Here we go again, I thought.
The TSA has guidelines to give extra screening to those who show ‘contempt' or disdain for the TSA procedures… and they do an excellent job of doing this, because I have NOTHING but disdain for the TSA and almost EVERY time I go through I get extra screening.
I just can't bring myself to bow my head down or make happy mindless chit-chat with the TSA Gestapo like the throngs of braying sheeple around me.
“Thank you,” said the third TSA person IN A ROW whose sole job is to, apparently, look quizzingly at your boarding pass, squint and then dutifully tick off your name with a pink pen. She handed me my boarding pass and I moved on to what was likely the fourth TSA robot to try to magically divine from the look of my boarding pass if I was a threat to the nation.
“I said thank you!” snapped the TSA agent I had just passed.
I looked back at her, “I heard you the first time.”
Oohh, they didn't like that. Not one bit.
I was at Pittsburgh International Airport after having attended a gathering I was graciously invited to by Porter Stansberry's organization – unfortunately I felt quite ill my time there… something that happens to me a lot whenever I am in the US or Canada. Not sure if it's a lack of sunlight, chemtrails or just a general allergic reaction to all the laws, rules and regulations, but I regularly feel unwell when I leave my beach hide-out in Southern Mexico – so I unfortunately couldn't enjoy too much of my time with Stansberry's group.
So, after two days of being in bed – part of the reason for my lack of blogs this week – I found myself sniffling, coughing and dealing with my nemesis, the TSA.
The main security checkpoint had, literally, 500+ people waiting in line and I had gone upstairs to a “secondary security checkpoint” which had less people but had Michael Chertoff's mandatory Backscatter X-Ray machine. There was a normal metal detector but they weren't even using it at all… everyone was being put through the X-ray machine for a radiation bath and nude viewing. I don't mind the nude viewing – if someone wants to see me naked, they are welcome to it. But I prefer to avoid getting radiation at 45 times the level the Government states, according to an Arizona State physics professor.
I knew what was coming as I told them, as always, “I'm not going through that thing.”
“Opt out!”, “Opt out!” the TSA drone shouted.
This time it took even longer than normal for them to come around. Nearly 15 minutes. He then, as always, felt every part of my body for about 5 minutes. This time, however, after he finished he put his gloves through some sort of a machine.
As alarms started going off on the machine I just stood in disbelief. A number of TSA borgs ran over – it appeared to cause quite a disturbance.
Finally, after a pow-wow, one of the supervisor TSA guys came over to tell me that they were going to have to do a second screening – this time in a private room.
I was then ushered into a small room with three other TSA guys and we went through all the same procedure. They checked every part of my body for another 5 minutes while one of them filled out a form.
Finally, discouraged, they couldn't find anything. “You're free to go,” stated one of them.
“What was the alarm about?” I queried.
“It detected a small amount of pharmaceuticals. Were you in a pharmacy or anything recently?”
“No,” I responded, “So this was all because you thought I may have been in a pharmacy recently?”
“It's the protocol,” he stated, matter of factly.
It was, yet again, another 30 minutes spent in the fine company of some of the US Government's finest.
The most irritating part is when you consider what the alternative is. In a free-market… in other words, in a place nothing like the US, airlines would have their own security systems.
People would have their choice of flying with Paranoid Airlines and being strip searched prior to boarding if they like. And others, like me, would choose to pay less and go for Protect Yo'Self Airlines, where some of the passengers would walk up to the aircraft outfitted like Neo in the classic scene from The Matrix.
For the record, I'd also fly the airline that NEVER made you sit through ear-blistering, useless, monotous “for your safety” instructions including “how to use a seat belt”, the airline that let you listen to or use an electronic device in the 30 minutes prior to or after departure (because it has NO effect on the airplane) and the airline that gave you the option of parachuting out at any time you felt you wish to get off.
The point is, however, in a free-market you would have a choice. If you chose to buy a ticket on Paranoid Airlines then you would be aware of their security procedures and would have no right to complain unless they did something they weren't supposed to.
And, like all things in the free-market, all airlines would have it in their best interest to ensure that none of their planes ever crashed because of a lack of security. They'd make intelligent decisions how to best ensure the safety of their passengers for the least amount of expenditure and aggravation.
And, unlike the TSA, if any of their security people were complained about, they'd be fired.
The free-market has such an eloquent answer for everything.
Some may state that prior to the TSA, security screening was contracted out to private companies – but it was far from a free market system – it was highly regulated, as are most things in the US. Still, who can honestly look at airport security prior to 9/11 and post 9/11 and think that things have improved?
Only those who would have flown Paranoid Airlines and think that it is up to the Government to protect them would consider this an improved system.
So, thanks to them, and the US Government, we all must play the TSA Pokey Pokey for eternity. I, for one, look for any opportunity I can to avoid any flight connections or even trips to the US for this reason – and I doubt I'm alone.
