As often as I get singled out for extra special attention at airport security checkpoints, is it reasonable to wonder if it's because of the anti-TSA and anti-surveillance posts I've written on this blog? Seriously, the frequency is unlikely enough to make random chance an obvious explanation.
I continue to assert that the excessive security theater at airports is a violation of the 4th Amendment. Perhaps it's time to be honest with ourselves, admit the Constitution is no longer in force, and rename much of our law enforcement apparatus for what it really is: the Directorate of Internal Security.
Update, 8:27 am: I was just called up, by name, to the ticket counter. They said they had to check my passport again, even though I've already gone through airport security and US Customs here at the Vancouver Airport. The unhelpful agent also said she'd need to see my passport yet *again* when boarding, and refused to explain why this was the case.
Update #2: I did eventually get on the plane in Vancouver and make it to Seattle. Alaska prints an "all in one" boarding pass rather than one for each flight--and the barcode on mine, which worked just fine in Vancouver, wouldn't scan in Seattle. I thought for sure I was going to be searched again--you know, because I look kinda terrorist-y--but the agent typed my confirmation code in and I was allowed to get on board.
Methinks your paranoid. but picking on white mails is easy
ReplyDeleteBuck up, things aren't all going in one direction.
ReplyDeleteGun control's largely a dead issue although I'll grant there are those who yearn for the day they can resuscitate it. Still, here we are in the sixth year of arguably the most far left president America's ever seen he's hardly seen fit to admit the existence of the issue let alone spend any political capital.
Then there's the on-going reform of public education the end of which isn't even in sight. The majority of states have charter schools and the last two years have seen significant losses for the public education establishment's main nemesis - vouchers. There's got to be some smidge of optimism you can glean from that.
Not finally but lastly, there's the appearance of the Tea Party movement indicating that, contrary to the self-serving beliefs of those who see themselves as distinct from "the masses" by using the phrase "the masses" we're starting get mad as hell and it's beginning to look like we're not going to take it any more. It should be kept in mind that President Obama's signature piece of legislation was almost stillborn out of a legislature in which its passage should have been a breeze and now it's in trouble in the judiciary, with the public and the Democrats who not so long ago hailed Obamacare as the arrival of the Messiah are trying to put as much distance between themselves and the man who's stamped his name on the legislation as they can manage.
We'll get around to reigning in the TSA and other alphabet soup agencies presently.
Not soon enough for my taste, Allen!
ReplyDeleteI guess you're just special Darren! :<)
ReplyDeleteMax, on the subject of paranoia, I will just leave you with the unofficial motto of the old KGB, "Even paranoids have enemies!"
I don't travel that much ...but I've gotten pulled out twice. I think it's just easy to profile white guys .... ad grandmothers. Don't dare call out somebody who might actually be a terrorist.
ReplyDelete