Wow. Given enough money to lose, I could teach you all that at the poker room at the Wynn, and you would still not even begin to scratch the surface of how trained, experienced professionals do it.

Like, I said: "Run, SPOT, run." Or get the actual cops. Pacino said it best in the movie "Heat"--"Don't waste my MF time."

Your agency gets away with the psycho-babble-father-BS because most people don't understand how stupid it is and lack the conviction to deal with it. Fortunately, that's not (yet) universally true.

Don't worry, I don't hide my contempt for you and your komrads.

I had confidence in a fart, once. Then I crapped my pants! :p :D

That might be one of my favorite all time responses on FT!!!!


Going back to the earlier argument about people speaking a foreign language and who will deal with them, as a professional interpreter, I would hope that an actual interpreter would help out in a tough situation. I have seen so many screw ups from people who "spoke some german" or who's grandmother was from Mexico and though they spoke spanish. Also if it is a Deaf person like Andy, then you HAVE to get a certified interpreter if they ask for it. If not, then they will probably will sue and they will in.

Oh. My. God.

My poor keyboard........

Are you saying they are not wearing TSA's badge or something to identify them as official (forgive my naive question, I am not used to US airport), and they actually expect ANYONE to answer their question? Are they just some unknown person trying to chat with you? And people actually speak with them?

I suddenly realize why people are answering "none of your business" when asked "where are you travelling to?"... Here people inquiring about other people being distressed, are religious nutjobs trying to recruit...

Or members of the Communist Party trying to justify their useless existence...

That's my understanding. However, even if they were in their TSA uniform, I wouldn't be inclined to talk with them.

I've never had any dealings with TSA and I don't intend to, but those who try to 'psyop' them, why do want to do it? For a bit of amusement, challenge, etc? It's not meant to be nasty, it's a genuine question because I'm curious as to why people want to put effort into doing so.

I have been through airport security so many times and had my share of irritating experiences, but I honestly couldn't be arsed trying to play psychology with security people. When I go through airport security, all I have in mind is to get through as quickly as possible so that I can plonk myself down in a comfortable* airline lounge, because my travel patterns are normally such that I only ever get to the airport pretty tired.

Also asking out of curiosity, compared to what you encounter overseas, are TSA guys a lot worse? (I do get the impression that they are, based on what I have read on this forum, but no-one really compared them to airport security people abroad, so I don't really know.)

*comfortable is not always guaranteed - often over-crowded and nowhere to sit, but that's beside the point.

Almost every other country's airport security is less disgusting than the US "security" joke provided by the TSA.

Rarely do I see the Shoe Carnival. Most security employees couldn't care less about the BP/ID - there's no stupid scrutiny like the Workfare recipients do here. Many nations have been forced to adopt the asinine liquid idiocy, but many do not retain this nonsense unless one is traveling to the few Cuckoo Countries where it's all Liquid Stupidity all the time. And there's no useless Workfare recipients playing "spot" games.

Airport "security" in the US just plain sucks eggs. And that's being very, very polite.

Except in England, Germany, Korea, Japan, France, etc., etc.

Pretty much same with liquids.

Shoes off ? Don't think so, except some flights to the US.

I've not made internal flights in those countries, so I'll bow to your knowledge there. I do know flying to the US you do, and it's not TSA checking. Is that a US mandate, then? We demand they check liquids if they fly to the US?

Wrong. Having traveled from all of those countries in the last few months, with the exception of France, the only one listed that has a shoe fetish is England, and it's "random".

Unfortunately, they all have liquid lunacy, except for Japan domestic.

We and the UK are pretty much alone on the shoe stupidity.

Flights within other countries (non-EU) are not subject to the liquid idiocy that I have seen.

The only reason the other countries harass passengers in the manner that they do on flights to US/UK is because the US has bullied them into doing so. :mad: