Everybody hates TSA.
 

But I guess I can understand why.



I'm a screener at Logan, and hearing people talk about TSA is pretty funny. And it's true, a little knowledge is dangerous. I understand why the liquid rules appear silly, and the question of "how does a plastic bag keep us safer?" I was just reading an article on how we're "unintelligent" and should "have no authority over you." We don't have any authority over you. You're free to do what you want. You have chosen to fly, and chosen to not follow rules, surrender your items, etc. etc.

Btw, as of unintelligent, I can't speak for other airports, but you would be surprised how well-rounded some of us are (atleast at Logan), and how many gave up 6 figure jobs after 9/11 to work for TSA.

Plastic bags - Do not keep you safer, atleast directly, they instead are a measuring tool, which helps regulate how much liquid is being brought onto a plane.

Liquids - Are, unfortunatly a threat. Ask any MIT chemistry major, and ask him how unstable, how explosive, and how easily these threats are to mix, and use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_explosive. Get learn'd.

Any highschool student with half a brain and a chemistry book knows how to blow locker doors off when they're slammed shut.



You think you, the passenger, get treated bad? Please. People talk about TSA having poor customer service, well what about poor customers? I work a low-paying Gov't job, where it is in our contract that we can't unionize, work irregular hours, much of it on manditory overtime, so please add insult to injury by verbally abusing me, as I try my best to keep you safe when you travel. On Christmas. When I will indeed be working.

Tell me how uneducated I am to the CJ degree on my wall.


Stop asking me if you look like a terrorist. You do.

Stop telling me that I wouldn't have my job if it wasn't for 9/11, do you want me to stop doing my job? Talk to Bush. I'd like a few words with him myself.

No, you don't pay my salary. Let's study a capitalist economy for a moment, everyone pays everyones' salary.




If you really hate us that bad, just stop flying. It's simple. You do not have the right to fly, you have the privilege. It is not an invasion of privacy, when you voluntarily purchase a ticket.

The TSA has all the Constitutional backing they need, 4th Amendment, implied consent, yadda yadda yadda. Once you enter the checkpoint, this is the implied consent. Your property now belongs to the United States Gov't.



People just don't seem to get it. And don't see how badly we're treated.

The "using our service is optional" argument is bogus. You'd have a valid argument if there were multiple competing security screening services at each airport. For example, we could pay $X if we wanted to be screened by TSA, or $Y if we wanted to be screened by company Y, and so on. But TSA has a monopoly on aviation security. You guys make the rules and you enforce them. We don't have a choice.

And sorry, there are no practical alternatives to commercial airlines for most of us. I suspect that the guys at the top of your organization--the guys who are making the ridiculous rules that we must suffer through--don't fly commercial, but for us common folk, private aviation isn't a realistic alternative. So please don't tell me I have a choice when I buy my ticket. The only thing I have a choice over is which airline I fly -- not who screens me (see previous paragraph).

As for paying your salary, it's true that in a capitalist economy we all pay each other's salaries. But the difference is that as US taxpayers, we are forced to pay your salary, and then we are again forced to pay you money each time we buy a ticket, whereas I am not forced to pay the a dime of salary of the Starbucks barista if I want to get my coffee somewhere else. Starbucks employees give me good customer service because they know I will take my business elsewhere if they don't. TSOs, in contrast, bark at us, harrass us, call LEOs when we disagree with them, and throw our legitimate complaints back at us on Internet message boards. Why? Because they know we have no choice but to pay them each time we buy a ticket, and each year in our federal taxes even if we never take an airplane flight that year!

I do think it's unfortunate that people take out that frustrations on you, and I don't envy your job, but I've also chosen a different line of work. I'm a little confused why someone would sign up to be a TSO, and stay in that position, and then complain that they have to deal with abuse. It's not "fair" that passengers abuse you because of rules that your bosses make, but nobody's forcing you to be a TSO, either. If eneough TSOs quit, TSA might actually have to change their policies to something that can sustainably be enforced on rational travelers. If anything, passengers aren't complaining enough!

