Doing the Airport Shuffle
Somehow, in a country whose creative geniuses produced the airplane, the computer, the iPad, text-messaging and the ergonomic miracle of the Nike sneaker, the federal transportation authorities have yet to come up with anything better than those stacks of tubs. There is no provision for the rapid striptease acts which passengers are required to perform upon reaching the tubs. No chairs on which to sit while removing your shoes, no good place to unzip your bag and remove a laptop (having been required to consolidate all carry-on in order to enter the security line in the first place). One after another, with the queue bearing down from behind, the passengers hop around, pulling off shoes, unbuckling belts, emptying pockets, unzipping bags, re-zipping bags, diving across each other to procure yet another tub, while trying simultaneously to hang onto the ticket (for which most airlines have stopped providing ticket jackets) and identification that must be hand-carried through.
Is there really no better way? I’m no ergonomic expert. But every time I go through this routine, I wonder if the authorities couldn’t actually speed up these lines, and allow for a trace of dignity as well, by making some routine provision for the entirely predictable, awkard and time-consuming hopping, unzipping and fumbling with tubs and tickets. Where DO our authorities expect you to put your ticket while you are using both hands to pack your accessories into plastic tubs? Amid all the motion experts of America, versed in developing ever sleeker bicycles, phones and tennis rackets, can no one be found to improve on the hop-and-tub routines of the TSA? As for the queues, if there isn’t the manpower to handle peak hours without a wait, would it not be possible to knock out at least the initial half hour of Soviet-style shuffling by letting people simply take a number — and approach the altar of the actual security check a mere 10 or 15 minutes before their turn, rather than waiting in line for 45 minutes? That approach works awfully well in private-sector delicatessens (where there tends to be a lot more concern for the convenience of the customer).
Small stuff, perhaps, compared to the larger questions of how best to actually provide security. Were there genuinely good reasons for shuffling and hopping through these interminable airport lines, or even some sign that federal authorities are trying hard to provide the kind of courtesy routine among deli owners selling salami, it might be ungrateful to protest. But it is a dismal feeling to arrive home in America, land of the free, and, as required offering for onward domestic passage, be shunted straight into the world of the sheep.
there might be ways to make it less absurdly onerous for the passengers the federal government is presumably trying to serve.
Well, of course there are ways, but that’s irrelevant. ‘Presumably trying to serve’? The TSA has absolutely no interest in serving anyone’s interests but its own. Partly this is the price for federalizing thousands of marginally functional workers — all-too-often demoralized affirmative action dolts unemployable elsewhere (and yes, they often smell bad) — but mainly it’s just business as usual. Yet another federal bureaucracy that’s dug in, incompetent and unaccountable. Ho-hum.
The only difference: at the airport, the experience is direct, up close, in your face and personal (even inimate). Never was so much stupidity so institutionalzed and so visible. Can anyone objectively claim the TSA is an acceptable first line of defense, much less an effective one? Of course not. End it, don’t mend it.
The key to understanding TSA is that it was spun up when the US was at full employment, and especially at full employment for anybody who could pee in a bottle and pass a background check. Public employers all over the Country weren’t scraping the bottom of the barrel for qualified LEO candidates with a clean background and no bad habits, they were digging in the dirt under the barrel. Lots of public employers were sending recruiting missions to other employers’ cops and corrections officers. A TSA recruiter called me wanting to go to our prisons and try to recruit our COs; yeah, right! Likewise the management was recruited at the same time as public employers were struggling to keep their managers, so most of them were people that the employer was willing to let go. Alaska “lost” a couple of law enforcement managers to TSA, and their going away parties were the kind of party you went to just to make sure it was really happening.
I believe one of the purposes of the grueling airport TSA process is to get the Amerikan public in the habit of responding, nay, complying with the orders of ANY authority figure instantly.
They are TRAINING US…………….
Yep, though I think “conditioning” is a better word.
Your papers, please.
“You find the first five guys you see and you crucify them.”
The people who arrange this are doing it on purpose. The ones who implement it are having as much fun, or as much relaxation, as they can eke out of the charade.
“I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.”
If the security line wasn’t so long, then the airlines wouldn’t be able to provide the “express” lines for their frequent fliers/people who pay extra for the privilege.
Most people in that express line aren’t paying extra. Most of us are people who depend on air travel for our livelihood. My business requires travel – a lot of it – as I do business on four continents. So, yes, I have status, and the airlines expedite my passage just as any savvy business would seek to encourage a business customer who spends thousands of dollars a year over vacationers that might spend a few hundred every two or three years. That’s just good business.
