Comments on: TSA agent pokes fingers in ashes of traveler's dead grandfather, spills them on floor, cackles

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:14:00 +0000

Superfly?

By: mccrum

mccrum — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:42:00 +0000

Wait, you guys can’t opt out? That’s messed up. We had to fly recently and I wouldn’t let my wife or kid go through them.

By: underscorex

underscorex — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:51:00 +0000

Rubbed it on her gums like Superfly.

By: underscorex

underscorex — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:50:00 +0000

It is, in fact, a felony to record TSA procedures, if I’m not mistaken. (This might have come up in an interview with Penn Jillette – he wanted to do an episode of Bullshit! about airport security, but the actual production process would have sent them all to jail.)

By: underscorex

underscorex — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:49:00 +0000

Besides “Don’t be a visible minority”?

By: Ray Perkins

Ray Perkins — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:07:00 +0000

What, are they a shoe-box full of VHS tapes, or something?

By: Ray Perkins

Ray Perkins — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:03:00 +0000

This seems to be an example of nervous laughter: http://www.wimp.com/iceclimber/
Or maybe climbers just don’t give a shit.

By: dhask

dhask — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:45:00 +0000

If by “commonwealth” you mean the new Oz scanners, rest assured that here in Australia our intrusive and ineffectual scanners are THz, not X-Ray. You may have your time wasted, and your privacy invaded, but you are not being ionised.

By: benher

benher — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:41:00 +0000

Explains the laughter and long-winded explanations anyway.

By: benher

benher — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:39:00 +0000

They just happened to lose the one video where they misbehave? Too bad, because I think that’s the one where 5 guys slip by everyone in the background twiddling their mustaches and grinning.

By: cjporkchop

cjporkchop — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:37:00 +0000

I want that quote on a t-shirt.

By: inness

inness — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:34:00 +0000

My wife flew out of a small airport here in our commonwealth today and sure enough, pornoscanners. I remember the local ‘news teams’ reciting the praises of the ‘new security’ several months ago, seemingly directly from the TSA PR sheets. I was furious, and standing there behind the glass with our three children as she was told to lift her arms and ‘pose’. I apparently looked so angry that several uniformed ‘agents’ huddled together, sneaking glances at me, so I stepped back and huddled with the kids. No action was made, but I’ll bet if I’d been trying to board a plane I would have faced the wrath of ‘You’re not flying out of here today, mister’ which is the only real power the half-pint security guards really wield. As I sit here and read this now I’m infuriated again, having been reminded of the goddamn radiation those things put out; my wife’s family has a history of cancer, so in order to go and visit her family in another part of the U.S. she has to be subjected to an increased risk? What the hell’s happened to this country?

By: Peter Ping

Peter Ping — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:54:00 +0000

Who wants to bet the TSA lady licked her fingers to see if it was drugs too..

By: HahTse

HahTse — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:52:00 +0000

If I remember correctly, you are not allowed to tape any “security measures” or “sensitive areas”. They would just confiscate your camera and ban you from the airport (or at least they would try).

By: Emmett Brown

Emmett Brown — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:14:00 +0000

Thank god these people are protecting us from…… wait. what?

By: Gyrofrog

Gyrofrog — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:36:00 +0000

Not the first time they couldn’t provide a surveillance tape:
http://harryshearer.com/news/le_show/player/?id=875&start=23:25
(Not nearly as serious as this case, though)

By: Daizymae

Daizymae — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:06:00 +0000

That woman is no lady! Don’t expect any kind of humane response from her or from any of TSA’s henchmen.

They lost the video? How convenient!

If TSA can’t even keep track of their security tapes, how are they going to catch a terrorist?

By: malindrome

malindrome — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:45:00 +0000

Because you should never go against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line!

By: traalfaz

traalfaz — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:56:00 +0000

Clearly it is every citizen’s responsibility to video record their experiences at security checkpoints. Just to help out the TSA, you know. Just in case they “can’t find” their tapes if something happens. Come on folks, it’s the least we can do for these folks “guarding our safety.”

By: Marko Raos

Marko Raos — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:05:00 +0000

Garbage people.

By: MrHarley

MrHarley — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:02:00 +0000

$8 billion per year and they “cannot locate video” ahh good times!

By: Ky Platt

Ky Platt — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:56:00 +0000

Why does it matter that his grandfather was Sicilian?

By: Bink Binkerson

Bink Binkerson — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:55:00 +0000

Border patrol stops, searches nowhere near borders! They do it now….

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/aclu-sues-border-patrol-over-traffic-stops

By: Bink Binkerson

Bink Binkerson — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:50:00 +0000

Ash Holes.

By: millie fink

millie fink — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:40:00 +0000

And let’s not forget Stop and Frisk. (I wonder how to boycott that? Just don’t go to NYC, I guess.)

By: panhead20

panhead20 — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:30:00 +0000

“Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart.”
Justice Robert Jackson, chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials

I will not subject myself nor my family to needless radiation exposure nor TSA molestation. My family and I will not be flying until the TSA changes these procedures.

T – Terrorists
S – Searching
A – Americans

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:14:00 +0000

Gross Negligence

By: zartan74

zartan74 — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:53:00 +0000

Sounds like a great way to smuggle cocaine.

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:49:00 +0000

…a professional environment where interacting with people is at the heart of their public service duties.

No, she works at the TSA.

But I do know what silkox is on about. Do something appalling, neurotic laughter kicks in, then you know you’re behaving even more inappropriately, which makes you laugh even harder, and finally the only thing you can do is strip search the passenger and add them to the No Fly List.

By: silkox

silkox — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:38:00 +0000

BTW, I flew from Tel Aviv to Seattle via Newark a few weeks ago. Tel Aviv: kept shoes and belt on through security, no pornoscanner. In Newark, had to remove shoes and belt and go through pornoscanner.