Originally Posted by
FWAAA
Asinine policies continue to exist only because there are sufficient numbers of cowardly thugs willing to enforce them.
Bravery is standing up to such outlandish rules and saying "No. Enough is enough. We're not going to confiscate water from human beings." Graciously enforcing such rules is cowardly.
This organization has very little to do with keeping anyone safe; its primary mission is window dressing with a side order of bullying.
Grab your rubber boots, folks, and pick up a shovel, because the BS has started flowing faster and deeper.... Lord, it would be nice to read something more constructive than "thugs", or worse, the inevitable descent to the necessity of invoking "Godwin's Law".
We're not at "Speakers' Corner, mounting apple-crates to deliver tirades against the tyrants (which, as ineffective as they seem, the TSA ain't quite).
Have you no comprehension of how governmental bureaucracies - and TSA is a prime example - function? The motto at every pay grade and longevity step is the noted maxim "CYA" ("Cover Your A**"). "Rules" are established by middle level bureaucrats to insure that they're status is not hazarded by their subordinates' potential actions and so their superiors are not put in jeopardy. Whether in Byzantium, Italy or among us USAians, the practical veneers of bureaucracies are the same, layer upon layer of protective armor to minimize the chance that anything untoward will occur.
The villains of the piece (if they are any real villains) are our Congress members, from Liberal to Conservative, who rather than calling for (or demanding) logical rules and sensible decisions, themselves play the "CYA" game, leaving it to bureaucrats to design and implement a program that provides mutual protection for low level bureaucrats who carry it out and seems to the general public (most of whom fly only occasionally) to provide "safety from terrorists".
....And don't expect any bureaucrat/civil servant, from GS"0" to the top of the class, to accede to the breaking of a "rule" simply because to do so is convenient, simple and logical, when to do so will put the bureaucrat's/civil servant's job at risk. That description especially applies to the TSA's front line personnel who are not, let's face it, chosen from amongst the "pick of the litter", being mostly about as simple minded as those who resort to screaming "thugs" whenever reading of inconvenience or the enforcement of silly rules. I'm confident that most of them launch their tirades at a safe distance from the firing line, and kowtow humbly as they pass through the TSA's clutches.