Besides, I thought thinly-veiled cheap shots at the well-to-do were supposed to be the Left’s thing, eh?
No, it wasn’t a cheap shot–I’m happy that I don’t have to travel enough to have that privilege and don’t begrudge those that do. I was merely pointing out that the system won’t change because the airlines would lose the revenue it brings. Whether or not the government (in the form of the TSA) should differentially inconvenience folks on the basis of their frequent flyer status is another discussion, though.
They are already losing revenue from people who quit flying anywhere they can avoid it. Flying has become such a chore that it’s not even on my radar anymore for vacation ideas. The only reason I’ll fly anywhere anymore if for business, or if there is some sort of family emergency that necessitates it.
I work for a major airline and I stopped flying completely after the TSA geared up. I refuse to submit to that utter buffoonery.
The TSA doesn’t even exist for security reasons. It’s all eye-candy to make SOME people think that SOMEthing is “being done” to curtail the next catastrophic event.
But the muslim terrorists aren’t stupid. They delight in the revenue-harming TSA routine and also hold our nuts in a vise if we “profile” one of them. Honestly, the payouts for out-of-court settlements to muslims went suborbital in 2002.
Number of actual terrorist plots the TSA has curtailed since their inception=0.
Shoe-bomber-Richard Reid December, 2001 -muslim
Underwear bomber-Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, December 2009-muslim
Fact is, the moose in the room is that profiling works. Ask EL AL.
The TSA can go away if it is known that several armed guards are on EVERY single flight. Put them in uniform, use the US Army. Let them be there with their M-16′s, locked and loaded. And no, a bullet hole in a plane window or skin of the aircraft will not suddenly decompress the plane like in the movie “Goldfinger”. That’s a myth. For the people who “don’t like guns”…don’t fly.
For the bombers…just pull every middle eastern man out of line at a checkpoint and examine their clothing. Profiling schmofiling. Not one of the hijackers on 9/11 was an 80 year old white grandmother or 5-year-old kid with a favorite dolly.
We are, as a nation, punishing the law-abiding for the acts of the lawless.
So yeah, just tell middle east muslims to go fly another airline, one that caters to them and wants their money. All other US-based airlines revenues would increase.
Insensitive you say? Bigoted you say?
Not at all. There is a war on and it’s very real. They want to kill us. All of us..even Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama, if they could. For the ones who are muslim who are angered at the profiling, I say, “Get out of the country…we’re not going to hurt you but the men of your homeland want to and therefore, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”.
My point being that even the efforts of “peaceful” muslims in this nation are nothing more than “please don’t pick on us, we hate you and everything you stand for and await the day that allah comes back and gives us everything we ever wanted…but please don’t pick on us”.
You cannot be a muslim and live in the US and obey US laws..the two are diametrically opposed. On the other hand, you can be a Jew or a Christian or one of many other religions and the concepts and doctrine seem simpatico. To be a muslim is to hate every other religion…so much that it burns a hole in your soul and makes you want to kill. This is why younger muslim men are the prime-movers. They are emotionally-charged walking hormones. Easy to get worked up and do the bidding of their tribal leaders.
The middle ages live in the middle east. They haven’t moved forward intellectually in over 700 years. 90% illiteracy…questions?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m in complete agreement on the government involvement. Things were much smoother and faster pre-TSA, and would be again if they were given the boot.
I’ve flown in and out of Narita and Osaka a bunch of times. Those are some smooth-running operations.
Profiling doesn’t always work–because our enemies study our security procedures and will find ways around them. Remember this case:
“On the morning of April 17, 1986, at Heathrow Airport in London, Israeli security guards working for El Al airlines found 1.5 kilograms of Semtex explosives in a bag of Anne-Marie Murphy, a five-month pregnant Irishwoman attempting to fly on a flight with 375 fellow passengers to Tel Aviv. In addition, a functioning calculator in the bag was found to be a timed triggering device. She was apparently unaware of the contents, and had been given the bag by her fiancé, Nezar Hindawi, a Jordanian.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindawi_affair
Now ethnic profiling of Middle Easterners would have allowed this pregnant Irishwoman to board the plane.
These Islamist terrorists have no limits and no decency. If they can stuff explosives up a blond baby’s rectum–knowing that a blond Caucasian baby isn’t likely to arouse suspicion–they’ll do it.
