dude… when was the lat time you woke up said fuck it and flew down to florida, drinking and doing other misc things the whole way down… or the last time you were goin to work and had to wait 2 hours so your mechanic could run his tests? drivings more fun anyway… besides, if you think were oppressed, move to the middle east…
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. -Jefferson
Pugs, how does this bill fatten politicians’ pockets?
I think there’s a little too much paranoia around here.
Here’s your source:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/03/26/airport.security.ap/index.html
Now go decide for yourself if this is a wonderful idea…
That’s an CNN article, which is hardly the best source for making an informed decision, since most of articles are tainted w/ the jouranlist bias.
Pugs,
It’s not that you were there or not there, but the fact is that you don’t fly nearly as much as the certain group of the population, such as Xavier and myself.
As the program stands, the ticket counter agents won’t see your private information. Rather they’ll see your color: Green, Yellow, or Red. So what? How can they commit fraud based on your security color code? Background check is performed routinely by all kinds of institutions for many different purposes. I don’t know how you can justify that its’ OK for banks to run background check on you to make sure that you can pay your loan but it’s not OK for the TSA to run background check on you to make sure that you’re not a terorrist!
To Pat and Pugs: Amen! It’s downright frightening how many T-men take their freedoms for granted. The media has done a most excellent job playing it’s role in propaganda.
dude… that first message so got cross posted from the “do t men love bitches” thread… i hate XPs IExplorer format… anybody kno how to keep it from nutting up into one bar on the start menu when it gets past about 5 or 6?
Sounds good to me. It seems like a way to profile behind the scenes, so that little old ladies from Lubbock aren’t getting body cavity searches while shoe bombers walk through security because everyone is afraid to be accused of profiling.
Sigh. What terrorist with any strategic planning whatsoever is going to trigger anything abnormal in the background check with expensive falsified credentials?
Instead, we add another layer of expensive bureaucracy that does nothing to significantly enhance safety and everything to to aid the gradual erosions of our rights.
For all the lipservice paid to how most excellent our free society is, some seem so ready to trade it all away.
And before you jump up my ass: Executive platinum status. 50K+ miles a year.
Sorry…to be truthful, regular platinum status now. Flew over 100K a year during the bubble, but things have pulled back some. Still over 50K miles, tho.
“If you are going to the airport to do something nasty, are you going to do it with your real identity knowing that it can draw suspicion? No, you will have a squeaky clean identity giving you the “green” light to fly…”
Wouldn’t ALL “squeaky clean” ID’s arouse suspicion?
Who here IS “squeaky clean”?
HHmmmmm…
BTW the qoute and source from the second reply in this thread was…
“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security”
~ Benjamin Franklin
(Hate to see a “qoutable” dude not get credit…)
This is a tough one, but this isn’t going to keep any of us “safe from terrorists”. The brilliance (and I hate to use that word to describe such a cowardly act) of the Sept 11 attacks lay in its simplicity… no one had even thought of such an idea before. But the problem is, terrorists aren’t going to be trying that one again. Sure, we’ll still get the occasional hijack attempt, but nothing as organized as we saw in '01. There are so many unprotected areas of our country that all they need to do is choose and act.
All eyes happen to be on airline safety right now. And while I personally don’t mind the added security, I just don’t think it’s going to do much good. I would rather see the money/time/hassle spent on protecting our borders and pre-empting the next strike, rather than making travel even more cumbersome than it already is.
And yeah, Pat, you shouldn’t be giving out your SS# to everyone and their dog, but you know what? Everyone’s already asking for it. Hell, I even saw it on the account paperwork at a Hollywood Video (my response: "you have got to be kidding me??). Nearly every utility company I know of asks for it, too (although most of them will take your driver’s license number instead). The point is, there isn’t a ton of privacy left. Does that mean you throw up your hands and give in? No. You just be more careful with things like checking your credit report a few times a year for identity theft, watch what info you send out over the internet, etc. And if you don’t want to give out your info to the airlines, then don’t. You need to get somewhere? Hop in your car.
I think if I was to go to an airport in Communist China, I would probably feel more comfortable. I’ve never felt more like a criminal. I’m not a criminal (squeaky clean record), yet why should I be treated as one? Just because a person doesn’t have a criminal background doesn’t mean they’re not capable of committing a terrorist act. If memory serves me right, many of the terrorists on 9/11 had no background information that would indicate they were terrorists until much, much later in the investigation. It was also a culmination of things that once added up, it may show that these guys were possibly organizing a terrorist attack. If a background investigation shows I’ve taken flying lessons in the past, will that cause me to have a higher threat level?
There is little the TSA can do to keep weapons off of the planes. There are many other weapons that can be used that will never be detected, until someone uses them. For example, no one ever thought box cutters would be used to hijack an airplane. But, they did. One drop of VX agent is enough to kill everyone in a small room. Who’s to say a terrorist wouldn’t use this to hijack a plane? It could be easily hidden on a persons body, and never found during a search. The security is a joke. It does nothing but cause delays, confusion, and further deterioration of our Constitutional rights.
What more is a background check going to do? How will it prevent a terrorist attack? So what happens if a person is assigned a threat level that makes him capable of being a terrorist? Is he locked into one of those tiny airplane restrooms and segregated from the rest of the passengers? How does a background check tell what a persons mindset is? It will never tell anyone until it’s too late that he has secretly had a growing hate for America, and is about to snap. What’s next? Psychiatrists at the terminal to do evaluations of passengers to determine if they are crazy enough to be terrorists? Or will we have to have a five day waiting period and pass a background in order to just get the plane ticket?
To Lisa: Great posts. I think I love you!
Mark,
If you’re willing to blindly give up your personal rights, you weren’t a T-man to begin with. You’re sheep.
Tyler,
Terrorists behind 9/11 weren’t some creative geniuses. Terrorists didn’t think of the using the planes as missiles. It was TOM CLANCY’S IDEA. He wrote a thriller with terrorists hijacking a plane and destroying the White House. They merely executed his idea. Many journalists interviewed Tom Clancy about that when 9/11 happened.
REAL T-MEN AND VIXENS DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE THINK!!!
All the people bitchin’ and moanin’ must hve something to hide. Whats wrong pat, you don’t want anyone to know you have 2 divorces3 bastard kids shitty credit and went bankrupt from all the credit card charges to kiddie porn sites?
I wonder how you had time to post with all the war protesting you’ve been doing. JACKASS
But I will say THANK YOU, PAT…because you and the rest of the worthless little pussies that support you thoughts just gave me a pump to go train. later…
Guru X
By the way PAT… stop bothering our reps and persons in congress w/ such bullshit so they can concentrate on stopping the ban of pro-hormones and pro-steriods
Cupcake,
Franklin was identified as the source in the original post, so I figured I didn’t need to mention him again.
If you dont do any suspicious shit then you have nothing to worry about. I dont care if i get a terror rating. The most ive ever done is put sardines in another fraternity’s toilets. That might bump me up to a level 3 terrorist.