http://postcardsfromacrossthepond.blogspot.com/2011/02/naked-truth.html
Given the very intimate area the new bomber placed the explosive I would guess we will soon see people having to give up all their clothing and enter their flights, stark naked. Well at least that would follow the logic used these past few years to justify, being groped and subjected to “search” techniques which are meant or said intention is to keep passengers safe. All the money spend and the loss of liberty to outsmart these would be murderers will not help locate explosive devices deeply embedded in the crotch of clothing, or worse inside the body. What is to prevent these unmentionable detonations for occurring outside of the actual airline; being set off for some other reason. Was the airline the real target? Or was this a run at seeing if the device could be found.
Yet we come back to the obvious, there is no way without the mole we could “see” this type of device meant to cause death and destruction. Was it a perverse way of getting their jollies off; or are the terrorists watching to see how far we will go to “protect’ airline passengers. Sorry I don’t buy the idea that these type of explosives will be obvious to anyone. Under the way to much information file, the visual I saw of the device on the news looked as if the cotton paneling either was fortified with a female hygiene product in order to secret the device, or those are some odd-looking underwear, creating a little extra “surprise” in the male “package”, El Yucko.
Aren’t we at the point now that the profiling of passengers is far less offensive than whatever alternative there is to implanted explosive devices in the human body, or the lat piece of clothing next to the skin? yet I know fools, and I doo mean Fools, who would strip butt naked in order to fly , while telling me it is a justified method in order to keep us safe.
B.S., it is humiliating already the grop-fest and pornograph viewing expected in order to fly. What the hell is wrong with us as consumers that we don’t demand the airlines get their guts together and fight back against the regulations in place, that failed in this new attempt to cause death and destruction on an air carrier. Most forms of law enforcement have to use profiling in order to have the success to carry out their job, which is to protect and serve the public, not humiliate and invent charges to offset the cost for putting consumers through hell in order to fly. That charge for luggage, the singular piece that indicates you aren’t some nutcase, that you actually have a destination to go to where you will be spending time at and are traceable to, shouldn’t cost extra, it is an expectation of travel to have that one piece of luggage, usually. I get there are those who abuse the luggage weight and amount, there always have been; but c’mon we all know this new set of fees is based on having to pay for services and issues mostly related to security-as the airlines are taxed further to cover lawsuits past, and security present.
Common sense has gone out the window over this past decade. Stupidity rules the day with justifications built on lies and politics. Arguments can easily be made that these methods to secure passengers are working. I can’t speak from experience because I still reuse to fly, I know myself well enough that not only am I now a nervous flyer(having loved the adventure in the past), I don’t and won’t go through what I have heard is a pretty intense search in order to fly. Profile me please! I don’t have the experience beyond the days of having to have the shoes removed, and going through the basic scanner, as I haven’t flown since 2008. I just can’t do it. I travel by all other means. I don’t like being scared witless while flying, and I am afraid I will freak out over being groped in such an intimate manner.
The Associated Press found out about the new Underwear Bomber threat last week, but the White House and CIA asked them to keep it under wraps “because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way,” and they complied…Nothing about the War on Terror is simple. Techniques that work, from “enhanced interrogation” to drone strikes, are ruled out of order, while the TSA pretends it can stop surgically implanted bombs by ordering tow-headed four-year-old-girls to choke back their tears and spread their legs, because they broke out of line at the airport to give Grandma a big hug.Source: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=51357
Yes, I know we aren’t suppose to bring the president’s or other politicians kids into the mix, but the rule makers and law givers will never have to watch their children or grandchildren suffer this assault on their person in the name of security. I mean if you look at the new style underwear bomb, the padding is reminiscent of huggies or depends or feminine hygiene; so logic kind of dictates that children, the incontinent for medical reasons, the elderly, and women who are on their cycle may be subjected to more intense and vigorous examination while trying to pass screening in order to fly. Not to mention men and I suppose some soul will have to decide if they are anatomically out of whack with expected proportionality in the crotch area. What they can do about internally planted devices in the body is beyond me, and what is to prevent either of these two methods from being set off in the actual airport, isn’t the result the same? Time to profile, people, way past time. Is this part of the methods used? What do you think, how do we go about making it safe to fly, again, or can we?
It’s clear that the terrorists aren’t really interested in bringing down a jet liner with an undie bomb, they’re accomplishing far more damage by inconveniencing and embarrassing millions of innocent travelers, and forcing the airline industry to invest millions of dollars in ridiculous screening devices.
