Semantics duly noted

 

My sister-in-law traveled from Reno to Philadelphia last week. TSA stole her tiny souvenir pocket knife from her keychain, and left a butcher knife with an 8" serrated blade in her carry-on bag.

She found the knife at our house when she was looking for something in her bag. Apparently she had brought it to work to chop up a pineapple, and a co-worker had stuck it in her bag when they were done, not realising it was going on a plane later that day.

I don't believe TSA would prevent any moderately trained terrorist from getting weapons on a plane. It seems like the usual US knee-jerk reaction to a crisis - spend a fortune on useless window dressing and pretend it's safer. All it does is slow things down, and irritate the crap out of people.

 

 

Loved lig's respose

 

I forgot to take a swiss army knife out of my bag once. Security caught it and the State Police read me the riot act. This was before the mandatory fines. I know it is inconsistent, but even the mos cynical among us would admit the chances of catching a terrorist are better now than they were. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

As to El Al, Lude dude and I agree on this one. I have witnessed their check-in first hand on a couple of occasions. My brother-in-law is an Isreali. Americans would not tolerate it. I hope we never come to that.

 

I used to run a business that required me to go to Israel about once a month; EL Al+JFK=travelling hell. However, I did feel safe, unlike with the mickey mouse TSA.

 

I heard today that since 9-11 the TSA has confiscated over 4.7 MILLION knives, and 2,150 GUNS from passengers trying to board flights.

Yea, i feel a little safer and YEA, I want that big busted woman behind me searched THOROUGHLY!

 

Do they have stats for how many of those "knives" are of the pocket swiss army variety? Are nail scissors knives or do they have separate stats for those? What about nail files?

The TSA is a big joke.

 

I don't have a problem with it as long as I am able to request a private area and a female security officer. According to what I read, both of these are required to be provided. If they aren't, I won't allow it.

 

Americans seem to tolerate a lot of things these days that I wouldn't have thought possible twenty or thirty years ago. I never cease to be amazed and dismayed at our complacency in regards to the ever increasing governmental intrusion into our lives and the resulting erosion of personal freedom.

Dean