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Opinions about the TSA and practices

Pick as many as apply

  • The TSA can do whateverthey want - including strip searches and body cavaty searches

    Votes: 1 4.2%
  • The TSA should have limits on how invasive a search can be

    Votes: 14 58.3%
  • The TSA is ineffective and should not exist at all

    Votes: 7 29.2%
  • The TSA is necessary, but currently ineffective

    Votes: 7 29.2%
  • The TSA is necessary and effective

    Votes: 5 20.8%
  • The TSA should not exist (for reason(s) other than being ineffective)

    Votes: 3 12.5%
  • The enhanced patdowns are excessive and need to be dropped.

    Votes: 11 45.8%
  • The enhanced patdowns are excessive and need to be modified.

    Votes: 6 25.0%
  • The enhanced patdowns are necessary to assure safety.

    Votes: 2 8.3%
  • Less invasive and equally thorough methods are available.

    Votes: 9 37.5%

  • Total voters
    24
I'm not sure why many here feel we need to allow a government agency to engage in questionable action right up to the constitutional limits without question. There are plenty of actions that constitutional, but are still totally wrong.
 
As a pilot, I believe our failure to spend money on the update of our air traffic control systems is a much bigger threat to aviation (and thus the safety of the air traveling public) than a terrorist sneaking his way onto an airliner.
 
I'm not sure why many here feel we need to allow a government agency to engage in questionable action right up to the constitutional limits without question.

in the case of the people who you see interviewed on the news who support this stuff, because they - IMO of course, don;t think rationally - get all the facts, and decide based on that... and in the case of the few who continue to generate rabid blind support even after shown the factual inaccuracies of their reasoning for supporting this, well, does science have an explanation for that?
 
my feelings?

well, I feel the TSA should not exist.

as for their practices, i'm not a fan... but i do request pat downs over xrays when i'm confronted with the choice.
i'f i'm to be frisked like a suspected criminal, I want the moron doing it to work for it, not sit in a chair and look at pictures....he's gonna have to run his paws over my junk and live with the knowledge that his career only amounts to just that.. a junk groper.
I do everything I can to make them uncomfortable with their chosen profession.
 
I think one problem is that the government is so involved with airlines. The planes don't belong to the public, but the government heavily regulates them, builds them airports, and often bails them out of trouble. Of course, the intent is to provide safety/security to citizens and make airplane travel accessible at the same time. It's hard for me to believe that one of the folks on this thread complained because he couldn't get to Hawaii without being searched. Without the gov't, you couldn't get there anyway. And, who would fly to Hawaii if they knew no one was searching anyone? Let's just tell all the nut jobs that airplane riders going to Hawaii are fare game.

I can't believe folks complain about the current system. Ever fly internationally? Pay attention to the uzzi's that they carry in some countries.

Yes, you might have someone touch you. No, they don't want to touch you any more than a doctor wants to give you a rectal exam - and you pay him for that. Somebody has search you if you want to keep flying - not because they're mean and not because your dangerous - because you MIGHT be dangerous and that kind needs to know he'll be searched. As long as the TSA warns you that they're going to do it before you get there, there shouldn't be a problem. People can argue about Constitutionality all they want, but no one makes you fly. It amazes me that some of the same people who want to get rid of TSA support nationalized healthcare (it's ok to make someone pay you because they're alive, but not ok to make someone submit to a search if they want to ride your plane?) Also, the airlines want the TSA's to be there. It may be a gov't agency, but the airlines would have to have private companies do it if the gov't didn't.

Now, I would happily agree that the effectiveness and/or procedures and/or training could be improved.
 
ya know, we went on for decades and decades without being searched just to board an airplane.... and now, because of 9/11, it's a necessity?

and yes, the airlines want the TSA there... having their security and liability subsidized is a preferred scenario for them.

if airlines had to provide their on security, it would cost more to fly.... and some idiot talking head would say that only the rich can now afford to fly... and the poor would be priced out.
so, ya see, its a form of social justice to be frisked and treated like a suspect by federal government agents.
 
And, who would fly to Hawaii if they knew no one was searching anyone? Let's just tell all the nut jobs that airplane riders going to Hawaii are fare game.

I would gladly let all the nutjobs know that MY flights were fair game if it meant that I could get on my flight without anything more complicated than a metal detector. There just aren't that many people who are willing/able to commit terrorist acts on airplanes.

I can't believe folks complain about the current system. Ever fly internationally? Pay attention to the uzzi's that they carry in some countries.