What do you expect from the most hated agency of a government supported by only 20% of the governed? TSA KNOW Americans hate them. So does the government, all three branches. None of them could possibly care less.
In a free country, the TSA would be abolished immediately.
Don’t fly.
What bothers me the most is the simple fact that No One, (let me repeat NO ONE) (onece more just for fun NO Freaking ONE) is going to comandeer an aircraft with a Knife EVER again.
It ain’t gonna’ happen folks. You can give the terrorists knives at the door to the aircraft and they ain’t takin’ the plane over! It’s not Gonna’ Happen!
Too many cowboy American Passengers are going to see to that.
So why are these idiots wasting our time by looking for pen knives, and Nail Clippers etc. etc. before we get on a flight?
This is the ultimate placebo of Style over Substance ever perpetrated on a Society at large!
I never considered your point.
Still, stilletos to throats of family members, while up in the air, is the ultimate home invasion. Everyone on board has only one home in those moments, and that’s a lot homes affected at one time.
Profiling is good. Do it politely and there’s really no better way. It could suck if it starting happening in Africa to Whites, for example, but it could. Whites would have to build in the extra advance time. Seeing the majority Blacks profiling Whites and being polite and understanding, Blacks may win Whites’ loyalties and determination – to report on suspicious activites of Whites.
Do peaceful Muslims tend to report on unpeaceful Muslims? If so, I’ve never heard of it. I’m very curious to know who can be part of the solution and who wishes to be not bothered with neighborhood watching.
” in a country whose creative geniuses produced the airplane, the computer, the iPad, text-messaging and the ergonomic miracle of the Nike sneaker, the federal transportation authorities have yet to come up with anything better than those stacks of tubs.”
The difference of course is private enterprise vs government.
I suggest that we all hound our congresscritters and tell them that since the Obama Administration has declared the War on Terror over then we must also dismantle the instruments put into place for it, namely TSA and DHS.
I’ve felt for some time, the Republicans should be hitting hard at this TSA mess and what travelers have to go through. It’s an issue the average person can relate to. Romney should be promising to privatize the airport security system and fire most TSA workers. Just like high gasoline prices, it’s an easy issue to focus on.
That is an excellent point. Most of the country would cheer such a position.
Unfort, any attack on the tsa (by anyone) will be immediately met with shocked statements from the democrats, rinos, media etc. with “What, you want to make flying unsafe Again!?!?! Don’t you remember 9-11????”
And if it is a republican proposing the change, especially rino romney, they will immediately retract their statement and propose putting the TSA at every on ramp to make sure that no terrorist takes over a car on the interstate.
I live and work in China. The airports here are many times more efficient than USA, i also cringe when need to come back for whatever reason and go through US airports.
Screening here is quick, nobody is groped and children are not molested. The airports are clean and flights are updated regularly on screens every 20-30 meters and by audio in Mandarin and then English. Airports are clean, facilities are spotless, food is excellent.
Getting on the plane in China is straightforward and finished in a few minutes, it is mystery why it takes 20-30+ minutes in USA but 8-10 mins in China. All connecting flights are routed through airports so there is no additional screening.
Airline attendants are very hospitable in Asia, food ( real food ) is much better, on KLM airline attendants change their outfits every 2-3 hours on longer flights and absolute in their care of passengers.
I think the US airline industry will see their market share dwindle / collapse if foreign airlines are allowed to compete on domestic routes, there is no comparison in service and attention for the client.
“Getting on the plane in China is straightforward and finished in a few minutes, it is mystery why it takes 20-30+ minutes in USA but 8-10 mins in China. All connecting flights are routed through airports so there is no additional screening.”
One reason (probably the only reason) is that the Chinese are such dips&*ts that nobody is trying to blow them up on a daily basis.
And face it–to China, losing a couple hundred people is no big deal. Airline crash, shoddily-constructed public building collapsing in earthquakes, political prisoners tortured to death…meh. There’s still a lot of people left.
China’s more crowded than America, but our urban airports are more crowded than China’s. Ms. Rosette’s plane and ten other 777s landed at JFK within 45 minutes, and all the transferring passengers joined the line at security.
One thing that would help is lighter security for transfers from other countries. After you go through security in China, you go through again when you transfer at Narita then again when you transfer at JFK for Scranton. If their shoes and belts haven’t blown up during the first two flights, they probably won’t on the third.
The Japanese are tiresomely thorough, but they’re always polite. TSA guys bark a lot.
US airport security must be privatized. The TSA is rude, ineffective, and a drag on the economy.
