I hated the Patriot Act, I despise the TSA. I hate taking my shoes off. I hate the 1 hour bathroom rule. Now we have nudie scanners and sexual assault by arrogant thugs in blue uniforms. Unbelievable.

I have gotten to a point where I can't fly. Nor will I let my family do it. Cousin Janet is correct, we can choose not to fly. Thankfully I do not fly for a living. If they finally undo the radiating naked scanning I will fly again. Is there any hope of that happening?

I think short of Ron Paul being the next POTUS there is no chance. As that seems unlikely, is it time to buy an RV? Pre-911 I used to love to fly. Very depressing.

I wonder what the runup in aviation fuel will do to airline attitudes about flyer dissatisfaction with TSA. The one thing they don't need when costs are rising is for revenue to fall.

That might be a "silver lining."

Anything to get the industry to stop sitting on hits hands, pretending not to SEE what is happening to its customers.

Great first post, thanks for your thoughts.

tl;dr

You still can: http://www.examiner.com/sunset-distr...of-patriot-act

This helps frame the discussion, IMHO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ncidents,_2010

oh yes, as if it was all because of you guys that this isn't happening here

what nonsense.


why not post all the thefts, derelictions of duty, failures to spot weapons, assaults, and various sexual impositions performed by TSA people. That's the proper framing.

United 93 proved that 9-11 would not be repeated. Even if the blue shirts were responsible for preventing more terrorist attacks of some sort, it's not worth surrendering our civil liberties. Want a police state? Immigrate to North Korea and let the U.S. be free again.

No, the TSA is a series of attacks. In my state what they are doing is in fact criminal. They are nothing but common criminals and belong behind bars. Or swinging from a rope.

They don't need probers. h*ll, just send a bomb through in baggage or carryon over at NJ or other airport with a 70% failure rate. Maybe try Hawaii. I hear they're a bit lax there.

Our intelligence agencies and whatnot are the only hope we've got. Not TSA. They can't stop some goober with explosives up his butt. But some disabled person, by George they've got her covered. search her every nook and cranny. And little 13 year old Georgie Jr, we can see right under his scrotum via AIT, so we've got him covered too.

OP, the one-hour bathroom rule has been gone for at least a year.

Which "probers"? The daily ones (TSA) or the once or twice a year ones? I've said I think 9/11 couldn't happen today. Just looked when it was tried in Detroit. The whole "purpose" of TSA is to keep wouldbe bombers off planes. The guy on the Delta flight was a wouldbe bomber and was swarmed by passengers. So why is it, exactly, we need all this expenditure and violation of free people's rights?

Well, we did by an RV last year (rather than fly to Florida for the holidays). And right after we bought it, a VIPR team hassled commercial truckers near Atlanta, forcing every truck to submit to inspection, at rush hour. That was my first clue by four that perhaps we, in our RV, might be forced into inspections soon. I can honestly picture being harrassed and irradiated at a rest stop when all we were trying to do was walk the dogs! I don't think I'm donning a tin foil hat when I say that; I think RVs and then cars will be next on the VIPR bite list unless something gets DHS and its sub-agencies under control.

I'm with you on the depression; I don't love to fly, but I do love to travel to Europe. Once the TSA showed up at my local bus stop (not Greyhound - a crosstown city bus!) it was clear that we can't expect to travel anywhere via any method without the possibility of harassment.

Guess it's time to write a couple more letters; maybe the canned response will actually be about the TSA, not Uganda like last time.

I'm glad to hear we can urinate again before landing. I like going to Europe as well, my family is Spanish and my brother lives in Barcelona. Guess I won't be seeing that beautiful city again.

I find it very disturbing that the TSA and powers that be seem so flippant in regards to our civil liberties, much less our concerns about privacy/decency. Then of course you have the complete lack of common sense and cost effectiveness of the whole security charade.

Not to sound tin hat foilish but where does it stop? Will Americans continue to be conditioned to submit to whatever the authoritarians decide is best? It's very alarming to me how many people just take it without complaint and how the press who once pretended to be the people's advocate have just rolled over. The willingness of people to give up their liberties in the name of security is very sad. I'm glad to see that there are a handful of "nuts" like me.


"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it" - TJ

"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty." -TJ

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? "-TJ

"Man is not free unless government is limited.... As government expands, liberty contracts." RR