If there is ever a successful terrorist attack that involves an airplane, which probably won’t happen, the evildoers attacking the homeland will have gone through TSA Pre.
And with that, I have to board. Open thread.
A Prediction
by @heymistermix.com| 23 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Baud
I thought the entire TSA was security theater?
Have a good trip.
PurpleGirl
Where are you flying to? Also, TSA Pre… what? Pre-boarding? (I haven’t flown myself since 2005, so I don’t understand what you mean.)
ETA: Baud is right. Have a good trip.
raven
Marilu Henner has a super memory!
“NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) — Most people are able to recall big moments in their lives, but a select few are able to recall minute details of almost every day.
Marilu Henner recently explained to CBS 2′s Katie McGee how her Highly Superior Auto-Biographical Memory, or H-SAM, has allowed her to hold onto even the most minor of moments.
“You say April 3, 1992 and all of a sudden the whole week starts presenting itself to me. That was a Friday and I was in New York, actually. Early that week I had won $1,760 at a winner-take-all Academy Awards pool. It was a clean sweep of the Oscars, ‘Silence Of The Lambs’, Jodie Foster,” Henner said.
At least a dozen people in the United States have been diagnosed with H-SAM.
“Every single thing that you u have ever done is on your hard drive,” she explained.”
Central Planning
I need to get down to the TSA Pre-Check place in Pittsford one of these days. I had to pick “drop in any time and see what happens” because they are supposedly so busy.
I think as long as it takes me out of the general populace line at the airport it can only be a win. I’ve seen people with bottles of wine trying to get through. I told that guy he should crack them open and we’d all be happy to help drink them. He was not amused.
Or people who don’t take off all their jewelry, belt, shoes, electronics out of pockets, laptop out, etc. It’s not like there should be a surprise. They tell you to do that over, and over, and over.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Talk about security theatre… I was flying thru Madrid the day after ETA blew up the parking garage killing a couple people sleeping in their car. Had to go through 2 enhanced security checkpoints, along with a couple thousand other people, when we barely had enough time to switch flights under normal conditions. Meanwhile, my teenage sons and step daughter have disappeared…
The whole time I am wanting to scream, “THEY LEFT YESTERDAY YOU IDIOTS!!!”
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I don’t know how effective the TSA is against terrorism, but they confiscate a lot of guns. Can’t google now but it’s easy to find.
Ben Cisco
This is awesome: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/alternet-comics-jen-sorensen-corporate-science-deniers
PurpleGirl
@Central Planning: The last time I flew to Florida (1998?), I went through security minus all jewelry, shoes, and certain items of clothing with metal bits. I then went to the Ladies Restroom and put everything on. I did this because the time before, I had to be wanded several times because of clothing hooks and silver jewelry. Easier to just put aside what you will later add and go through security with no metal on you. And I did this in 2005 when I went to L.A.
MikeJ
@Ben Cisco: Funny cartoon. Pity he didn’t check conservapedia before deciding that black hole denialism was too far out to actually exist.
raven
OM-FUCKING-GOD. The Kenyan is extending the Obamacare deadline!!!! Benghazi!!!!
Baud
@raven:
There was a TV police show based on her ability.
raven
@Baud: The new law in Georgia says you gave have a piece in restricted areas in airports and won’t be subject to criminal charges if you “forgot” you had a piece.
raven
@Baud: Yea, I was reading that. Pretty cool.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I read about a wpman who had that. She called it a curse. The most mundane details of her life were permanently etched into her brain permanently. That bran muffin she had for breakfast on Sept 23, 1983? Yeah, it was a little stale.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: “I forgot it was there.”
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oh God, I’d remember every comment in every NSA thread. Hell on earth.
tesslibrarian
@raven: Once when she was on Letterman (late 80s or early 90s), he was giving her important event dates to see what she remembered. First date was the moon landing, and she sort of freaked out, asked who told him to use that date. Turns out it was the day she lost her virginity, and Dave still had a rep for being mean to celebrities, so she thought he was just being a jerk. She was a little embarrassed when her said, “you don’t remember the moon landing?”
Chris T.
@MikeJ: She, not he … see http://jensorensen.com/ (new cartoon every Monday!)
Snarki, child of Loki
TSA only does checks on flights departing from US airports.
And, let’s face it, terrorists INSIDE the US are far more likely to arm-up at a gun show and shoot up an elementary school, amirite?
randomworker
I did TSA Pre last week. First there’s no guarantee you will get it. From what I could tell they pull you out randomly. Second, your stuff still goes through the machine. Sure, you get to keep your shoes (and coat?) when you go through the metal detector. Iirc Europe doesn’t do shoes. So the risk is quite low I think. So one terrorist has like a 1 in 100 chance of TSA Pre. A group of terrorists traveling together? The odds of them all getting chosen for TSA Pre are pretty slim.
Gordon, the Big Express Engine
@randomworker: that’s not correct. TSA PRe is not random. You sign up for it and once you get accepted into the program you always get to use that lane. At busy airports you fly thru security.
Three-nineteen
@randomworker: I did it in December. They are putting people in the Pre-Check line “randomly” because soon they will start charging $50 for access to the easier line, and they wanted people to experience it. The “random” people they are selecting are people the TSA is sure aren’t terrorists who they think will pay for the shorter line.
Of course, the TSA people didn’t tell us why we were in the new line, so everyone was taking off their shoes and pulling out their one-quart ziplock bags of toiletries anyway. The guy at the scanner kept saying “you don’t have to take off your shoes” but by the time people could hear him it was too late.
boatboy_srq
@Three-nineteen: After twelve years of induced paranoia, the US is too used to the security theatre to appreciate the change. Pretty soon there’ll be gripes about the “lucky duckies” who aren’t charged the $50 just to get on the plane.