I took early retirement shortly after the Great Binary Liquid Nonsense. Prior to that I had endured the vagaries and caprices of TSA screeners with mounting annoyance. Now, the 5 or 6 times a year I fly for leisure I simply zen through the checkpoint umm.., experience.

Did the TSA change my life ? I suppose so, for the better.
Does the TSA control my life ? Hell no, although I'm sure you'd like to.
Do I feel like a surrender monkey ? Not in the least, life's too short; but I retain the right to lambast the TSA every chance I get.

You may have noticed.

Whether or not I grew tired of it, I would still fly if I wanted to. Simple as that. Yet I have seen a few post on this site where someone said they won't even visit family because if TSA. Sorry, in my book, that's surrender.

And to be honest with you, I wouldn't let it consume me. Once the trip was over - out of sight, out of mind. Just my opinion, but some people see to drag their bad experiences with them; I wonder how many people here have had a vacation ruined because of a bad experience with a TSO and then all during their trip all they could think about was that bad experience. Personally, I would rather be happy than mad.

And I am not saying ignore it completely. ;) file complaints, write to congress, sign petitions. But just my opinion, when you alter your life ("gee, I really want to go [insert destination], but I'll have to fly and deal with TSA, so I refuse to go, so no, I won't go!) then you have given TSA control over that part of your life.

Remember, I fly too. Sure not as much as you, most likely. and I have encountered so e terrible TSOs and had bad expereinces. Not once has it ruined my trip, not once would I consider not going some where. Period. It's my life, not yours anyone else, so if I want to go somewhere, I'll go. Simple as that.

I refuse to stay at home and stew in my own juices. But then again, we all have to make our own decisions.

Sorry, but I take my job very seriously. When I travel it is because a customer is down. I bring the tools and equipment needed to get the customer running again. When TSA fails to resecure my tool chest it puts my livelyhood at stake. Why go to the customer site when you have nothing to repair their equipment after your tool chest was pillaged? Dwell on it? When you open your luggage you expect everything to be there. It isn't always the case.

I actually wasn't talking about your job, specifically. I was talking about travel in general. Some here hae post they will not even travel to see their family. That amazes me. If I want to go somewhere, I wouldn't let anyone stop me (if I'm legally allowed to travel there and can afford it ;) ). I'm not so jaded yet; to me there are many things in the world to see and re-see, things to do and re-do. At the same time, I'm also not someone who surrenders so easily. But that's just me.

I travel for pleasure with the odd business trip thrown in. To be honest I look for alternative travel modes to avoid TSA. Sadly in this country most long distance travel is still accomplished by air. From my area (DFW) a train to south Florida is a 3 day ordeal. I can do it faster by car which I am more willing to do nowadays, time off allowing. Haven't checked on bus travel.

Going through an airport should not be the hassle it has become, and that hassle is caused purely by TSA.

That is something for you and TSA to consider!

They (TSA) do not care. How dare you not think of 9/11 and the children...damn you, Comrade Boggie DOg...to re-education gulag with you.

Jie Jie, the only way I know to avoid the TSA is not to be part of it AT ALL, until the government we USED to have realizes it's shredding our constitution with every unwarranted Public Example they choose. If you don't show up, they don't make you bend over. The rape of my American rights was screaming at me when I was forced into their two secondaries in a row 5 years back. I knew right then what I was going to do. After writing congress, POTUS, even the HI BBB and the filing of official complaints against the TSOs who misused me, I got a call from a TSA PR rep, of all things (world's strangest oxymoron, IMHO), and form letters to beat the band.

The ultimate insult was the Form Letter of APOLOGY! I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!

I guess it depends on how elevated you put your citizen's rights and entitlements on your values scale. Seems this is the state of things now, and everyone seems to accept it as "annoying but necessary." Kinda like the billboards you see posted along the highway to advertise the best bail bondsman. In other words, we are saying to our citizens (yes, including grandmas, but ESPECIALLY kids) that we KNOW you will be jailed, and you need to be thinking about bail NOW.

I cannot even imagine a night in jail, or one for the students I tried to teach ethics AND subject matter.

You're damn right I won't be in the grope of these parasites again, because they, above ALL people, know how WRONG they are and go on with it ANYWAY! Anything for a paycheck?

Not now, not ever, Dear. Perhaps your parents could come to see YOU. TSA LOVES easy targets, though, and your folks might get the "bend over" order. My best advice is to totally ignore TSA until people who know your good reputation ask why you don't fly any more. Then tell the world. Loudly.

As long as it takes.

And I AM NOT the one who's rolled over and succombed, TSOs. Traitors to the Bill of Rights do that, if you can get my drift through the fog. You TSA people absolutely scare the HELL out of me. Even more frightening is that you don't seem to understand why this might be so. Redefines who the terrorists really are.

I'm curious as to your last statemenst: you state I don't seem to understand.... What in the world makes you think that? Is it at all possible I do understand what you are saying, I simply do not agree with you? It would indeed be a fearful world for democracies if we all thought alike, wouldn't it? To be honest, I find though like that very narrow minded, and usually self-justified, if you know what I mean? Just my opinion....

And in all your teachings, did you ever teach anyone that people place different utility on different things? Under what reason, by what logic, should I be fearful of the things that scare you? What confounds me is the thought that in a democracy only one thrain of thought can be both correct and acceptable. Hey, but to each their own ;)

And again, I simply wouldn't surrender as easily as some of you seem to have done. But that's just me.

As this has strayed far from the original topic, and headed to OMNI, this will be my last comment in the public forum regarding this. Feel free to post. But if you really wish to continue this conversation, by all means, send me a private message (as long as we can keep it civil :) ).

I only have this problem when I come to the USA, and the only reason I come back to the USA anymore is to see my elderly parents. One is chronically ill and the other has Alzheimers: sadly, travel for them is mostly no longer an option, and I would not ask them to do something voluntarily (suffer under the TSA) just to enable me to avoid it myself. Performing my loving and devoted daughterly duties are one of the few things in life that make me endure this...for now.

For all other personal travel, I can either use alternate means to commercial air travel, and/or stay outside the USA entirely, where air travel/security is generally more sensible (yes even in totalitarian China), and there is no TSA.