TSA employees are just there to make air travel safer? That's funny, in more than one way. I would have thought that many are there because they fancy being on the federal dole/payroll. If not, some seem to like the pseudo-cop uniforms and pseudo-cop tin badges and play "respect my authorita!". Ain't that funny.

People are people, but that doesn't put them off limits for being subject to due criticism or praise -- not that there is much to praise about the TSA other that it is to be praised for becoming as large and expensive as it has become without any evidence of having made air travel safer in any statistically significant way.

It's hard to feel good about people who work for an agency that you despise. TSA as an organization is all about paranoia and abuse, built on the faulty premise that air travel is in constant, ever-changing danger at every turn - a premise so faulty that the agency has engaged in constant mission creek over most of its existence merely to justify its existence.

It's a bad agency, and although there are good people who work for it, they're still complicit in the bad stuff that the agency does.

I have no more interest in a light-hearted joke from a TSO than I do from an IRS auditor who is pouring through my finances, looking for evidence that I have 'stolen' money from the government, or from a firefighter who is wetting down the ashes of my childhood home.

There are hundreds of threads on TS&S where people spill their bile about the TSA. It is not necessary to do so on one of the rare threads which someone started with a different purpose.

There is some kind of requirement for non-"bile about the TSA" threads to be about non-"bile about the TSA"? Flip sides of the same coin.

Should "bile about the TSA" threads be free of criticism of "bile about the TSA"? Who wants to cry me a river of bile. ;)

Had you not mentioned that, I would have gone on thinking that she does have a line of cookies! You get a Tommy Point.

I had a nice chat with a TSO at DCA about Greek mythology. He told me that he had a BA in philosophy but was having a hard time getting a job.

As for the secondary discussion on this thread, I've spewed a fair amount of vitriol on these boards and dished out praise where it was due. In general, the vitriol is toward the agency as a while. I'm mixed when it comes to individuals. I'll say what I've said before: 80% of the employees are fine. I have little interaction with them and I'm sure they're just trying to get through the day and earn a paycheck. 10% are superstars who go above and beyond. And 10% are the dregs of society who like the power that comes with the job and take the occasion to make people miserable.

The biggest problem is at the organizational level, where it seems that the TSA exists for the sole purpose of self-perpetuation, with a healthy dose of security theater.

Mike

Well, sure, but once a thread is relocated to the TSS debate forum, it's open season.

Have you ever tried to start an online thread about how some IRS auditors, or repo men, or bill collections agents, are really lovely people with a light-hearted sense of humor? I think you'd get the same reactions.

I know that most TSOs are perfectly ordinary people who didn't take the job to abuse others, they took it because they wanted a job, and TSA was hiring. In fact, I've had a number of quite pleasant interactions with TSOs over the years, and never had one worthy of sending a complaint.

But even so, I think the humor listed in the first couple of posts of this thread is highly inappropriate to the serious nature of the job. I find the "We're going to have to search your bag" and "you can't bring that through" jokes to be totally inappropriate. There is no humor in them whatsoever, hence my negative reaction.

Now, if you want to start a thread that showcases TSOs reacting to stupid travelers with aplomb - or vice versa - I wouldn't have a problem with that. There is plenty of light-hearted material to be found when dealing with TSA, and not all of it reflects negatively on the agency. But this crap does, and that's why it's not funny.

[Moderator's note: Poster had originally altered the quote as follows: They ... deserve our contempt. You've got to kill...the TSA...one clerk at a time. The full quote has been restored above because editing another member's text to change its meaning is not allowed.]

Wow!

Who else should we advocate killing? Police? The elderly? The disabled?

Or would putting them in "re-education" camps be enough?

Thank you! :D

Have you asked yourself?

What was was said by someone other than you was this:

What your post said, by editing a quote in a way, so as to represent your own words and only your own words (despite the misattribution in your post):

Another quote for you. My original post in this thread:

"I think this is a great post to show that they are people too. They're just like you and me. They have feelings and families and they are just there to make air travel safer."

But of course you know that. You jumped right on it to bash the TSA.

The problem with praising "light-hearted TSA interactions" is that there's an unequal power distribution at a checkpoint --- all in the passengers disfavor.

A TSA screener makes a joke about "I can't let this through", and (s)he is "just" making a joke. A passenger makes a joke about "There's a bomb in that bag", and the passenger is probably going to have a very bad day at the hands of the TSA (and possibly local law enforcement).

The few TSOs who frequent this forum --- or jump into the waters from time to time --- often claim that it's easy to get through a checkpoint if you just follow the TSO's directions. Fine --- but then they shouldn't confuse matters by joking about those directions, or deadpanning jokes that give the impression that the passenger is about to lose their favorite T-shirt or laptop computer or whatever.

It is grossly unfair to tease a passenger when they can't respond in kind, out of fear of serious retaliation.

Grumpy? Sure. But that's the environment that TSA has chosen to create at the checkpoint. Keep your head down, say as little as possible, move along like good little sheep. That's what I do. I don't like it, but it's better than the alternative.

Its good to see som TSA agents trying to lighten the mood at security But if we slightly change thisto

Was flying out of Logan (BOS) wearing my favourite Big Bang Theory T-Shirt. Went through the TSA-Pre line for security with my regular carry-on. It's a low traffic period, and I looked at the agent at the X-Ray straight faced and said, this bag has a my bomb in it.

She looked back stunned and said that I've never X-rayed a bomb before, but I insist, "its my bomb!", then my expression completely changes and I shout "Bazinga!"


No matter how loud you shout "Bazinga" the TSA will not see it as a joke. Neither should they joke about not allowing bags through

I find most of my interactions with the TSA to be neutral. I just want to get through and get to my gate. All it takes is one screener at a checkpoint to make things go negative in a hurry. It's usually the one that is barking orders loudly for no real reason, other than to be loud.

Nope. One way to kill, erode, destroy, terminate (pick your word or make up another one) is from the top down. Another way is to do it from the bottom up. I was going to say that you really have a "hair trigger" but I won't.

I have encountered the gambit of TSA front line employees and I truly believe that most are just average everyday people doing a job, there are some lone standouts who try hard to put on a smile and make travel just a little easier, but it is the group who go on a power trip that creates the bad taste in people's mouths.

There is a great TSA employee at DFW who always makes a point of saying Good Morning/Good Afternoon/Good Evening and makes a point to always wish everyone a pleasant flight. It is not a big thing and he still has to follow TSA rules, but by being polite it does make the experience just a little more tolerable and doesn't ramp up the tension that a Power Tripping TSA Employee can.