Let’s face it, if the terrorists truly wanted to blow up air liners, they would develop a turban bomb, because rather than risk being accused of profiling, the TSA will simply wave through a swarthy, sweating, turban wearing young man who’s glancing furtively about, while they giddily grope a ninety year old woman and dismantle her wheelchair.
Couldn’t agree with you more Oonofre.
I wonder how much funding Al Qaeda gets from Amtrak.
Having worked for Amtrak , I can say none. Having to call police and law enforcement due to bomb threats quite frequently I can say none. Because Amtrak handles threats in a reasonable manor and does not use scare tactics on the public does not mean they do not occur. When a bomb was planted in the bag room at Penn Station NY over the room where I worked and thank God for the NYPD bomb squad who disarmed it, it was a Puerto Rican Liberation Group that planted it. Many different groups use bomb threats to bring attention to their cause.
sorry for the rant but this is a very sore subject with me. If not for the NYPD, I could have been killed and my kids left without a mother because some fruitcake has a cause. It is also why I totally despise bill ayers and can not understand how any university would let him teach
Wow Helen, I guess humor should just be outlawed since there’s always SOMEONE who might be offended by any joke.
I can’t wait to read the enraged response to my first comment from a TSA agent.
Sheesh
I don’t think anyone had any idea you may have been through this Helen, and I am sorry you have been.I can’t imagine either what this put you and your family through.
I have traveled by Amtrak a great deal, and still prefer it to planes; no matter how long it takes me to get from here to there. I have not however been on a train in the last three years, so I don’t know what their prcuations are anymore.
there are a few things that I am really touchy about and bomb threats are one of them.
I can remember doing a lot of praying when we got a bomb threat about a train that was coming into the station through a tunnel under a river. We could not notify the train because we did not know if the radio would set it off.
The bomb in the bag room was live and thank God for the NYPD bomb squad.
I have worked for a newspaper that got bomb threat everytime some one did not like a story or an opinion piece.
I have worked for three railroads and had to deal with kooks that think they can get their name in the paper by using bombs or bomb threats.
You can not live your life in fear of bombers or their threats, but they are to be taken seriously
Sounds as though you have had way too many incidences with bombs; so sorry this has happened. I know many of us have experienced them as pranks in schools and other venues. I believe they are taken quite seriously.
They must absolutely be taken seriously, HekenK. I have a feeling, though, that the government is not taking it seriously for if they were, profiling would be at the top of the list. Hell, the FBI has personnel trained to profile all sort of criminals. They could do the same with terrorists. But they would rather keep us worried and “helpless” by forcing all this groping and pornographing and blathering. It hasn’t made us any safer, really.
Everyone on blogs can’t possibly know what situations upset others until they say so. No harm no foul, Onofre.
One of my favorite things about riding the train is how they can just stop and toss off rowdy passengers. No serious threats as far as I know, but it is hilarious to hear them announce that they will be stopping to “detrain a passenger.” You might be in the mountains or the middle of a corn field, doesn’t matter, if you’re annoying or rude, you’ll be getting off right here.
I guess we can’t do that on airplanes, but it sure would make the general public behave better.
They just asked a question on Bret B’s show, have you been touched in an inappropriate manner during a TSA screening; how the hell could you tell the idffference?
I am going to need much more cleaning and hygiene if we are flying naked. Seriously. Both of the passengers and the planes themselves
Common sense has gone out the window over this past decade. Stupidity rules the day with justifications built on lies and politics.
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So true. All this screening of passengers is akin to arresting everyone in a two-block area of a murder. Good police work using *profiling* would eliminate most of the congestion at airports and reduce the number of mindless TSA agents of misfortune standing around looking self-important while issuing officious orders to passengers about absolutely nothing.
What happened to the frequent flyer list they were going to put together so that those who fly often could be expedited through to their planes? I used to fly more than 12 round trips per year but haven’t flown since 2007 and I will never fly again so long as they have these barely-evolved protohumans throwing their weight around at airports under the authority of a useless TSA.
Gert rid of the groping, get rid of the pornographs, fire three-quarters of the TSA, develop a frequent flyer’s list, and profile, profile, profile.
And dismantle the Department of Homeland Security.
I can’t wait!
You can take it and you deserve it!