Unbelievable, just 6 years after terrorists hijacked ordinary planes from ordinary airports, and killed thousands of ordinary people like yourselves on an ordinary day and you already forgot. Do me a favor, take the train, God forbid you are inconvenienced.

Oh yeah? Where were you on the day? Because I’m real tired of having 9/11 thrown in my face, and being told We Must Never Forget It, when, thank you very much, there is no chance in hell of my ever forgetting it.

I’m even more tired of being told that because 9/11 happened, we have to give up all hope of normal law and normal civil rights and be grateful for it, because we aren’t stupid, and we know that what’s happening to us isn’t doing squat to make us or anyone else safer.

Anonymous #190, I’ve got to agree with Mister Boy, #193: freedom to travel is a right. Besides, what’s next after not flying? If they put up checkpoints on the roads, do we struggle cross-country on foot? If they build intrusive surveillance into the tubes, do we go back to running off our little manifestos and newsletters on mimeograph?

That’s a brilliant strategy you’ve got there: cede the fast, powerful, effective travel methods and the fast-moving jobs to the people who think oppression is okay, while we encumber ourselves with with the poky old time-intensive ones. It’s a great way to work for change, you betcha.

Freedom to travel. We used to have it. Now we have a system where our ability to travel is contingent on the whims of an ill-conceived badly-run wholly unaccountable federal bureaucracy. Its front-line workers aren’t a highly trained corps with good leadership and a strong sense of mission. They’re whoever got scooped up when George & Co. decided to create the TSA, and they know it. On top of that, they’ve got power without accountability, and there’s nothing more corrupting.

So don’t tell me that the freedom to travel isn’t a basic right, and that I ought to sit home and languidly signal my displeasure by depriving the airlines of my travel dollars. They won’t even notice, and it’ll do SFA toward getting our freedoms back.

Anonymous #189, I’d say you have the right of it. We go along with this crap because we have no idea what will happen if we don’t. Are we risking a half-hour’s unpleasantness, a cancelled trip, a week and a half in the bowels of the TSA’s terrorist assessment system, or years in prison without a trial or an attorney? We might fight back more often if we could judge the tradeoff, but we can’t.

I liked your last bit about the TSA workers and how they’re treated. You’re right, of course; they’re taught to suspect everyone, and they’re put in a position where everyone regards them with fear and loathing. You do that to anyone and they’ll take revenge in a thousand little ways.

i have no good stories but i did want to comment that LAX TSA has become noticeably more surly and cranky over the past year. they used to be reasonably polite (considering their job function) but no longer. i wonder if it’s because of the purported higher volume of travel or maybe a new boss. maybe they’ve realized that their jobs are stupid and meaningless and are collectively in the middle of a existential crisis (unlikely).

igvig, i’d be interested to hear your thoughts, as i too frequently fly in and out of southwest’s terminal so my comments are based upon my experiences there.

Flex JFK to LAX and transferred from terminal 4 for my international connection. Walking past the security checkpoint on the sterile side – it’s roughly opposite where the bus drops you – and one of the TSA operators screams “STOP! DO NOT MOVE!”

A good dozen more TSA guys materialize out of nowhere and I get to play statues with 20 or so people from my bus, and everyone in the queue for security.

There was no explanation – in fact we were forbidden from talking.

After about 5 mins some shouts “CLEAR!” and everyone gets back to business.

As you said – surreal.

-Cam.

Heh. I’d agree, and it sounds like it’s working quite well.

It’s now clear that once you step into an airport you are no longer a US citizen and have no rights – and they’re not going to let you forget it.

I can’t think of a better way to promote rail travel, can you?

I was already running late for a flight because my travel partner was pulled aside for a special security check in that consisted of them barely looking at her passport (from the Netherlands) and stamping her boarding pass after making us wait in an hour-long line.

Since we were running late, I picked up her bags after they’d gone through the X-ray, since she was busy being frisked and having powder rubbed on her shoes. Since I had touched her bags, they had to go through the X-ray machine a second time … in case I had somehow slipped something in even though a TSA person had been watching me the whole time.

If weren’t in danger of missing our flight (which we miraculously made), I would have asked for an explanation.

By playing ‘freeze tag’ with a mass of people near baggage-claim, they remove/reduce the pressure of people claiming taxis, etc. … reduces the chances of missing the actual person they want to follow, detain, etc.?

Just a hypothesis, and probably gives TSA more forethought than they deserve.

I wonder do Americans still think they’re “free”?

After it happened, we were told it was just a drill.

Well, now you know what it’s like. While they can’t yet shoot you on the spot for no good reason, there is a whole world of pain that TSA can bring upon you, both short term and long term. Of course, nobody objects. No one wants their cavaties searched, be sued, or have their right to fly revoked. Imagine what the compliance level will be once people start to disappear (not there yet, but could happen eventually).

And that’s how it works. Not because the Hitlers of this world make crazy rules. Totalitarianism works not only because mean-spirited people like to work for organizations like the Gestapo or the TSA. It works because everybody else has a lot to lose.

• How about everyone lay on the floor spread eagle, maybe making imaginary snow angles
• We could all start singing, few choices there macerana, YMCA, of course with hand gestures or maybe just something like America the Beautiful.
• We could slowly all begin to strip, that would be good it anyone asks why just tell them its always good to be prepared.
• There is always Break dancing or a good Pop and Lock routine in place.
• How about a game of Marco Polo with no one moving

Basically we need a flash crowed that is waiting to happen and let the TSA trigger it, I figure come holiday time with all the college kids on flights there will be a few chances for a good display.

I guess we can always just plugin the head phones at all times and ignore the commands. If an ipod is a get out of freeze tag free card then I will have one surgically implanted.

One advice: When something like that happens, just pretend it doesn’t bother you…It undermines their ego… If you try to be a hero, it will only excite them more…Psychology 101…

Why are we scared? Because we know that even the most minor functionary has the ability to punish us in a wide variety of ways. In an airport, any TSA employee can threaten you, seize any of your property, detain you, force you to miss your flight, or have you arrested. And that’s nothing compared to what a police officer can do. We know that we keep our liberty only at their discretion, so we don’t want to take the risk of making trouble for ourselves by disagreeing or disobeying.

On a day-to-day level, it doesn’t matter what our Constitutional rights are. It doesn’t even matter that many TSA employees and cops are decent people. On a day-to-day level, what matters is that we know there are a lot of people who have the ability to punish us, that the punishment is arbitrary and unpredictable, and that we don’t know whether the particular TSA employee or cop we are facing is a decent person or even rational.

And the result is a cowed population.

5 Minutes:
Explain you have been on a long flight and need the bathroom. This will probably be denied.

10 Minutes:
Give fair warning that you are in great urinary distress. Again, this will probably ignored.

15 Minutes:
Whip it out and piss on the floor.

It’s purely a message they’re sending, and even though we can all agree that the TSA is bumblefrekked out the ying-whazoo, what the hell else can they do?

We normal, “just want to get from here to there” folks unfortunately get caught up in the bumble-shmegma that is their tactics.

Sucks.