Isn’t this just wonderful? The feds have announced new rules, but it’s not clear what they are. According to some reports, though, passengers will not be allowed to have anything it their laps. Does this mean books? Blackberries? Are we allowed to twiddle our thumbs? Since I have speeches next month in Canada and the Cayman Islands, I look forward to seeing what petty and pointless inconveniences the bureaucrats at the Transportation Security Administration have in store for me:
The government was vague about the steps it was taking, saying that it wanted the security experience to be “unpredictable” and that passengers would not find the same measures at every airport — a prospect that may upset airlines and travelers alike. But several airlines released detailed information about the restrictions, saying that passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. It was not clear how often the rule would affect domestic flights.
The key question, of course, is whether any of these rules make flying safer. After all, there are real nutjobs out there who want to kill Americans. But as Christopher Hitchens explains, the new rules are bureaucratic nonsense:
For some years after 9/11, passengers were forbidden to get up and use the lavatory on the Washington-New York shuttle. Zero tolerance! I suppose it must eventually have occurred to somebody that this ban would not deter a person who was willing to die, so the rule was scrapped. …But now fresh idiocies are in store. Nothing in your lap during final approach. Do you feel safer? If you were a suicide-killer, would you feel thwarted or deterred? …Why do we fail to detect or defeat the guilty, and why do we do so well at collective punishment of the innocent? The answer to the first question is: Because we can’t—or won’t. The answer to the second question is: Because we can. The fault here is not just with our endlessly incompetent security services, who give the benefit of the doubt to people who should have been arrested long ago or at least had their visas and travel rights revoked. It is also with a public opinion that sheepishly bleats to be made to “feel safe.” The demand to satisfy that sad illusion can be met with relative ease if you pay enough people to stand around and stare significantly at the citizens’ toothpaste. My impression as a frequent traveler is that intelligent Americans fail to protest at this inanity in case it is they who attract attention and end up on a no-fly list instead. Perfect. It was reported over the weekend that in the aftermath of the Detroit fiasco, no official decision was made about whether to raise the designated “threat level” from orange. Orange! Could this possibly be because it would be panicky and ridiculous to change it to red and really, really absurd to lower it to yellow? But isn’t it just as preposterous (and revealing), immediately after a known Muslim extremist has waltzed through every flimsy barrier, to leave it just where it was the day before?
I’ve always questioned why the TSA has any authority over people getting on planes. People pay to fly. They should be able to choose whether they want the security-screened flight or a non-security-screened flight, like smoking vs. non-smoking. It’s not the government’s business.
If a person can’t be trusted to not try to blow up other people then he/she shouldn’t be allowed in the country altogether (plane, bus, train, sidewalk, …). That is the government’s business. Once, you’re here, it should be the “land of the free”, and freedom means not being harassed by TSA goons.
Anyone’s rights can be violated in the name of “national security.” Any kind of funding can be wasted, and the mantra has been used in all types of tyrannical and wasteful legislation.
What’s next? Well… TSA claims they won’t be grabbing your scrotum anytime soon, but they will be doing a full body scan.
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Airports-Slow-to-Receive-Whole-Body-Imaging-Scanners-80233757.html
My guess is this will cause less people to fly, eat into the profits of the airline industry, prompting calls for a bailout (in the name of national security, of course, since airlines can apparently be federalized in times of national emergency).
Tomorrow i will come back here to finish reading. Do you update daily?
I quit flying when they told me I couldn’t knit during flight because my knitting needles might be considered a weapon. They’re allowed again, apparently, but flying is stressful enough — if I can’t knit during the entire last hour, other peoples’ lives just MIGHT be in danger
Some people take tranquilizers, I knit. I NEVER go anywhere without a sock in progress in my purse. Which is why I don’t plan to fly any time in the future.