TSA Security Theater/Tuesday Open Post
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UPDATE: I recieved a link to the following TSA/Airport security parody last night. It makes a good (wildly exaggerated, perhaps… perhaps) intro to the rant below:
Some very smart people have observed the “security theater” that is the goon squad disingenuously labeled “TSA”. Martin Roesch of Security Sauce has commented,
What are we to suppose is the duty cycle of a baggage screener in a typical American airport with a rate of data flow of 172 passengers per hour with two shoes and two carry-ons per passenger? The screener gets a whopping 5.2 seconds to pattern match for the entire set of bad things per item per passenger. I’m not taking account of time spent in spool up/spool down periods for starting/stopping the belt either, so we’re probably talking about half that effectively. 2.6 seconds. My laptop bag currently contains a PowerBook, Airport Express, digital camera, airplane power adapter, iPod, EVDO PCMCIA card, cell phone, two laptop batteries, 80GB portable firewire hard drive, laptop power adapter and a bag filled with various wires and other widgetry to make it all plug together. Not to mention books, pens and other business stuff. 2.6 seconds to positively identify all of that as non-dangerous. Let’s be generous and call it 3 seconds. If the set of things that need to be detected (signatures) is constrained to guns, knives and bomb materials, I’d say grudgingly that a motivated screener could maintain alertness through their entire period manning the machine to have a reasonable probability of detection of the things in the set of threats. Once you extend that signature set to, well, pretty much everything that’s not paper or cloth you’re going to have an analysts nightmare…
Well, d’oh. Even assuming the mythic “motivated screener,” remember that these workers aren’t necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer to begin with
My US Marine Corps son returned from Iraq last week with all ten fingers and ten toes (I counted ‘em). When his batallion stopped over in Maine for fuel and customs, they ran them through TSA security for some stupid reason before they got back on their rented 747.
Now imagine this, a USMC Lance Corporal with a M16A4, a M249 and a bayonet in a sheath at his belt, going through TSA security. They ignored the machine guns and the foot long bayonet. However, they took away his tube of toothpaste as it violated their rules ! What is the TSA thinking ? My thought is that we have a bunch of idiots in the TSA.
Dumbasses, indeed.
“When a stupid man does something he knows is wrong, he always says it is his duty.”
Is there anyone out there with enough neurons to make a synapse who can honestly say that the security theater the TSA provides really results in any net increase in airport security? Stupid people doing stupid things, stupidly. But that’s all right. The real purpose of the TSA is to train citizens into subjects, sheeple and it does that very well, indeed.
h.t. Chaos Manor Musings
Posted: October 10th, 2006 under Blogroll.
Tags: stupid is as stupid does
Trackback URL for this post: http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/wp-trackback.php?p=2517
Comments
Trackback from The Florida Masochist
Time October 10, 2006 at 8:33 AM
The Knucklehead of the Day award…
Today’s winner is Mexico Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez….
Trackback from The Florida Masochist
Time October 10, 2006 at 8:49 AM
About time…
From AP-
WASHINGTON – More than 2 million Americans depend on pacemakers or defibrillators to keep their hearts beating right, but those lifesaving implants come with a price: They’re not allowed in MRI machines, leaving these patients out of lu …..
Trackback from Blue Star Chronicles
Time October 10, 2006 at 11:19 AM
Cold Alaskans Say NO to Hugo Chavez Oil…
As we all know, Hugo Chavez has attempted to use his oil resources to manipulate public opinion. He has donated oil to poorer United States communities in an apparent attempt to get support from the poor of our country.
Unfortunately for Chavez, w…..
Trackback from Planck’s Constant
Time October 10, 2006 at 11:38 AM
Vices Are Not Crimes…
minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon.
Four worms were placed into four separate jars….
Trackback from Blue Star Chronicles
Time October 10, 2006 at 11:44 AM
Dixie Chicks: I Will Never Apologize…
Ms. Underestimated presents the Dixie Chicks Mad TV style….
Trackback from Blue Star Chronicles
Time October 10, 2006 at 11:52 AM
War Widow to be Deported…
Apparently, you can only stay in the United States if you come here illegally. Those same rights are not extended to the spouses of our service men and women….
Trackback from The Clash of Civilizations
Time October 10, 2006 at 1:00 PM
U.N.S.C. : Don’t Do That or We’ll Warn You Again…
I mean, I know it takes a long time to sit down, write some stuff, talk about writing some stuff, vote on writing some stuff – think some more about writing some stuff, wonder if the stuff that was written was a bit too harsh, since you wouldn’t want….
Trackback from Woman Honor Thyself
Time October 10, 2006 at 3:00 PM
MerrY PenguinS…
The same week Principal Bernadette Floyd axed a penguin Christmas play she deemed religious, 200 public high school students from three counties sang about Jesus in an honors choir in Fort Pierce ? a dichotomy some say proves the St.Lucie County Scho…
Trackback from Woman Honor Thyself
Time October 10, 2006 at 3:01 PM
Oops…More CarnagE…
Somalia’s powerful Is–lamist movement declared “ho-ly war” against neighboring Ethiopia after a Mus–lim-held town near the seat of the weak government fell to Ethiopian and Somali troops.
……
Trackback from The Florida Masochist
Time October 10, 2006 at 5:02 PM
Frederick Forsyth’s The Afghan…
Before starting with my comments, I warn readers there are plot spoilers in this post. If you haven’t read the book, you may want to skip the rest of this post….
Trackback from The Random Yak
Time October 10, 2006 at 7:10 PM
Frivol News: Mental Health Day Edition…
In Germany, victims of kidnapping qualify for state compensation.?
Boldly going where no one (sane) has gone before, an (cough) enterprising German attorney has apparently decided to represent a previously under-represented class of plaintiffs – Germa…
Comment from David
Time October 10, 2006 at 10:07 PM
Diane,
C’mon, now! Why insult fast food workers by comparing TSA goons with them? That’s just not right!
Trackback from Planck’s Constant
Time October 11, 2006 at 12:50 PM
More than 6 million Palestinians died since 2000…
In an update of a two-year-old survey that sparked wide disagreement, Johns Hopkins researchers now estimate that more than a half-million Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and its bloody aftermath….
Trackback from Mensa Barbie Welcomes You
Time October 11, 2006 at 2:37 PM
At the Edge: N.K.’s Volatile Stance…
Two examples which have been triggers for the irrational and volatile “war” stance, presented by the Kim Jong Il regime…Video: Intercepted missile….
Comment from Diane
Time October 10, 2006 at 4:57 AM
You want fries with that?