What's that? Do you hear it? I think...it's the world's tiniest violin.

I really don't feel like getting fired, so yes, I have to fly. Do I want to fly? Hell, no; who does these days?

Please go back to those well-paying jobs. You will once again be making a positive contribution to society.

Lies.

Liquid explosives require laboratory conditions and time to mix the explosive. Get learn'd yourself. I'll be happy to school you or your manure-for-brains bosses if I get a waiver from DHS.

Why it takes time and temperature control to create liquid explosives 101 by Dr. Spiff.

Too bad your agency's "security" procedures permit anyone to bring plastic explosives across the checkpoint at will.


Heartbreaking.

You're certainly not using that degree if you think liquid explosives can be created by dumping two chemicals together.

With your attitude, you deserve it in spades.

I understand nobody forced me to be a TSO. Do I not have the right to complain about my job? You have the right to complain about mine, so why can't I? My job description says nothing about being told that "If it wasn't for this job, I'd still be working at McDonalds!"

Which I replied with "Sir, don't be silly. The people at McDonalds have far more training than us."

I don't see what rules are ridiculous. I didn't know "common folk" couldn't afford to watch the news, and buy a plastic bag.

Btw, the people at the top fly commerical. They work low paying jobs, just like the "common folk."

Ted Kennedy is a selectee. And Jesse Jackson is like 6'7''.

Anyways, my point of "you don't have to fly" is most certainly not bogus. I'm just comparing the TSA's rights to search/seize you and your property, to you being able to bring liquids on a plane, or even to fly at all.


People in Darfur suffer. Passengers don't.



And you also are really reaching with the choosing to pay the barista, vs. choosing to pay me.

And buying a ticket doesn't pay me. The gov't gives billions TO the airlines.

You're so right. I do. Please, school me on explosives. I know that you will impress me. You are the best.

Can you also school him in using quotes, Prof. Spiff?

Spiff, I can promise you you're wrong about liquid explosives. Promise.


But that's SSI, so go join EOD. They'll tell you all about it.

I tend to believe Dr. Jimmie Oxley of URI a lot more than the wikipedia or TSA.

http://www.chm.uri.edu/urichm/brochure/people/jo.html

She was interviewed here (http://www.theregister.com/2006/08/1..._terror_labs/). She and others experts have said that the plot wasn't feasible. Then again, no one since Richard Reid has even tried to bring a shoe bomb (per TSA and the FBI in an LA Times article earlier this year) but we're still removing shoes anyway.

That declaration speaks volumes about attitudes. No customer service can exist in the face of that statement.

The right to fly exists. And common carriers are held to a higher standard as to who they can refuse to transport than a restaurant on who they decide to serve.

:eek:

You're right - some people don't seem to get it, but it's not the ones on the receiving end of that attitude.

Bull.

I don't believe "magic" explanations, especially non-published, non-peer reviewed magic explanations.

Show me the money!

Sorry, I don't teach courses that exist only to meet deficiencies in basic skills. ;)

Having worked in the government and still holding an active clearance, I can also tell you that the first mission of any bureacracy is self preservation and within the IC and DHS, there isn't a terror target, no matter how infinitesimally small, that they don't like. It's all about money and power. If you somehow think TSA is above that ...

Please don't blather about SSI as if it's some big secret. It's not even classified information and falls in the sensitive but unclassified arena ... like FOUO (For Official Use Only). There are many people on this board, including some TSA'ers, who have worked with real sensitive info.

Super

Get DHS to give me a waiver and meet me in the lab. Bring your gutless, brainless boss, Comrade Hawley. I'll throw in:

How the x-ray works and why it doesn't detect explosives 102 (also by Dr. Spiff)

for free.

Diet Coke + Mentos = "liquid explosive"