Tag: tsa

It’s a trap, older ladies!

The Transportation Security Administration has announced that it will ease up screening procedures on seniors aged 75 and above. Much in the same way they’ve done for kids 12 and under, TSA will no longer force the elderly to remove their shoes or outerwear at security checkpoints, and they will now be able to opt out of pat-downs provided they submit to a second no-touch screening.

But, just when TSA thinks they’ve found a way to improve their perception problem, they introduce a whole new one: passenger ages will be determined by a screener’s visual assessment. Unless … maybe it’s a trap to compliment grandmas, like carding older ladies for booze?

The squeeze gets put on the TSA

On this past Thursday, a Colorado woman of Japanese decent was arrested and charged with a felony count of sexual abuse, after she reportedly grabbed a TSA officer’s breasts.

Please pick up your jaw. We know that this is a bit of an anomaly, being that it’s a Japanese woman groping someone and not a Japanese man. Details, unfortunately, are currently sparse on what actually occurred, but was this a reaction from being groped by the TSA agent?

The woman, 61 year old Yukari Mihamae, has been released, and is currently awaiting trial. We can only assume that the TSA will soon be offering her a job with them.

This is a definitive statement …

… And this is a series of non-definitive statements from America’s security sweetheart, Janet Napolitano regarding how airports will continue to be defended at second and third base:

“‘The new technology, the pat-downs, is just objectively safer for our traveling public,’ Napolitano said. ‘We pick up contraband now, and we pick up more contraband with the new procedures and the new machinery. What we know is that you can’t measure the devices that we are deterring from going on a plane.'”

So, for those of you keeping score at home for our War on Nail Clippers:

1. We are finding contraband, which could be bombs or could be shampoo.

2. Nobody can count this contraband, which means that it’s either A) an embarrassingly small amount, B) a pants-wettingly large amount or C) unable to be counted because nobody keeps track of attempted terror attacks in our airports.

3. We are all now, somehow, objectively safer.

Of course you’re safe, citizens. Now take off your pants for mommy.

Take it from Snee: We could be safer

Americans are upset at TSA, and it’s not because we’re the only country in the world that requires airline passengers to take off their shoes. We’ve been given a choice between having a digital naked picture taken of us (which will never, ever end up online) or let Bubba Notacop grab a feelsky before we can get through security.

I, however, am not most Americans. You see a police state; I see free hernia checks. (Now who’s providing free health care?) I like the feeling of a security blanket, and to hog more of that blanket, I’ve got a few more recommendations for our Department of Homeland Security. Continue reading Take it from Snee: We could be safer

‘Gun-owners need not apply’

We’ve discussed guns in this space before. Americans have a right to them, and private businesses have a right to refuse service to anyone they choose … if they’re willing to make us leave.

Since open-carry proponents’ boycott of Starbucks isn’t working, the our brothers in Georgia have almost passed a law to allow privately-owned guns in non-secure areas of the airport. You know, the lobby to the place where it’s illegal to carry bottled water and pocket knives?

According to one of the lawmakers, State Rep. Tim Bearden, “Posting a metal sign that says ‘Gun-Free Zone’ is not going to stop a terrorist or any criminal intent on doing harm to law-abiding citizens.”

And Bearden’s right. A terrorist could pull a gun at the Delta counter. Or in the parking lot. Or in the men’s room when we’re just looking for a handie.

That’s why we need armed private citizens patrolling our airports for other armed private citizens. And to expedite this recruitment, we shouldn’t waste time with bothersome tests like in, say, law enforcement, airport security, anti-terrorist operations, the ability to use said weapon or basic logic.

Game over, man! Game over!

It's Pat!Believe it or not, there’s an actual method to TSA screening beyond searching for 3-ounce shampoo bottles.

Their screening manual was leaked online, and includes possible methods for defeating airport security measures like using a wheelchair or wearing a cast or orthropedic shoes.

Really? They don’t suspect the disabled despite the 1993 World Trade Center bombing being planned by a blind guy and the retarded fundamentalists that try to light their shoes on fire? I guess the TSA has a cutoff point for “too disabled.”

The only thing that disappoints us about this story is that they don’t explain why other methods are used in the first place, like banning Swiss Army knives. Have you tried to open one in a moment of passion? It takes three tries just to extend a useful tool, and even then, it’ll probably be a magnifying glass or can openner.

TSA floods U.S. streets with dangerous weapons

You're only worth protecting if you've paid for airfare, citizen.Since Sept. 11, 2001, TSA has seized dangerous weapons–like pocket knives, nail clippers and miniature Louisville baseball bats–to protect flight crews and passengers from the very real threat of terrorism.

But what happens to these dangerous 3-ounce or larger liquids and other jihadist materials once seized? We’d like to think they’re analyzed by security and counterterrorism experts to predict and combat future attacks. Or even destroyed in the very same crucifices that brought terror into our world.

We’d like to think that, but that’s not the case. Instead, TSA gives them away to state agencies that sell them for cheap to retailers and on eBay.

So, just like how we sponsored the Mujahideen back in the 1980s, it’s only a matter of time before our corkscrews strike us when we least expect it. Thanks a lot, TSA.

New airport scanner spurs quaint privacy complaints

There's nothing intimidating about walking through a X-ray machine with your hands behind your head.Stick-in-the-mud organizations like the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Privacy Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union are concerned about new airport security scanners that image your body under your clothes to detect metal objects and liquids.

They call this a “virtual strip search,” which would replace the traditional metal detector walkthrough and follow-up groin massage.

(This thought in itself is disturbing as we look forward to our pre-flight happy ending that calms our jitters. Fortunately, there’s still booze.)

Clearly, these “civil liberties” organizations are a bunch of prudes trying to conceal our bodies. In an age of constant twitter updates, breastfeeding photos on Facebook and amateur porn stars on BangBus, who are these ludites to speak for us?

We’re gonna be stars, dammit, and that’s why we don’t wear underwear.

How To: Survive a flight

Planes. They are first when listen with trains and automobiles. While in theory the fastest form of transportation, a trip from Point A to Point B might take longer than in a plane than it would to, say, walk the distance instead. There will always be numerous reasons for why this happens, but all the knowledge of the airline industry in the world will not stop the problems from happening. No, one can only hope to surive. That’s why The Guys present how to survive a flight. Continue reading How To: Survive a flight