I’ve largely stopped beating up on the TSA because it seems like a dog-bites-man or sun-rises-in-the-east issue. Do we really learn anything by repetitively discussing the stupidity on one bureaucracy?
But sometimes the idiocy reaches such an extreme level that it can’t be ignored.
Here are the nauseating details of how TSA bureaucrats confiscated a toy hammer – made out of plastic – that a mentally retarded man had used as a sort of security blanket for 20 years.
The Mandy family says they were on their way to the happiest place on earth (Disney), but had to go through hell to get there. …The family was going through security when two TSA agents singled Drew Mandy out for a special pat down. Drew is severely mentally disabled. He’s 29, but his parents said he has the mental capacity of a two-year-old, which made the experience that followed at metro Detroit’s McNamera Terminal that much harder to deal with. …The TSA agents saw Drew holding a six-inch plastic hammer. “My son carries his ball and his hammer for security. He goes everywhere with (them),” said Mandy. The TSA it seems saw the toy as a weapon. “He took the hammer and he tapped the wall. ‘See, it’s hard. It could be used as a weapon,'” Mandy explained. …”It just killed me to have to throw it away because he’s been carrying this like for 20 years,” Mandy said.
That’s a disgusting example of bureaucratic stupidity, but I don’t know whether it’s better or worse than what happened in Florida, where the Keystone Cops of the TSA made a 95-year old cancer patient remove her adult diaper as part of the screening process.
The Transportation Security Administration doesn’t think its agents did anything wrong in asking an elderly woman with cancer to remove her adult diaper during an airport security screening. The agency came under fire after Florida woman Jean Weber claimed her 95-year-old mother was forced to take off her diaper for a pat down at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport last weekend. “It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” Weber told the Northwest Florida Daily News. …Weber says watching her mother, who is battling leukemia, be subjected to the security screening drove her to tears.
Plastic hammers and soiled diapers are deadly weapons to be sure, especially in the hands of retarded people and senior citizens. We should be mighty proud that the TSA is on the job!!
Not surprisingly, Senator Rand Paul has the right assessment, believing in common sense and individual liberty. I’ve already shared a video of him mocking an Obama appointee for imposing inferior, toxic light bulbs. Now here’s a video of him grilling the head TSA bureaucrat.
[…] you want other video examples of Senator Paul in action, click here to see himgrill a TSA bureaucrat and click here to see him rip an Obama appointee on whether Americans […]
[…] you want other video examples of Senator Paul in action, click here to see himgrill a TSA bureaucrat and click here to see him rip an Obama appointee on whether Americans […]
[…] you want other video examples of Senator Paul in action, click here to see him grill a TSA bureaucrat and click here to see him rip an Obama appointee on whether Americans should […]
The TSA is a made up of fools. The longer that Americans permit suffering from such fools the longer such outrageous behavior will continue.
Question: Why is the TSA afraid to profile those who are the threat?
Answer: they are afraid of offending moslems
@monkey think monkey write
Agents must use common sense in their methods. Is it likely that a plastic hammer will do damage? No, let it pass. Is is reasonable to assume that a 95 year old in diapers is a threat or that she has weapons in her diaper? No, let her pass. Should we pay more attention to the nervous 19 to 22 year old muslim with a bulge in the small of his back? Yes, check him out.
This is not hard. But as long as TSA continues to pat down 6 year old children and 90 year old grandmas the rest of us will view TSA as the real threat to freedom and security.
> TSA made a 95-year old cancer patient remove her adult diaper
Look, I am all for dismantling the TSA and doing away with the security theatre all together, but if we for the sake of discussion assume that the TSA procedures actually have anything to do with security, then there simply can’t be any exceptions. Because if 95-year old cancer patients’ diapers will not be searched, then The Terrorists will smuggle their explosives onboard in 95-year old cancer patients’ diapers.
The same goes for flight personnel, ground crew, celebrities, people known to the TSA agents, federal officers, VIP flyers, and all others. *All* must be searched completely every time they pass the perimeter, or they are an attack vector.
If the TSA procedures actually have anything to do with security. If not, exceptions are fine, of course.
[…] And it’s not just because I get stuck in line behind families that take 20 minutes to go through security, just so the bureaucrats can confiscate toy soldiers, plastic hammers, toothpaste, and baby food. […]
Here’s an idea. Sen Paul should arrange for scanners and “security agents” at the door to the Committee Room, and ensure that every TSA hench-moron gets the “full impartial treatment” accorded to airline passengers. EVERYTHING which could be, or has in the past been, used as a weapon should be confiscated before the “Honorable John Pistole” is allowed into the room.
That would mean he would arrive without: his tie, belt, shoes, pen, pencil, ruler, keys, and briefcase, all of which items have been used during assaults. He would also have the ‘honor’ of getting his testicles manhandled before entering the room. Perhaps a tasering for being ‘contemptuous’ might even be in order….
On a more serious note, it would be extremely useful if the Senator subpoenaed the delivery of the secret laws and regulations which the Ninth Circuit held that neither John Gilmore nor any other traveller was entitled to see, but which everyone must obey.
And THEN, line them up against a wall and fire them.
(*Almost* said ‘fire at them’…..)
[…] Courtesy of International Liberty, here’s video of Senator Rand Paul, who’s rapidly becoming a favorite of mine, taking a […]