Post Punk Kitchen Forum

WHAT THE WHAT?

I wouldn't say it was a failure. I would just say it was the first day of battle, if you will.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/tsa-cave-scanners-thanksgiving-rush/

.

I bet a lot of TSA agents are dreading going to work lately.

Yes....WHAT?

I thought this was an interesting read, summarizing what we've been discussing here recently. I'm disappointed that more people did not opt out.
It's scheduled to run in this Sunday's Washington Post.
Why the TSA pat-downs and body scans are unconstitutional
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112404510.html

So... the story behind that one?

I have interesting friends. I was visiting one of these, who herself has some even more interesting friends, and as we were sitting and chilling in her dorm when I was visiting her in London on my half-term break, she started rifling through her desk for cigarettes or something, and then paused abruptly, and then proceeded to fish out a pipe bomb her friend had made - apparently they'd set off all the others in the park earlier. Or something. She asked me if I wanted it - so I said "Uh, sure" because my brain still hadn't caught up with the fact that she was brandishing a bomb. So she chucked it at my head, and I ended up taking it back to school with me. This was the kind of school which had room searches to check for booze, and when one of these loomed, I buried the thing in a jar of dirt to hide it, because in no search had anyone ever opened the jar of dirt. (Obviously nobody was taking their cues from Norrington.)

Then I completely forgot about it.

Six months later, when my father came to visit, he offered to take back a bag of assorted personal affects I would not need in the time between then and graduation, so I gave him my little treasure chest, packed with a plastic skull, some random knickknacks, and... a jar of dirt.

It was only about a month later that I started looking to see what the fizzle I had done with my pipe bomb, and realised - oh. shiitake. And then nervously phoned my father.

"So, uh, got home all right? No - um, uh - no trouble with customs?"
"No... why?"
"NOTHING NEVERMIND."

It's currently sitting on my shelf over my desk in a little dish as a memento, and I kind of hope it doesn't contain anything which will spontaneously decide to kill me in the night.

Hilarious and lucky-as-shit turn of events xGreenling!

These are awesome
http://www.likecool.com/4TH_AMENDMENT_U ... t+magazine)

Mandatory pre-flight enemas. I'm OK with it if it makes us safer.

If cavity searches are go at some future point, I'mma be really pissed if my boyfriend goes through security because "it makes us safer" but still won't let me play with his butt. One would think girlfriend fingers > government fingers.

Mother harassed and forced to miss flight. The vid is long but makes up for it in infuriatingness.

There is almost nothing I hate more than small ignorant people with too much authority! That woman had way more patience than I ever would have. I would have kirked out on them and gotten arrested. I'm hoping she has some sort of grounds for a lawsuit.

Oh and this is real awesome too if it hasn't been posted already http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/24/me ... man-s.html

You guys have convinced me. No trip to Germany next year if the TSA is still this out of control. The vids have shown me that even they can't believe they're being crassholes not for the sake of security; they're being crassholes because they can get away with it or because they're afraid of being fired for not going along with what their supervisors say.

That is beyond unbelievable.

I was pretty convinced I'd gotten to the maximum rage peak about halfway through, but I watched until the end. The last 20 seconds make me feel like hitting a brick wall with a baseball bat until the bat is in tiny little splinters all over the floor. Goddamn!

how did this thread get so damn long?

New stories every day, that's how it got so damn long. It's kind of nerve-wracking, actually.

So, last week, I flew out of Chicago, and nary a person was asked to go through the x-ray scanners (our stuff did, but our bodies didn't). I was all hyped up to opt out and I just had to walk through a metal detector. It took me fewer than fifteen minutes to get from the front door of the airport to my gate. Chicago has thex-ray scanners, so I don't know why they weren't using them. The optimist in me wants to think it's because everyone on the internets was making such a stink, and the TSA didn't want to deal with the hassle the day before Thanksgiving? That's prgoress, right? Something?

I didn't go through an x-ray scanner on the way back, because Sacramento doesn't have them, yet.

No drama for me. Yet.

I was groped and tomorrow expect to be again. I can't even believe I have to mentally prepare to get groped to fly.

This http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/airp ... se-expert/ is just despicable. Telling children the pat-downs are "a game". I can't handle it.

Thank you for this article. While awful, it just furthers my belief of how incredibly inappropriate this is for children especially.

Very true.
I say children especially, but I do believe it's inappropriate for everyone. It's completely out of control. I haven't watched the video that was posted above because I'm not in a mood where I want to rage right now. I know that at certain airports, pilots just have a sticker affixed to their car and they drive into a special parking lot for pilots and aren't even screened until after they're through a certain part of the airport. I mean, there are numerous ways around security, there are stories of bombs being mailed in the bellies of planes... and this. This.

I haven't weighed in on the issue yet, but that video makes me so forking angry.

What was the point of keeping her penned up? Why did they refuse to follow their own rules about the "special liquids"? HOW THE HELL IS THIS FIGHTING TERRORISM. I applaud that woman, I can't say I wouldn't have been arrested.

I know this has all been said, but damn. I need a cookie. Or 5.

because she compained about them previously. that was them getting back at her. (and denying a child of a few hours of food. way to go, TSA) plain and simple, they were being petty bisques.

I opted for a kilt the last time I flew. My blog entry about it even got picked up by Ars Technica... :)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... speaks.ars

I saw a guy wearing a kilt on my last flight. He totally looked like he was straight out of Braveheart. I didn't hear him speak though so don't know if he had an accent.