Rand Paul is whining that the TSA at the Nashville airport were mean to him. They “barked” at him! I assume he was referring to human personnel and not sniffer dogs. Imagine that a Person in Authority would so much as raise his voice at a law-abiding citizen! Obviously, that never happens to anyone but people known to be conservative politicians.
Yes, it was a “major ordeal”! I hope he recovers. Ron Father of Rand is saying the police state is out of control! And of course all the rightie bloggers are in full-bore everybody-picks-on-us and Obama-is-a-dictator mode.
I’m sure they were just as outraged when Sen. Edward Kennedy was stopped and questioned by airport security five times in March 2004. Oh, wait …
I live in Thailand…several weeks ago an official set off the alarm at the airport & refused to be patted down..actually boxed the ears of the security..the video went viral here. He was sent to another posting. Arrogant jerks abound…
Why mock RP? His complaint’s legit. I don’t know if he complained for Kennedy, and if not then that’s normal R hypocrisy; but he’ll complain now, and I approve.
paradoctor — First, if this experience is Rand’s idea of an “ordeal,” the boy has had a hyper-sheltered life. I’m sure it was unpleasant, but it’s a level of unpleasantness some of us have experienced on a daily basis for big chunks of our lives. He’ll survive.
Whether the security rules are really making us more secure is something I don’t know, and frankly I doubt many people know. Right now all kinds of people with no experience in security are thumping their chests and calling this “security theater.” That’s easy for them to say. I watched the bleeping World Trade Center towers fall, and I say I don’t want to get on a plane with somebody who doesn’t pass the security tests. So what are you going to do?
I also have very strong opinions about there being no exceptions to security rules. If everyone is supposed to show an ID to get in someplace, there should be no exceptions, even if you are famous, even if you are there every day, even if somebody else with an ID says you are OK. The security staff shouldn’t have to make judgments about who can skirt the rules and who can’t. And if the rules say you can’t get on a plane if you set off the metal detectors, or have a hinky body scan, then you can’t get on the plane. There is no point berating the security staff for enforcing the rules. If Rand doesn’t like the rules, maybe he can do something to change them. That would be fine with me. But in the meantime he can suck it up and be grown up man instead of a big baby.
When I get on a plane, it’s with the expectation I will get to the destination. I want an airworthy plane, properly maintained and a sober, trained pilot. Up until 2001, that covered the objectives of regulating air travel. Now, as a traveller, I expect the government to partner wit the air industry to address the threat of an attack on the plane I am on.
I EXPECT IT!!!! The only person I can be certain won’t attempt mid-air mahem is me, but I will submit to an inspection of baggage, scan, even a pat-down if the scan showed something abnormal. Because everyone submitted to the same inspection, I can sleep on the plane – I usually do. Make it optional, or allow ANY exemptions or variations, that’s a security flaw. It will disturb my sleep.
However, I am willing to bow to libertarians on one point. We can authorize a “security-free” airline. No scans – no pat downs – no luggage inspections. You won’t find me on such a flight. But if I was a kooks or terrorist, it would be my first pick. Let’s see how popular the airline is with the flying public. “Let the market decide.” Of course, libertarians who can see how the odds shift will want to require ALL flights be “security-free” so the kooks won’t be so likely to be on HIS plane.
I’m happy with a separate security free airline, as long as there is some kind of destruct provision in case of highjacking. But maybe if the passengers are armed they would shoot the plane up in a panic themselves. so there wouldn’t be a problem. Well, unless you’re on the plane.
Yes, it was a “major ordealâ€! I hope he recovers. Ron Father of Rand is saying the police state is out of control! And of course all the rightie bloggers are in full-bore everybody-picks-on-us and Obama-is-a-dictator mode.
Then they went back to cheering for torture, and for police violence against Occupy Wall Street.
The TSA would have a lot more credibility for me if they had ever caught an actual terrorist. As is, they have not. It would also help if they were not afraid of water bottles. And the choice between being groped or zapped amuses me not at all.
I’d board the TSA-free flight without hesitation. Remember the shoe bomber? The TSA was useless, as usual; it was the passengers who took him down.
So yes, the phrase ‘security theater’ is precisely correct. You are zapped or groped, not to protect you from terrorists, but to protect the airlines from lawyers.
We don’t know if anyone has decided not to even try because security is too tight. It’s a plain fact that the 9/11 highjacking could not have occurred if the current rules had been in place. If you would prefer a TSA-free flight, that’s your business. I wouldn’t.
I don’t like to fly any more; and, since retirement have worked my life so I never enter an airport any more. I have heard and read there are less invasive ways to make us safer; but, no one seems to have the wherewithal (or, perhaps, money) to implement them. However, I agree that Rand and all other VIPs should and must be treated the same as everyone else. So, he gets no sympathy from me. According to the rightwingers, this is the greatest country in the world. If so, we should be able to come up with a better system. I was in the Washington Metropolitan area on 9/11 with friends working at the Pentagon. It may not have been as horrifying as the toppling of the WTC; but, it was still scary.
Paradoctor – I take aspirin every day as a blood thinner, and I will never be able to tell you what day I did not have a fatal stroke because of it. But there is an inoperable blockage in my brain just waiting. That’s a fact.
Your last comment suggests the TSA. is a waste because it has never ‘caught’ a terrorist. And you pointed out that their measures are imperfect. But what days did the presence of security dissuade a group from an act? When was the confiscation of a weapon a factor in a safe flight. Like the medical events you can’t measure because of precautions (like my aspirin) the safe completion of any flight I am on is enough.
At my age, booking a flight is my best chance of ever being groped again! 🙂
Remember the shoe bomber? The TSA was useless, as usual; it was the passengers who took him down.
Paradoctor,
You misremember. It was the French security who, for a day, kept the “shoe bomber” off a Trans-Atlantic flight. Only after intervention by the airline did the French then let him board a subsequent flight.
Had to hold back this morning with a Ron Paul supporter friend who was posting that the TSA are bullies and we need to “get with the program”. The fact remains that these regulations are responses to incidents. True, whackjobs will always find loopholes but most people feel better with the added security.