The reason China security can be faster:
The risk is lower.
No Muslim is going to bomb a Chinese Airliner.
China slaughters its own without appology.
Blow up a Chinese Airplane, expect somethething big fast and REALLY painful.
No pussyfooting, no political correctness.
Besides, China funds terror worldwide, just to keep us off balance.
“the enemy of my enemy is my friend”
Wow. That’s not the China I lived and worked in 10 years ago. It was anything BUT efficient, and clean is something fondly remembered.
But then, I’ve heard they finally got the new Guangzhou airport built, so I guess that extra line to pay the construction tax has finally been eliminated.
I guess they never figured out how to add a tax on an existing transaction. Having to go to 3 different lines – in completely different parts of the airport! – to pay for a ticket just didn’t make much sense to me.
– photo of Obama next to each magnetometer.
Government has become one big extortion racket.
A lot of heads need to roll.
With the Post Office—the first Third World government beach head—being shunned by increasing numbers of people, it was necessary to find another venue in which to begin training Americans to behave like serfs.
The airports were perfect; the most mobile and more upscale citizens could be humiliated at a juncture where they would lose money and experience serious life disruptions if they had any inclination to push back in any way.
No moslems… no gray plastic tubs… no TSA.. no ahllah problem.
Simple really.
CLAUDIA:
Please;
If the gray tubs were significant for todays flight awaiting you, that damned tub would be too small to hold all your stuff, and it would press up against our knees.
That was part of the the point — something in article about people grabbing every which-way — over, around, under, and above you — trying to get everything into those damn gray plastic tubs. My laptop must be unloaded and PUT IN A TUB ALONE — ditto my dig. camera & cellphone. Another for my purse & shoes. And yet another one if I’m unfortunate to have to be traveling w/a coat (and once being told to take off a blouse “coverup” b/c I was on a long flight, and didn’t wanna wear a bra; I’m sure everyone around got a huge giggle seeing my boobs thru my thin white t-shirt — I know I sure did
And of course my laptop bag/carry-on must go thru on the belt. That’s FIVE tubs (well, 4 + bag) I gotta deal with, no matter how you slice it. I’ve given up on 3 oz. “liquid” containers, and pack toiletries in my checked bag. At least that’s one less thing to deal w/in the interminable gray line. I’ve had a teensy, tiny eyeglasses screwdriver confiscated (it was less than 2″ long and would’ve broken if you tried stabbing someone).
I’m SICK of this crap, and it doesn’t appear to keep us any damn safer.
“One reason (probably the only reason) is that the Chinese are such dips&*ts that nobody is trying to blow them up on a daily basis”
Maybe you should crack open a History book once in a while, learn a bit more about rest of the world before shooting mouth off.
RESTORE THE CONSTITUTION!
Amendment 4 – Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Shelinpvd
Hi Claudia — This is why I have a fear of flying (apologies to zipless Erica). Once my belt got hooked onto the luggage of the person preceding me in line. He was in a rush for his plane apparently and all I saw was my belt (unnecessary probably for its primary purpose, but integral to my amor propre nonetheless) flapping in his wake. I felt a wave of panic, which dissipated as he rushed back and handed it to me (with a sotto voce imprecation, but a good fellow, I hereby pronounce).
The most galling thing about the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA is that it will live in infamy as the creation of a Republican President with the complicity of a majority-Republican Senate and House. It is just such abominations as this, perpetrated on us all by “the Party of Limited Government”, that we now suffer under the monster Hussein, whose election was a reaction against Republican lunacy.
or you can flow with it, as there is no point in fighting it –
dress lightly, no metal, empty pockets, slip on shoes, light carry on —
i travel a good deal – europe, usa, to hawaii and occasionally beyond
never had much of a problem – been doing this for 50 years – was a lot easier and more pleasant, less time, in the old days – but – it’s a process – understand it, relax – and just go.
it is a lot more time consuming now, – but – if you don’t want to go through that, then don’t
no other way for me to travel these distances, so – i have no choice — don’t carry or wear anything of interest – you pass through — not that big of a deal in my experience -
pink floyd had you in mind __
we dont need no education…
we dont’ need no punctuation -
step up to the showers, thiz way now
arbeit macht frei
no big deal..
But, “bits”, you are approaching this with intelligence, and not the righteous indignation being dispensed as currency by our politicians.
The Department of Security Theature and Touching Sensitive Areas (Dept Of Pedophile Training and Enabling) are likely to be abolished only when the US dollar joins Zimbucks as a worthless currency sometime within Obama or Romneys second term.
