Originally Posted by misterstudebaker
EVERYTIME I go to an airport the knuckle-dragging obsequious dupe of the conspiracy wearing a TSA badge tells me to take the laptop out.
Studebaker,
Welcome to FlyerTalk. I'm a TSA employee. I come in here to share information with frequent flyers and other subscribers to this forum because I believe we can work together through understanding each other's concerns. I think your obvious attempt to insult TSA employees is inappropriate for this forum. This isn't yahoo or AOL. Please clean it up and drop the namecalling.
So, I ask this august forum, my (obviously irritated) question:
WHY LAPTOPS???
Actually, x-ray operators can have any bag checked, especially those with electronic items. It isn't limited to only laptop computers. By the way, camcorders are also supposed to be removed and x-rayed separately.
There are valid reasons for this. Even though people in this forum think sensitive security information, or SSI, is a cop-out excuse by TSA employees to avoid answering questions, this one reason is truly SSI.
However, I can answer the question in general without getting into the SSI. Apparently, you've never stood in front of an x-ray machine. Certain common electronics, such as CD players, most DVD players, calculators, etc. are easily x-rayed because they have a simple internal configuration. Laptop computers, camcorders, professional cameras and other similar items have a much more complex and dense configuration. Whenever you leave the laptop inside of a bag, other items such as power supplies, cables, removable hard drives and other common computer accessories add to the density and complexity of the x-ray image. It simply becomes too difficult to properly view the image and clear it. Removing the laptop clears the clutter and, more importantly, gives us a clean view of the laptop.
At first, I figured, OK - this nation of mediocretins is all freaked out and it'll blow over. But no - it hasn't. If anything, my "fellow americans" are more paranoid than ever, but then, an illegal unprovoked war against a sovereign nation and then murdering its men, women, and children and torturing prisoners DOES tend to engender a bit of irritation on a GLOBAL BASIS, so perhaps Americans are feeling as guilty (as they should) as they are afraid (which they shouldn't), especially as the corporate media gives them a steady diet of fear. And I figure, having to STILL PULL laptops out of their carefully set up cases is just another example of the reigning idiocy we call the contemporary American Imperial Political Consciousness.
Cute rant. Fact remains that Americans were slaughtered by terrorists on 9/11, and this nation is trying to come to terms with how to prepare itself better for the next attack
when it comes. I tend to dismiss the sort of comments you posted as naive idealism advoacted by misguided individuals who have never experienced the effects of terrorism, horrors of combat or extraordinary stressful intensity a police officer experiences when domestic disturbance turns into a shoot-out.
Again, welcome to FlyerTalk. Please clean it up, and I'll be happy to share my insights with you. Stick to the hyperbole and rhetoric you've posted thus far, and I'll simply ignore you. Read the other threads and you'll see that while we do engage in some pretty spirited debate, we don't resort to cheap rhetoric and name-calling. (Well, some of us don't.)