the problem in a nutshell

[nematoddity]

Found this excellent Slate article while wandering, which brings up an important point in the so-called 'War on Terror'--the enemy, in this instance, is inventive, flexible and fluid. Our government and our TSA agents are not. Who's going to win?

Yeah.

More to the point, while it doesn't come out and state it plainly, it infers heavily a truth

Comments

[mutaytedjoe]

Theoretically, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Practically, well, Israel is the size of a postage stamp that gets a huge amount of aid. See quote: "President Obama's Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposes $53.8 billion for appropriated international affairs' programs. From that budget, $5.7 billion is appopriated for foreign military financing, military education, and peacekeeping operations. From that $5.7 billion, $2.8 billion, almost 50% is appropriated for Israel.[40] Israel also has available roughly $3 billion of conditional loan guarantees, with additional funds coming available if Israel meets conditions negotiated at the U.S.-Israel Joint Economic Development Group (JEDG)." Their population is just about 7.4 million, and they have one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. Can our security be better? Hellz yes. Can we exactly copy Israel? Hellz no. Not without making some politically impossible budget choices like cutting either the military or entitlement programs (including Social Security), as these two

[nematoddity]

And I agree with it, but I still think there's a better way--even without major remodeling and expansion--than mass humiliation. Making a woman wait over an hour and miss her flight because her breast milk was opaque. Making a man board his flight soaked in his own urine when they broke the seal on his colostomy bag. Making a paraplegic remove her tampon and board the plane bleeding on her clothing. Loudly saying it's the fault of the citizen in question, who's 'holding the line up' and 'making everyone wait', while she is groped and fondled in public, despite her requests to be taken out of the line to a private room--which are the rights of the traveler--by a female operative--which are also the rights of the traveler, as given by the TSA.

These are not fictions, these are actual things that have occurred. At the least, we need better training for TSA agents. We need people trained in discernment, not petty power-hungry idiots who get off on watching women cry.