Maybe not even then…
Actually, passport check in Houston last week was worse. Two stations open for returning citizens and resident aliens with a zig-zag back and forth line with 12 legs. Took 1.25 hours of slow shuffling to reach the point of actual entry check before proceeding to baggage claim and Customs. (They did open two additional immigration officers after 45 minutes, however.) Security re-screening was not quite as bad–only an additional 25 minutes of suffering with T (Thousands) S (Standing) A (Around). TSA isn’t the only inept branch of US airport bureaucracy incompetence, but they are hard to beat!
There is an easy solution to this: Travel clearances.
The Government could enable us to apply for travel clearances, which when granted would enable us to go right past all those security lines and board the plane. (Just like an FBI agent can show his ID to the security personnel and go right past TSA with all that hassle.)
A travel clearance would involve a thorough background check comparable to getting a Top Secret clearance: Your family and friends would be subject to checks. You would submit to a criminal background check, a credit check, and a check on all your foreign contacts. You might even need to take a lie detector test.
But once you’re through all that, you would be granted a pass that would get you right past all that airport security.
And like a security clearance, you would have to reapply for the travel clearance every 5 years or so.
And the fact that passing that background check would enable you to ignore the TSA and go right through, would be a powerful incentive to our young people to keep their noses clean and stay honest (so that they would get and keep that travel clearance).
Lots of us have the equivalent of the “travel clearance” you espouse in the form of a “Transportation Worker Identity Credential” or TWIC card. You have to have one if you’re a licensed mariner, many kinds of equipment operators, truck drivers, longshoremen, airport maintenance personnel or anyone else who needs to enter the secure area of an airport or seaport. You’re fingerprinted, digitally photographed for biometrics, and have a background check to get it, and it has to be renewed every five years. It seems the TSA isn’t set up to read them however. If you flash one at airport security AND the TSA goon knows what it is, you might get an easier time, but not necessarily.
I really didn’t like having the government be able to jerk me around they way they can over licensure, and I know several licensed masters who gave up their license rather than submit to the TWIC process. When they first started to impose background check requirements on airport maintenance and equipment operator personnel, we had the Devil’s own time with getting the state’s employees qualified; it is almost a job requirement that to be a heavy equipment operator, you must have a criminal record, so we had to shuffle highway personnel who could pass the BI on to the airports, and airport personnel who couldn’t pass the BI on to the highways and then deal with the union about who had what duty station seniority after the shuffle. We kinda had the upper hand, because if the union wasn’t cooperative in the transfers and reshuffling the seniority lists, we could just let the employee go since he was no longer qualified for the airport job, but sometimes that can cost you a LOT of money.
Yep, that’s just what we need! Forget about re-establishing the 4th Amendment!
We’ll just find a more efficient way to catalog everybody! What a win-win!
Your papers, serf.
Re:Non-Spectator and your posting of April 29, 2012 – 9:14 pm….
This former airline employee….Pan American, Air America (…a non-spectator from another era) who has worked in the Far East (many years ago) endorses your comment one hundred percent.
Yesterday I submitted here a somewhat tongue-in-cheek NOTICE outlining new airport procedures, emphasizing profiling all dark skinned males with beards, starting at curbside, with quarantined luggage for 24 hours, thus enabling all other the pass undeterred through the usual outbound procedures.
It has not been printed here, perhaps because it may seem inflammatory and beyond the politically correct, sensitivity quotient.
The sooner we accept the fact that we are indeed at war with Islam the better off we’ll be.
Let’s emphasize that this earlier quote from Non-Spectator is indeed correct:
…..”Fact is, the moose in the room is that profiling works. Ask EL AL.”
It’s been mentioned that El Al doesn’t have the volume of pax out of TLV that we do out of JFK, DFW or LAX.
Think of it this way……for those working at the check-in counters at curb-side or inside the terminal building, they will not have that same cumulative volume as right now, if ‘Profiling’ weeds out those standing in these long lines snaking around those stanchions and check-in lines, and has them picked out and re-routed to join their own check in line for “special handling”.
I’m not being facetious.
This permits the regular business travelers and those obvious Seniors and Mothers With Children to pass unhindered and without body-frisking, walking in their stocking feet and without their belts.
The reason for the 24 hour luggage quarantine for those profiled is for any possible timing devices on their wired explosives to go through their cycles.
