DescentBB

So how long until we can actually admit that were getting dangerously close to a full fledged police state?

Much as I want to praise him for protesting how ridiculous the TSA and airport insecurity has gotten, I'd also have to point out how utterly futile the entire endeavor was.

This kind of protest only works when enough people do it that the whole system jams up, otherwise it just ends up being an annoyance to a few TSA workers for a day and promptly forgotten.

Click.

Krom wrote:Much as I want to praise him for protesting how ridiculous the TSA and airport insecurity has gotten, I'd also have to point out how utterly futile the entire endeavor was.

This kind of protest only works when enough people do it that the whole system jams up, otherwise it just ends up being an annoyance to a few TSA workers for a day and promptly forgotten.

Thats true of pretty much all protests. Indeed, Rosa Parks was by no means the first person to refuse give up her seat on a bus, she was mearly the right person to do it at the right time, eventualy leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

I do hope that this all results in them backing off on those scanners. They freak me out.

We just need a better transpiration system that will render planes and cars obsolete... It'd be a huge favor to me if one of you guys could do that for me. k thx

Isaac wrote:We just need a better transpiration system that will render planes and cars obsolete... I'd be a huge favor to me if one of you guys could do that for me. k thx

I'll invent a Star Trek style transporter and I'll let you be the first person to try it.

Krom wrote:

Isaac wrote:We just need a better transpiration system that will render planes and cars obsolete... I'd be a huge favor to me if one of you guys could do that for me. k thx

I'll invent a Star Trek style transporter and I'll let you be the first person to try it.

Mel Brooks will sue.
"Forget it! I'll walk!!"

Isaac wrote:We just need a better transpiration system that will render planes and cars obsolete... I'd be a huge favor to me if one of you guys could do that for me. k thx

Don't sweat it...

Krom wrote:

Isaac wrote:We just need a better transpiration system that will render planes and cars obsolete... I'd be a huge favor to me if one of you guys could do that for me. k thx

I'll invent a Star Trek style transporter and I'll let you be the first person to try it.

Brundlefly any one.

Grendel wrote:

Isaac wrote:We just need a better transpiration system that will render planes and cars obsolete... I'd be a huge favor to me if one of you guys could do that for me. k thx

Don't sweat it...

Win

Honestly, he made a big deal out of nothing. They do not grope your junk you imbecile, they simply do a sliding motion up the thigh and a diagnol pat of the pelvic bone region. Unless he's hung like a horse and has to tape it to his thigh it's highly improbable.

They did make some stupid mistakes though(such as letting him leave, even I remember you're not supposed to do that.

Mjolnir wrote:Honestly, he made a big deal out of nothing. They do not grope your junk you imbecile, they simply do a sliding motion up the thigh and a diagnol pat of the pelvic bone region. Unless he's hung like a horse and has to tape it to his thigh it's highly improbable.

It's a common problem, you wouldn't believe how much I spend a week on tape.

^^ beat me to it

Mjolnir wrote:They did make some stupid mistakes though(such as letting him leave, even I remember you're not supposed to do that.)

Why not?

http://consumerist.com/2010/11/you-migh ... eened.html

I'm not debating the validity of letting them leave or not, but I specifically remember it being reinforced to even the lower ranks \"You do not let them leave until they've been fully screened\". So, there mistake was letting him go in the first place to cause another issue.

But I think the court has a point with just giving obvious loopholes... you have to follow specific laws when driving your car, it's the same thing in the airport even though it feels shitty sometimes it's not a right it's a privilege to fly.. take the train if you don't want to go through the TSA(though they might be there soon too XD)

The reason the TSA strikes me as borderline retarded is that if I or anyone else wanted to detonate an incendiary device anywhere in the United States, a bunch of underpaid worker drones at an airport are not going to stop me. The only thing they accomplish is making me take harder to monitor modes of transportation. Like a car or a bus. It boggles my mind that a bus bombing hasn't happened yet.

Well, the main idea is to not allow another plane to be a missle... pretty sure a bus isn't going to do that. The main reason a bombing like that hasn't happened(besides the morons failing to make a decent car bomb like the one in NY) is mostly due to their own pride. They like to do things bigger and better and/or show they can beat our security and yadda yadda... it's a big stupid game of cat and mouse but that's just how it is.

There are things way more likely to kill you than 1 in 30 million that the government does nothing about, why so much crap over airport screening? Do they honestly think one or two guys with pocket knives are going to be able to subdue 100+ other passengers in an airplane and take over? If someone attempted to do another hijacking today it would fail even if you gave them a loaded gun instead of a knife.

Krom wrote:Do they honestly think one or two guys with pocket knives are going to be able to subdue 100+ other passengers in an airplane and take over?

