He needed it to regularly inspect his plane before take-off to ensure its safety, since his company would not provide one.

Sounds to me like the airline company is even dumber than the TSA.

How did they react when your friend refused to fly the aircraft, since he couldn’t inspect it before take-off?

(I’m assuming he didn’t let TSA’s stupidity put his passengers and people on the ground in danger, by not following safety procedures).

I’m pretty sure the TSA HAS killed by now.

Pretty sure? That’s good enough for me. String them up!

If I met him, I would gladly buy him a sensible library funding policy for his oscilloscope. And maybe a pony.

He wasn’t kidding. He said, “It’s not my preferred solution, but…” and kind of trailed off.”

You do realize that they, the American Power Elite feel pretty much the same way toward the “dyed-in-the-wool liberals”. And they’re pretty much not shy about saying so.

That being the case, it’s not surprising that some liberals are willing to “bring it” should it become necessary.

You see, unlike the neocons running this country, some U.S. citizens are willing to take up arms to defend this country and its constitution. If that means civil war, well, let’s hope Bushco doesn’t go that far.

I think you just Godwinned.

ANN has repeated this quote to a number of aviation professionals throughout the industry within the last hours, with reactions ranging from, “Oh my God,” to “that is most idiotic thing I have ever heard.” ANN finds it hard to disagree. The statement by TSA, depending on how you interpret it, has the potential to imperial the flying public in myriad ways, and seems a clear violation of a number of FARs as well as possible criminal statutes. TSA’s Lara Uselding, however, states that the memo is not intended to suggest any endorsement of the ORD inspection techniques that caused this fracas to start with — though any person reading it thus far (outside of TSA) has voiced the same concerns ANN has.”

I see a good case for sabotage here. Maybe he’s a terrorist, and KNEW what he was doing, thinking no one would notice.

And for those who don’t RTA the FAA ended up grounding 40 planes because of this “goof”.

Just to ensure my continued membership in the Pedants’ Guild, I have to point out that the idiot TSA goon “only” damaged 9 airplanes; it was 40 flights that were affected one way or another while the damaged jets were grounded for repairs (although I’d also bet that the 40 only refers to flights made by those particular jets–no doubt it didn’t include missed connections and the like).

TSA = FAIL

@37 RickB
… aircraft are covered in signage on where you can step and what is off limits, what is dangerous etc…

But that requires the ability to read.

As to @ 53. I do think Bush should be executed for his crimes. Good for the Goose (Saddam Hussein), good for the Gander (George W. Bush).

Where is the science that says two or three people can actually create a liquid bomb with stuff they brought on an airplane? Where is the science that says someone can stuff so much C4 in their shoe that they can actually blow up an airliner? And this incident is similar: where’s the science that says someone can climb on a fragile little TAT (total air temperature) probe, open a locked cockpit window from outside, and somehow damage an airplane any worse than the TSA agent did in trying to find out?

There is a joint responsibility between the TSA and each airline that airplanes parked on a ramp must me made safe from sabotage. The airlines actually train their employees in ramp and aircraft safety. It is obvious that the TSA doesn’t train their ramp personnel adequately. But, if he were responsible, he should be uncomfortable in his ignorance of airplanes. It is inexcusable that he didn’t know he was breaking them and making them unflyable.

If the TSA is concerned about actual ways in which airplanes can be sabotaged while parked on the ground, they should, in conjunction with the airlines and airframers determine what those possibilities are, and watch for them, and secure against them. They shouldn’t just send a goon out there with no training and no idea what he’s doing to wreck a bunch of airliners.

Sorry to sidetrack the discussion away from the politics of libery, and from the Nazis. ;-)

And the dangerous stooge will continue to draw his union wage. (locomotivebreath1901@18)

Uh, anyone who bothered to get their news from somewhere besides Rush Limbaugh and the Fox network might know that TSA employees are nonunion.

If they had a union, they might be able to attract something besides bottom-of-the-barrel employees, and we’d all be safer. But then those no-bid TSA contracts the Republicans handed to their cronies wouldn’t be quite so profitable (although I’m sure they could have found other corners to cut–they always do).

Of course, anyone who thinks unions are a bad thing–and that Americans should be paid as little as possible–might not get all this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hj_7U40z5I&feature=related

I’m surprised at you! Really. I laughed all day yesterday over your ”Viking spoons” solution (even called a couple friends to share it), but at no time did I think you would seriously advocate rape and murder [I'm still LOL as I type!] as a way of getting some fucking spoons. [5 minutes later ... Man, have you got my number!]

Takuan’s function on BB’s site is similar to the ”Honeymooners”’ Ed Norton’s day job, to ”keep things moving along;” and he usually does an excellent job of it, except for the occasional cranky or angry response that he has as much right to as the rest of us.

I remember Jackie Gleason’s character, Ralph Cramden, once saying: ”Norton, you’ve spent too much time in the sewers.”

So it could be that….

(Btw, how are those steam-punk anti-TSA pissed-off unicorn badges coming?)

http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

Does MENSA have idiots?

Oh dear, yes. Pick up a copy of their magazine and flick to the reader’s letters section.

Just because people have ‘intelligence’, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they know how to use it.