's no reason people from the government should.

With a monopoly on law enforcement, it is natural that the quality of enforcement lowers and the price rises. I mean... if everyone is forced to buy your security services, you're going to charge for anything. Hey why not protect people from nail clippers in airplanes ! Good !

Wrong Two Categories

The categories are actually:

1) TSA employees who got the internal memo about the blog launch and dropped by to post positive things, and citizens who are really mad about the liquids screening policy and
2) people about to added to the no-fly list.

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

I haven't flown since before 9/11. Unless the TSA cleans up its act, I will never fly again.

Unfortunately that probably fine with them, the more people they can keep from traveling the easier their job gets.

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

They are not doing it to improve safety, they are doing it to provide the perception of safety.

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

Please tell us all how you would make air travel safe and convenient.

It WAS safe and convenient. Now it's no safer, and something less than convenient. You think selling $3 bottles of water on the other side of security is preventing terrorism?

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

In a way, 911 actually validated existing airport security. The hijackers were unarmed! No bombs, no machine guns. (And no, I don't count boxcutters).

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

Box cutters (we call the exacto knives - after September 11th all the news reports had to explain what box cutters were) fell well within the limits for carry on knives. Rather than do the SANE thing and ban knives in carry on baggage, someone decided it would be much more fun to ban nail clippers and water.

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

In July, 2001, I flew from Canada, through a connecting flight in Houston or Dallas, on the way to the Belize rainforest. I (and my fellow students) all had razor-sharp machetes either checked, or (in my case) in my carry-on. No joke. No one seemed to give a shit.

In 1997 I travelled back from Japan, and brought with me a boxed Samurai sword (not sharpened). People wondered how i'd get it home. It rode in the overhead bin.

Last time I travelled through the US, I had to throw out 50ml of cough syrup.

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

I wish your flight would have been on 9/11. Imagine how airport security would be different today if the story had been "4 terrorists, armed with box-cutters, attempted to hijack an airliner, only to have their limbs removed by a gang of Canadian college students armed with machetes".

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

Quote: It WAS safe and convenient.

It'd be nice to think that there was a golden age of air travel when nobody wanted to use aircraft as political weapons, but that only existed prior to the 1960s when air travel became affordable for the masses. There is NO period in time when airline travel was not subject to some kind of danger. Planes have always been targeted by hijackers and bombers because it's a strong political symbol that is guaranteed to generate news coverage.

For the record, metal detectors and security screening at airports started long before 9/11, and dangers to air travel started long before then as well.

In 1976, Cubana 455 [wikipedia.org], with 73 people on board, was brought down by a bomb.

In 1985, Air India Flight 182 [wikipedia.org], with 329 people on board, was brought down by a bomb.

In 1988, Pam-Am Flight 103 [wikipedia.org], with 259 people on board, was brought down by a bomb.

In 2000, Ahmed Ressam [wikipedia.org] pleaded guilty to trying to bomb Los Angeles International airport.

May I also remind you that, just in the year 1970, there were at least 13 attempted hijackings JUST TO CUBA [wikipedia.org]:

* February 16 * March 11 * April 22 * May 25 * July 1 * August 2 * August 19 * August 20 * September 19 * October 30 * November 1 * November 13 * December 19

And, even after 9/11, idiots [wikipedia.org] have tried to bring down commercial aircraft with bombs. They just happen to have been royally incompetent.

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

Please tell us all how you would make air travel safe and convenient.

I wouldn't do anything.

Air travel is one of the safest modes of transportation, and that was BEFORE all the new inconveniences. Nothing has changed. 9/11 didn't change that. And the new procedures and inconveniences won't stop it from happening again. The biggest and really only real improvement they've made is improving the security of the cockpit. (And -that- didn't inconvenience anybody.)

All this bullshit about terrorists sneaking a liquid onto a plane and blowing it up is bullshit. The 'terrorists' could just as easily detonate bombs and kill large amounts of people by setting of their bombs -at- the security checkpoints in the airport or getting into a ballgame, or anywhere else. Sir, liquids are banned...please remove your shoes. Sir? KA-BOOM!

And what are they going to do to stop that? Put security checkpoints before the security checkpoints??

What would I do to make america safer? I'd stop fixating on paranoid fear reactions, and spend my time improving relations with muslims, resolving our differences, helping their countries become prosperous, healing the rifts between us.

There will always be extremists. And people will always die. But I don't want to live in an isolated padded prison cell and forfeit all liberty for absolute safety.

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

Well, clearly *you're* not a politician. You're trying to calm people down, start a dialogue with disaffected muslims and assert reason in the face of panic.

Madness! You'll never get anywhere with clear thinking!

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

Indeed. I have been rather saddened by all the rhetoric about "taking the tough decisions" thrown around casually by the likes of Bush and Blair post-9/11. The really tough decision would have been not to commit vast resources to fighting something that is a genuine but ultimately small threat, but to reserve them for other, realistically greater needs, and to stand up before the people the day after the attacks and give a single, simple speech saying that while the losses should be mourned we will never give in to terrorism by changing our way of life out of fear.

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

And how many planes have been hijacked since? Is this:

a. Because of all of the new security measures.

or

b. Because passengers know the rules have changed and are likely to dismember anyone attempting a hijack.

Re:Haven't flown since before 9/11

Please tell us all how you would make air travel safe and convenient.

Stop going out of your way to piss off a large portion of the world's fanatics with your foreign policy.

Re:Fingers crossed

cancels out the positive effects of any five or ten polite & firm, well reasoned messages describing weaknesses and suggesting positive change.

What effect might that be? The TSA is the Theatrical Security Agency - any blog they put up is just more theater. Nothing that might change their focus from theater to actual security will come about from something as trivial as a blog because looking effective is their job, not being effective.

Re:Fingers crossed

Each "YOU GUYS ARE FASCIST NAZI LICKING THUGS!" message cancels out the positive effects of any five or ten polite & firm, well reasoned messages describing weaknesses and suggesting positive change.

There are already plenty of high-level, high-profile, already-accepted-as-smart people saying how completely fucked up TSA is, and TSA isn't listening to them, so why would they listen to us no matter how polite we are? Maybe it would be a good thing for them to hear how much every man-in-the-street hates them too. A lot of things come down to popularity, and an unpopular agency might have some serious problems staying around. And what will gain more press: a blog with a few well-reasoned comments or one packed with vitriol? Remember, there has never been a story on the news that said "3 million people in enjoyed a nice quiet night at home yesterday." I would love to see a story on the 11:00 news that say "Agency posts blog; 99% of comments all say what assholes they are." That would just make more people aware of how fucked up TSA is and maybe eventually lead to some change.

So yeah, go ahead and post some choice Bruce Schneier quotes if you want. But if you don't want to do that, FLAME ON!

Re:Fingers crossed

It's only to be applauded if they DO something. Until then it's a publicity stunt, or a lame outlet for the rage directed against them.