If those so ‘Profiled’ object to this segregation, let them object and go elsewhere. We Americans are indeed at War against Islam.
We’ve got the A.C.L.U. and the C.A.I.R.-Tails wagging the United States’ Dog.
That’s Orwellian.
Hey – Why’s the TSA necessary these days? Didn’t Obama declare the war on terror over?
My Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) can be seen on Youtube railing against “Fat Cats and their Private Planes”, shortly thereafter she was caught coming off a private jet at the Portland Jetport! The jet belonged to Fat Cat billionaire boyfriend (and now husband) donald sussman head of the Paloma Partners hedge fund.
I once flew out of an airport (it may have been Newark..but I can’t remember, unfortunately) with a sense of humor in its security checkpoint. There were chairs and benches just after the screening area, with signage proclaiming it as the “Recombobulation Area.”
One time where “Bush’s Fault” is true. Remember him and his buddy Michael Chertoff created the TSA and from day 1 decided for the sake of political correctness to treat Granny the same as the Pakistani.
You can blame a lot of that political correctness on Leon Panetta. He was one of Bush’s biggest mistakes.
Actually, Bush’s biggest problems came from poor judgement in selecting advisers.
All the Clinton crowd should have been swept out.
Bush didn’t know where the important war really was.
Consider this: While blameless upstanding citizens like you are being treated like common criminals, catering/cleaning personnel have free access to every nook and cranny on the aircraft, most air cargo is NOT screened, the full body scanners are child’s play to defeat with a variety of powerful explosives and, worst of all, the checkpoint itself is a target-rich environment for a bomber or shooter. Aviation security insiders, including former Federal Air Marshals and Red Team leaders, refer to TSA as the Terrorist Support Agency because it diverts resources much better spent on intelligence, law enforcement, and emergency response. These TSA clowns (and I’m referring to upper management, not the hapless screeners) are perpetrating a ruinously expensive and counterproductive fraud on the traveling public.
Rocco Giuliano
Writer/Co-Producer
Please Remove Your Shoes: The Myth of America’s Airport Security
Thank you for your eminently sensible candor.
Sometime during the previous 3 1/2 years of the Obama rants, he talked about islam’s great contributions to the U.S.A. To me, modern air travel is the one and only real contribution these backward savages have made to the nation and to the world in general. Overpriced air fare, ridiculous and outdated security procedures, outrageous mistreatment of common citizens, inverse-racism in “security” personel hiring, an over-bloated “security” apparatus that is completely surpassed and uncapable of even coming close to its supposed goal, hundreds of millions of wasted man-hours in endless lines. Those are islam´s modern contributions to civilization, which millions of Americans both witness and suffer day in day out in every airport.
TSA is why we bought a motor home and pay for the extra fuel consumption necessary to go where we want to go.
I’m flying to the States from Israel next week for family reasons, and I’m SO not looking forward to it. Besides the wating, the loading and unloading and yes, those grimy grey tubs, it’s just pain embarassing to see the contrast between the savvy, selective Israeli security and the slow, bossy bovine TSA.
We in Israel have only begun to catch on to proper consumer service mentality, so it is doubly ironic to see how cloddish, not to mention inept, the American airport procedure has become.
Thanks for that play-by-play. I’ll never fly again unless and until this BS is ended; unless I absolutely must. I have a conference in Las Vegas this weekend. I could easily fly (and cheaply) but I’d already chosen to drive – six hours. Now that I’ve read this I think I’ve chosen the quicker and easier path after all!
“would it not be possible to knock out at least the initial half hour of Soviet-style shuffling”…
But emulating the Soviet-style anything is the POINT!
Ask Santa. I can tell you’re a believer.
Tell that to the Israelis. Since they began profiling (which you obviously misunderstand), they’ve had a 100% success rate in preventing terrorists from bothering airlines flying out of Israel.
I flew there a couple of years ago. It was a very pleasant experience. No pat down, no naked body scanner, no taking off shoes. None of that charade.
They just ask a few questions. Sometimes, a few more.
I had to sit and wait for 45 minutes as my two business colleagues got “a few more” questions. I was watching the whole time – no back room intrigue.
Just…. questions.
They know what they are doing, and they are very good at it, and they could teach us to do the same.
We don’t want that, of course. We want a dog & pony show that accomplishes NOTHING good.
By the way, I have reason to believe (other than the Israeli security people’s behavior) that both my colleagues had something to hide on that trip.
I didn’t.
Funny how the Israeli profiling picked up on that. With just a few questions…