Heh, I was stopped by TSA officers a few years ago because I forgot I had a CyberTool in my laptop bag when I went through security. [I was later allowed to go back and check the bag, since the blade was under 2".]

The experience was frustrating at the time, but now it's just kind of amusing: "I'm taking over this plane! <wields CyberTool> Oh, crap, that's the pliers. Um, just a sec, gotta a find the knife... well, there's the bit set, and there's the corkscrew... darn it, where's that blade...?"

This has nothing to do with security, it has to do with whatever company is making those, probably not cheep, scanning machines.

I'm sure glad I don't have to fly anywhere anymore. Between the airlines and their fee pyramid schemes and the TSA strip searches, no thanks, it isn't worth it.

tunnelcat wrote:I'm sure glad I don't have to fly anywhere anymore. Between the airlines and their fee pyramid schemes and the TSA strip searches, no thanks, it isn't worth it.

Do you hate everyone that's in business???
TC, I have never seen you say anything but disparaging remarks for anyone who tries to make a profit. I understand that you may not like how a business does things. but it is a business. you CAN choose to go somewhere else.

CUDA wrote:

tunnelcat wrote:I'm sure glad I don't have to fly anywhere anymore. Between the airlines and their fee pyramid schemes and the TSA strip searches, no thanks, it isn't worth it.

Do you hate everyone that's in business???
TC, I have never seen you say anything but disparaging remarks for anyone who tries to make a profit. I understand that you may not like how a business does things. but it is a business. you CAN choose to go somewhere else.

He's choosing not to fly, I think. Choosy choose choose.

not sure I get your point.

Definition of CHOOSE
transitive verb
1a : to select freely and after consideration <choose a career>
b : to decide on especially by vote : elect <chose her as captain>
2a : to have a preference for <choose one car over another>
b : decide <chose to go by train>

You said he can choose to go somewhere else, he is.

she

But I think CUDA can't wrap his mind around not choosing to business with someone as a valid choice.

She can choose not to fly to and from the US.

make sure you frisk me good, check my panties and my bra...

I can imagine a practical joke where someone sprays weapon shaped polyurethane (or any clear thick spray) prints on the inside of someone's shirts, the day before they leave to fly. \"We've got a man with 3 knives five guns, and an octopus, over!\"

Isaac wrote:I can imagine a practical joke where someone sprays weapon shaped polyurethane (or any clear thick spray) prints on the inside of someone's shirts, the day before they leave to fly. "We've got a man with 3 knives five guns, and an octopus, over!"

It'd be funny until you got arrested and sued and stuff. The TSA is srs biznss.

snoopy wrote:

Isaac wrote:I can imagine a practical joke where someone sprays weapon shaped polyurethane (or any clear thick spray) prints on the inside of someone's shirts, the day before they leave to fly. "We've got a man with 3 knives five guns, and an octopus, over!"

It'd be funny until you got arrested and sued and stuff. The TSA is srs biznss.

Why would I be arrested if you were the one spraying?

CUDA wrote:TC, I have never seen you say anything but disparaging remarks for anyone who tries to make a profit. I understand that you may not like how a business does things. but it is a business. you CAN choose to go somewhere else.

I'm not against anyone making an honest profit. No one would want to be in business if they couldn't make a profit. What I don't like is being nickle and dimed to death in order to obfuscate a company's desire to make that profit, being searched and violated in the name of safety and terrorist prevention all for the privilege of using that company's "services" and THEN being treated like some animal being shipped in steerage. Why not just charge one fee for the ticket? If I had to fly somewhere, I'd pay the going price. But because they think that they can get MORE out of us if they take it in little chunks here and there, they do it and nobody fights them. The very same business practice is going on in the telecom business, obfuscated pricing to make MORE profit.

The airlines have forgotten what they are in business for, to fly people to their destination with some reasonable expectation of decent service. Companies today seem to have forgotten the service part of doing business. It's more about profit. What we have now more resembles cattle being shipped for slaughter. It's almost as if the airlines are holding their collectives noses while taking our hard earned money and then packing us in like sardines in a metal tube to be shipped like so much cargo.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/20 ... class.html

I'm not the only one pissed off:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101117/ts ... anyryanair

tunnelcat wrote:

CUDA wrote:TC, I have never seen you say anything but disparaging remarks for anyone who tries to make a profit. I understand that you may not like how a business does things. but it is a business. you CAN choose to go somewhere else.

I'm not against anyone making an honest profit. No one would want to be in business if they couldn't make a profit. What I don't like is being nickle and dimed to death in order to obfuscate a company's desire to make that profit, being searched and violated in the name of safety and terrorist prevention all for the privilege of using that company's "services" and THEN being treated like some animal being shipped in steerage. Why not just charge one fee for the ticket? If I had to fly somewhere, I'd pay the going price. But because they think that they can get MORE out of us if they take it in little chunks here and there, they do it and nobody fights them. The very same business practice is going on in the telecom business, obfuscated pricing to make MORE profit.

