Gladly.
Random security harrassments being required is stupid. And un-American. They are disgusting acts of terrorism against citizens who simply want to travel without harassment. Unless there is probable cause for a search, just checking people for the hell of it is going to continue to destroy the airlines economic viability.
Not letting people have pool cues, cricket bats, pocket knives, etc. on the plane is stupid. No one is going to hijack an airplane with these objects. Oooohhh someone could *conceivably* do it. Yeah, and monkeys could *conceivably* fly out of my butt. There will be no hijackings of US aircraft with pointy objects or with stick/staff type weapons ever again. The passengers will thwart any such effort and the terrorists are not stupid (unlike the TSA) enough to try something like that again.
Mandating air marshals get any seats they want is stupid. Hell, just having these bags of human ballast on board is stupid. They steal premium seats from the airlines and passengers thus ensuring financial ruin for the very entities they are supposedly protecting.
Not letting people airside without an itinerary for that day is stupid. It only works against would-be terrorists without credit cards (to buy refundable tickets) or good printers (to easily forge itineraries). And if you think we need to keep the numbers low to make the screeners' jobs easier, I submit that the screeners' jobs are difficult because they waste their time and the passengers' time with these idiotic "random security" screenings.
Want solutions? You're of the mindset, "we must do something, no matter how stupid it is." We should focus on keeping credible weapons off the aircraft and accept the passengers willingness to fight back against any would-be terrorists. Our mistake was cooperating with terrorists and opening cockpit doors. Not prohibiting box cutters. Not harassing passengers at the gate or the checkpoint.
It's a simple solution that works and will make people return to flying. Sadly, it's too logical for some authoritarian people to grasp.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JetTroop:
What stupid rules are there? Honestly. Please enlighten me. The dumbest rule of asking people about their bags at check-in was tossed out. Nothing is overnight. Everyone is a critic and without offering up suggestions or saying what's wrong, they just generally grip because it's the government and how possibly can they offer us a good service. Please, be for real. They are our neighbors, family, and friends. These are the same people we see at the mall, in school, at the grocery store, at our children’s little league games. They only get their checks from a different place we get ours. None of that means they are stupid or incompetent. In fact, their pay scale, while low to many frequent flyers is quite high in a lot of the localities we have them working in. And it’s MUCH higher than it was before when private security managed screening. We will have screeners at over 400 airports and a vast majority of those are OUT of major metro areas. Meaning that their pay is fairly well off for the areas they live in.</font>
------------------
"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry
[This message has been edited by Spiff (edited 10-28-2002).]