You've never seen someone kick their dog and the dog come right back to lick their hand, have you?

Dogs will forgive pretty much anything from the person that feeds them. They have to be trained to mistrust.

Sane people don't go out in Phoenix heat.

I resemble that remark

I go out to PGA West every summer to get in a few rounds. Those afternoon tee-times when it's 115 are an awesome opportunity if you like a little solitude and want get in a 3 hour round.

Of course, part of the appeal is the off-season rates.^

And, don't forget, it's a dry heat!

Sane people don't believe untrained GED-carrying high-school drop-outs who can't read watches or clocks - let alone the "complex images" from the backscatter scanners - contribute to "security," either.

Obviously you do care what people think, otherwise you would not visit this forum.

The machines are so sensitive they will react to an elevation in air pollution.
Since the only downside to the alarm is a further search, there is no reason to do anything other than what is happening now.

Easy for you to say. You're not the victim who's trying to make a flight.

OMG I can't believe it - TSORon actually said something correct - "There is no perfect technology."

He is right.

There is also no such thing as a perfect world free of terror. At some point we have to address the likelihood of a catastrophic attack and balance that against things like the US Constitution, human rights, basic freedoms and liberties, health concerns, and things of this nature.

There is no perfect technology and there is no perfect answer. We live in an inherently risky world and all the clamor and noise the TSA is making over this supposed terror threat is nothing more than an absurd overreaction to something that will eventually happen again anyway no matter how hard they try to think they are making a difference. Sorry folks, that's the world we live in. Sooner or later our number is gonna be up.

Unless you use a flintlock rifle and pour gunpowder down the barrel before you drop the ball inside, and get most of it on you than inside the barrel, you don't have to worry about going to the range.

While John Rambo has those explosive arrowheads that pack more punch than a B-52 strike, that's about what it would take for an ETD to alarm off of firearm residue.

Interestingly enough, certain fireworks will alarm the machine. Kind of makes you wonder what it is we're playing with every New Year's Eve or Fourth of July, eh?

There was a time, a very long time ago, when this forum was excellent for exchanges of views between frequent flyers and TSA employees. Lots of good ideas were exchanged and lots of insights were shared. Somewhere along the line, things got personal.

I realize that TSORon, eyecue, SATTSO, and I leave ourselves wide open whenever we comment. But it seems one-sided; you get to call us names or question our character either directly or obliquely, and we get bounced out if we respond in kind.

I can see that some effort has been made to clean things up, and I certainly appreciate it. But if you take the time to really read the content of what TSORon, eyecue, SATTSO and others are saying, they're trying to address things from an insider's view. I don't think any of us are foolish enough to believe that a few typed words on an internet forum are going to convert anyone to become TSA supporters. But it's unfortunate that when we do share our insights that some of the forum's members feel free to attack us either directly or by categorizing us with indirect insults rather than looking at the substance of our comments.

Of the three other TSA types you mentioned only one of those engages in honest discussion.

TSORon doesn't appear to be an employee of the TSA - he's just pretending to be one. Perhaps he sleeps at a Holiday Inn.

Yes, for the first time ever today I got a [false] positive on my cell phone after being randomly selected for additional screening.

I didn't expect to feel this way, but I felt soooo violated, almost to tears, afterward. I was talking to my DH and realized that it's because in no other context in my life, do I get zero input into how/when/where another human touches my private parts (even at the doctor's, where I go willingly, they are more respectful by a huge margin!).

The first guy was just stuffing my things where I felt they would get dirty and I reached to fold my jacket inside-in, and the woman was like, "I'll have to ask you not to touch your belongings". (Why? There's nothing I could have done terrorist-wise in that context; they "inspected" all my stuff plus me and I was under full observation.)

I don't think I'd last long in a police state. Oh, and they did the most half-assed inspection on my stuff in the end, as I watched. But don't worry; my bra and ponytail (!) and skirt were extremely thoroughly searched. It was terrible.

BTW has the TSA ever actually found something you know, dangerous, in one of these exercises? I already know that they miss dangerous things all the time, as per those news articles where reporters take through knives, bombs, etc. But I haven't heard of them catching any real explosives (!) with those mickey-mouse machines that seem to false-positive on lotion, wet-wipes, crayons, etc.

I was also really upset to see that the read-out when "positive" is "explosive detected" because that's absolutely not true. At most, some common-ish chemical is "detected". There's so not a need for that kind of as some say here, theatre.

--LG

Did they force you to go to a private room?

No - they offered the option, but I didn't want to leave my family behind and felt that would be even more abusive of my civil rights, not to mention scary for the kids. This time, at least, they didn't prevent my 5yo from having his one milk box go through for the plane. When my 10yo was 4yo, they confiscated and threw away his milk even though I nicely protested re. "milk for small children" provision.

--LG