"Why not just charge one fee for the ticket?" do you believe for one second that Southwest airlines can fly you across the country for $59????? its called marketing, while I do not like it I understand it. but there is such a thing as Overhead in a business, and with every new regulation that is passed a corporations overhead goes up. and that leaves a business with no choice but to pass it on to the consumer. yet you as a consumer get upset when prices go up. its cant be both ways

TC wrote:The airlines have forgotten what they are in business for, to fly people to their destination with some reasonable expectation of decent service.

that would be incorrect. and I'm sure that the stock holders would disagree with you also. those that provide that "descent service" tend to stay in Business. those that don't don't. and FYI the TSA is a GOVERNMENT agency and is not part of the Airlines.

busi·ness   /ˈbɪznɪs/ Show Spelled
[biz-nis] Show IPA

–noun
1. an occupation, profession, or trade: His business is poultry farming.
2. the purchase and sale of goods in an attempt to make a profit.
3. a person, partnership, or corporation engaged in commerce, manufacturing, or a service; profit-seeking enterprise or concern.

TC wrote:Companies today seem to have forgotten the service part of doing business. It's more about profit. What we have now more resembles cattle being shipped for slaughter. It's almost as if the airlines are holding their collectives noses while taking our hard earned money and then packing us in like sardines in a metal tube to be shipped like so much cargo.

I will PARTIALY agree with the first part of your statement. some companies have forgotten about customer service. Most have put a HUGE emphasis on it.

Disband the TSA. Anything they can do, the free market can do better.

CUDA wrote:Why not just charge one fee for the ticket?" do you believe for one second that Southwest airlines can fly you across the country for $59????? its called marketing, while I do not like it I understand it. but there is such a thing as Overhead in a business, and with every new regulation that is passed a corporations overhead goes up. and that leaves a business with no choice but to pass it on to the consumer. yet you as a consumer get upset when prices go up. its cant be both ways

Then advertise a single ticket price that includes their current overhead! They don't need to tack on this and that little fee every time someone sneezes. Build it into the ticket price. If things change, then charge new customers for the new overhead. If they don't like it, they can go shopping elsewhere. That's called "competition". The airlines USED to charge a single price for their tickets, WHY NOT NOW? These guys still buy fuel futures to hedge against fuel price changes don't they, so they shouldn't be using the fuel price excuse to add this little fee or that little charge.

CUDA wrote:that would be incorrect. and I'm sure that the stock holders would disagree with you also. those that provide that "descent service" tend to stay in Business. those that don't don't. and FYI the TSA is a GOVERNMENT agency and is not part of the Airlines.

What service are they providing now, other than loading someone on a plane, locking the door and flying them to their destination? Food is not complimentary anymore, the planes are dirty and these guys don't even use headrest covers anymore to stop the spread of head lice! I guess I'm old school. I like a clean plane, relatively on-time departures and arrivals (weather permitting) and maybe some decent food on a long flight. I'm not asking for first class either, just to be treated like a human being. The way they do business now, they WON'T get MY business in the future.

And yes, the TSA is a stupid, overzealous, heavy handed government entity that not helping the industry, so I can't blame the airlines for the strip searches. That doesn't mean I'll put up with it to fly.

I think what's wrong with business today is the new priority, making Wall Street happy EVERY quarter, profit, profit, profit. In times past, when someone wanted to start a business, they usually had a good idea for some product or service that people wanted or liked, and if they did a good job or had something people really wanted, they were rewarded with good profits. More customers would then be attracted and the business would make MORE profits.

What I'm seeing now as the "new normal" is that after a company founder starts a business and if it turns out to be wildly successful, invariably some Wall Street investment sharks come in, take over the board or company with no intent to run the business, proceed to throw out the founders and then milk any assets until the original business is a dead dry husk and bankrupt. That's what I see happening more and more these days. That's not business, that's thievery.

Heretic wrote:

I don't see why this is an issue, maybe she has a small child under there?

On a more serious note, the reason they check everyone is because of mistakes other countries have made... like with some Serbian women who had babies in rucksacks on their chests to carry them. Turned out they were bombs and they didn't screen them because "they looked like nice mothers". Ka-boom the plane goes.

Jeff250 wrote:Disband the TSA. Anything they can do, the free market can do better.

I hate when people say the free market can do anything better than the Government can... mostly because it isn't true, on some things yes and some things no.

Yes I can see why you wouldn't have a problem because of all the killer nuns running around blowing people up.