I've done quite a bit of international travel and I've never seen that, but maybe I'm just going to the wrong countries. Of the 15ish countries I've been to, American security at the airports is by far the most intrusive. If there are other countries that are worse, that's a problem that needs to be fixed in THEIR system, rather than a benchmark we should compare ourselves to.

Also, the airlines want the TSA's to be there. It may be a gov't agency, but the airlines would have to have private companies do it if the gov't didn't.

That's OK, at least then we'd get some diversity in the policies and we'd get a more accurate reflection of the wishes of travelers. If there were some people like me who were not at all worried about terrorist attacks, and others who lost sleep over the thought of being blown out of the sky by a terrorist, different airlines could cater to different market segments. Some could opt for a simple metal detector, and others could opt for the full cavity search.
 
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It's hard for me to believe that one of the folks on this thread complained because he couldn't get to Hawaii without being searched. Without the gov't, you couldn't get there anyway. And, who would fly to Hawaii if they knew no one was searching anyone? Let's just tell all the nut jobs that airplane riders going to Hawaii are fare game.

I think the problem is a matter of HOW, not that they are being searched - especially the way it is done now.



I can't believe folks complain about the current system. Ever fly internationally? Pay attention to the uzzi's that they carry in some countries.

But this isn't said other country, now is it?

Yes, you might have someone touch you. No, they don't want to touch you any more than a doctor wants to give you a rectal exam - and you pay him for that.

1. So somehow, in spite of other countries with better records than us not needing to touch us when we pass through the airport, it is still - magically - needed?
2. Who gives a damn if they like it or not, the fact of the matter is that they are subjecting us to this when methods exist that get the job done without touching us.

Somebody has search you if you want to keep flying

Not the subject of objection - if you read carefully, all the complaints were about the agency involved and the methods. Reasonable methods - like bag x-rays, bomb sniffing dogs, etc - are cool, but the body scanners, the pat downs? ESPECIALLY when the invasiveness, effectiveness - or lack thereof - and safey or lack thereof are called into question?


GreenvilleGrows;105982449 People can argue about Constitutionality all they want said:
So what?

Like someone already stated, sorry I'm bad at remembering names, there is no clause - "unless there is a choice" - the govt. [who is doing this] still has to obey the law, AND the spirit of the constitution, and not piss it away for some unproven "need to," or some unfounded claim that it is needed to keep us safe.

And WHO are you to determine whether or not flying is a choice? Some people HAVE TO for work, others go away to school and need to get to and fro quickly, hell, some people live on islands [like Hawaii] - and to get off it to the mainland U.S quickly, the fastest way is by airplane.


It amazes me that some of the same people who want to get rid of TSA support nationalized healthcare (it's ok to make someone pay you because they're alive, but not ok to make someone submit to a search if they want to ride your plane?)

1. Red herring, this is about the TSA, nothing else
2. The arguments are not boiling down to, or ever do boil down to wanting no searches at all. It'd be prudent for you to read the arguments more carefully - it seems like too many people in support of the TSA's methods are incapable of doing that given how they make mistakes like yours EVEN WHEN presented with corrections, counter-arguments... which, funnily enough, you just demonstrated.

Also, the airlines want the TSA's to be there. It may be a gov't agency, but the airlines would have to have private companies do it if the gov't didn't.

1. [source?]
2. That isn't a bad thing per-se, sure prices MAY go up, but a fair price to pay for methods that are logical, less dubious [safety/health/constitutionality wise, and effective.


There has to be a limit to this - where people say "ok, this is going too far," or in response to certain absurd arguments that boil down to chicken little in support of measures like that we face now, people just come out and call those making said arguments out for making insanely idiotic, and absurd arguments not rooted in anything other than fear and hyperbole.
 
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If I travel by airline, what are my chances of having the aircraft in which I am riding hijacked by terrorists? Suppose we have no security measures at all in place to prevent it, what risk would I, as an airline passenger, face of being victim of a hijacking? One in a thousand? One in ten thousand? I very much doubt that the risk is nearly that high. One in an million? That seems like a plausible estimate.

If I travel by airline, what are my chances of being sexually-assaulted by a TSA pervert?

Which of these is really the greater danger to my safety and security?



They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.


—Benjamin Franklin—​


And to expand on Mr. Franklin's point, in this case, we're not even getting any extra safety. In fact, we being forced to accept a much, much, much greater violation of our safety, than that against which we are allegedly being protected.
 
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