Though it's stating the obvious, a Park Ranger is a REAL law enforcement officer with real police powers, unlike TSOs. It's comparing apples with pebbles.

You and your TSA buddies have got it bass ackwards, Ron. It's the ones who want to work themselves up into a frenzy of fear and panic over the tewwowist bogey-man who have no right to interfere with the personal freedom of the rest of us to exchange a miniscule bit of "security" for a whole lot of personal freedom. Those like you who think they are putting their lives at risk by boarding an aircraft full of people who haven't been groped by semi-trained, semi-literate government flunkies are the ones who ought to just stay home or drive rather than impose their irrational fears on the rest of us. That would be far more logical than the current state of affairs in which it is rational people who are relegated to having their travel options restricted.

It is not only the living that TSA has a problem with..

http://www.gadling.com/2009/04/15/cr...e-tsa-says-oo/

I was going to say exactly the same thing. You beat me to it!^

No, because those rules make sense. I also know with absolute certainty what they are as they are codified in appropriate documents.

And I would not be complaining about rules for the flying either if they were sensible and transparent.

This is is beyond any words!

And goes to show that even TSA's own rules don't mean anything. Screeners do whatever they want without any accountability for their actions.

If I get into my car, I know what the rules and laws say. If I turn on my turn signal to make a right turn, a cop will not stop me and claim that making right turns is illegal. If I'm driving 55 MPH in a 55 MPH speed zone, I will not be stopped for speeding. When there are different rules -- for example, driving slower when it's raining -- I *know* about those rules because I can look at the statutes and see where it says that.

If I'm riding my bike in the bike lane, a cop will not stop me and say that the bike lane cannot be used. If I use the standard arm signal to signal a turn, I will not be stopped by a police officer for making an illegal turn.

If I follow the rules as stated on the TSA's website and show up for my flight, I run the risk that the TSO on duty will not allow me to fly because he believes that something I am doing is wrong. So no, I don't complain as much about the other laws as I do the rules of the TSA.

+1 to Polonius' post.

Flying may not be a requirement, but it is a right. You won't find many complaints about screening here until after the TSA took over and put in illogical rules that are not for public viewing.

Exactly my point. Was commenting on a TSO's message on how we "must" comply with the flying "rules" enforced by the plastic badge brigade.

Screening before 9/11? Had to take off my steel toed shoes then as well. Not that big of a deal then. Tried to make it easy on the screeners and had all of the change out of the pockets and knife in the little change bin. Went fast and I knew what the rules were. Today? Rules are secret and seem to change at the whims of TSOs. Been threatened with arrest. Been threatened with the DY...T crap. Been told to lose some weight when I complained about not getting my belt back. Yep. Lots of things about TSA make for an AngryMiller.

The BIG difference is that you have been granted a LICENSE to drive a motor vehicle. This means (in most states) you have passed both a written and a driving test to prove to an examiner that you know the rules of the road. All of the rules are clearly published in the driver's manual and in motor vehicle codes. The same thing applies to a pilot or an airplane or ship.

There is no such licensing requirement to be a passenger on a commercial aircraft. We aren't tested whether or not we know enough rules to successfully get from making a reservation to picking up bags at our destination. There's no requirement to study the TSA website or to even know that the TSA exists. I know I'm stating the obvious, but, sometimes we are driven to do just that.

Nonetheless, we are responsible for knowing TSA's "rules" (I use quotes because they are, evidently, entirely subjective, variable and often secret), just as we are required to know the rules for walking (don't jaywalk, wait for the light to be green before crossing, etc.), riding a bicycle (ride in bicycle lanes, ride with traffic, etc.), neither of which have licensing requirements either. There are also no similar requirements for riding in buses or cars, but passengers are expected to know not to throw trash out the window, not to ride on the roof, to pay the bus fare on boarding, etc. Yet we have no need for TSA to enforce these rules, do we?

Sorry, the license distinction doesn't hold up in this context.

Please, please, show us in the Constitution, where it says that you have a right to fly on a commercial aircraft.

Er, that's not... exactly how an x-ray works. It's all essentially one of two colors, with a varied mix of those two colors dependent upon density. In this case, orange for organic materials, and blue for inorganic.

But to answer your question specifically, no, there's no drug recognition training that I'm aware of.

(And I can't answer the second question with a specific statement because I'm fairly confident that it would be considered SSI. Were it me, though, the end-result is that it'd be cleared for travel in about two and a half seconds.)

As far as I know, and mind you this is just speculation, but it's still illegal on a Federal level, right? You'd really need to ask someone who works in CA about that one, though; any answer I give at all would be just gross speculation and guesswork.

Oh, so now you're a lawyer? Show me where it says in the Constitution that TSOs have a right to pat me down after I set off the WTMD.

As it happens, both are authorized by Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

You know a lawyer is reading this thread. What in the world makes you think that your TSO training is remotely sufficient for you to opine on constitutional requisites for federal law?

I'd strongly recommend you learn from your colleague, HSVTSO Dean, who is professional enough to recognize when he doesn't know something and simply says so, rather than making up the most outlandish nonsense (which I sincerely hope you never act on).