Comments | tongodeon: Stop looking for false positives.

tongodeon

Stop looking for false positives.

Oct 20, 2007 11:14

I took a flight back from LAX to SFO last week. I had a small carry-on bag with three days' clothing and some toiletries, including a tube of hair gel. I wasn't sure whether the bottle was above or below the limit, so I figured I'd just put it through the machine to see what happens ( Read more... )

transportation security, security, tsa

Comments 32

mskala October 20 2007, 18:19:01 UTC

Bruce Schneier refers to this kind of thing as "security theatre." The point, as you say, is to be visible even if not particularly effective.

crisper October 22 2007, 18:37:51 UTC

It ain't even Security Theater, it's just Security Improv.

ikkyu2 October 20 2007, 18:57:18 UTC

Fly Clear. Now you can get out of your seat in the Security Theater. All you have to do is waive all your Bill of Rights protections and pay $99, and you can skip the line and take your explosives on board with you.

This is un-fucking-believable to me. People are going to waive their Constitution-given protections and pay $99 bucks for the privilege. I hate this country sometimes.

rezendi October 20 2007, 19:04:05 UTC

I am mystified. Clear members still proceed through metal detectors and x-ray machines operated and regulated by the Department of Homeland Security but other parts of the process are expedited. Huh? What 'other parts of the process' are they talking about?

gundam_sentinel October 20 2007, 19:42:15 UTC

I think you get to skip the line of people waiting to go through security basically. Its a fast lane like at six flags, earning the sneers and boos from the 100 some people that you will still have to sit next to on the airplane. Genius.

ikkyu2 October 21 2007, 00:20:14 UTC

Waiting in line. There's a separate line for Clear people, just like there is for first class passengers.

Thread 22

doublejack October 20 2007, 22:15:11 UTC

From your mouth to the FAA's ears...

I look forward to the day when I can stop being disgusted, embarrassed, stunned and demoralized by this "new" America that seems to have forgotten how to actually solve problems, while excelling at creating new ones. But it's getting harder and harder to set aside the fear that that day might never come.

flwyd October 20 2007, 22:18:01 UTC

I've always thought the people in charge of keeping Los Angeles International Airport safe ought to walk around in shirts and jackets that say LAX SECURITY on the back.

Fun with the Security Theatre... drieuxster October 21 2007, 16:54:43 UTC

I find your failure to support the Performance Art Value of the National Kabuki Security unfathomable!!!

We have been watching this at so many levels, and not merely the TSA, but the current efforts to restore the wetlands in Iraq, that I would have presumed that you would have accepted this as National Policy! Where 'image is everything', and who cares about what it does to anyone.

It is as if you are totally unable to escape the Death Grip of the Failed pre-911 Reality Based Community with all of it's hard to understand stuff about factualism, rather than the newer and more improved Truthiness!!! Where the appearance that it might be truthier were good enough.