No toothpaste, chump!

BBC NEWS | UK | Airport checks ‘not sustainable’ — If you’ve ever flown out of Israel you can see how they do security right. They are a huge target and they are in the thick of things. They use profilers who have a chat with you and determine if you are up to no good. If you are suspicious in any way you go to line “B” where an expert chats with you. People who are about to blow themselves up have an abnormal disposition. Meanwhile, our idea of security is to confiscate a jar of hair gel from a businessman on his way to a marketing convention and Expo. Yeah, that makes me feel real safe. They do similar but less stringent profiling when you fly out of Brazil to the USA too. The only verbal grilling we do in the USA is when we enter the country! The Customs and Immigration people grill you over your reason for leaving the USA in the first place. It’s backasswards.

Stringent security searches which have led to long delays and cancellations at Heathrow are not sustainable, airport operator BAA has warned.The airport cancelled a third of flights on Saturday evening in a bid to speed its return to a normal schedule.Heathrow earlier came under fire from British Airways for being unable to cope with the extra security measures.

Meanwhile, Ryanair said the government should provide additional staff to carry out body searches at airports.The British Airports Authority said Heathrow was suffering severe delays, meaning that a third of departing flights, between 1500 and 2330 on Saturday evening, would be cancelled.



  1. Blake says:

    It is a joke, but really are we surprised? The national security enacted post-911 has done nothing to make us safer. It just has increased the administrations power base, and fed money to their supporters.

  2. Mike Voice says:

    I got a good laugh when I saw that picture in USA Today – of the armed guard standing in an airport, due to “heightened security”.

    As if an armed guard is going to deter any of the methods which have been successful in the past, or caused this escalation in security in particular…

    Let the sheep see more sheperds?

    Terrorists are plotting to bomb planes flying out of the UK, so the airport and Transit system in Portland, OR is on hightened alert?

    Is that supposed to make us feel safer? Better safe than sorry? ppfftt!

    The terrorists must get a kick out of the way we go into a nationwide alert whenever an isolated incident occurs – because it proves we have no clue as to whether it really is an isolated incident, or not.

    The terrorists will only have reason to be worried when we don’t go into nationwide alerts – because we know we aren’t just spotting the tip of an iceberg.

  3. Zuke says:

    Apples and oranges. Israel has NOTHING comparable in the volume of air travellers. This sounds like a great idea to me on a small scale, but it would take forever to get through security with the volume of U.S. air travel – like people aren’t bitching enough about it already?

    And don’t think that the ACLU won’t be all over your ass for ‘profiling’ certain passengers deemed higher risk. I travel a fair amount by air and don’t have a problem with the security, except for when they pull aside the little old caucasian lady for a ‘random’ body search, but let the young male of Middle Eastern descent walk on by.

    Yes, profiling by race is probably a civil rights issue and many will scream racism (I’m not anglo or KKK by the way), but just look at all the (air) terrorists they’ve caught in the last 5 years and tell me it would not be more accurate…

  4. Mike says:

    Our unwillingness to offend anybody may be our undoing in the end.

  5. I see another government bailout for the airline industry coming if we keep this crap up. The TSA could be highly effective if they would PROFILE people. Its what the Israelies do, and it WORKS for them.

    Sigh.

    Most of the news reports I have seen of reporters checking out the “new” security measures are reporting that people don’t necessarily feel any safer!

    This madness simply needs to be stopped. I was listing to Tom Leykis on the radio Friday afternoon and he mentioned he was driving up to San Francisco instead of driving because it would take 5 hours to take a 1 hour flight from LAX to SFO. To me that signals the death of air travel, or atleast were going to end up with a cottage industry of private jet companies doing flights for those that can afford to pay to get around commercial public air travel.

    Of course, all it would take to kill that outlet is for a terrorist to use a private jet company to smuggle their weapons into the country or worse.

  6. John Schumann says:

    Airline pilots probably think about security a lot. They want to carry guns. The government is stalling:

    http://tinyurl.com/evu8g

  7. joshua says:

    bar coding!!!!!!….thats what we need….bar code everyone with a social security card, like in that bank commercial. Then run there heads across a scanner if it makes weird noises, then shoot the bastard.

  8. Pterocat says:

    The ideally safe airline passenger.
    Total stripdown, and any baggage at all is prohibited, because of the possibility of terrorists developing exploding fabrics and/or suitcase materials. The traveler will have to accept being naked and having absolutely nothing accompanying them on the trip, but will be issued an airline/FDA approved hospital-type gown for those who have problems with being exposed in this way. You will be provided with new standard clothes on arrival at your destination, unless there are relatives or friends there who will provide you with a new wardrobe (which is encouraged).

    Jeez, it make one nostalgic for the days when a person just wanted to travel someplace, without having to worry about suicidal nut cases trying to get their infantile cultural ‘inferiority complex’ problems shown on international TV.

  9. Madison Guy says:

    Oh, come on — you have to admit they know how to make big piles of confiscated stuff. How big? Well, let’s see:

    How far would all the liquids and gels confiscated by TSA during the recent security crackdown at the nations airports reach if the individual containers had been laid end-to-end?

    A. From Earth to the moon and halfway back again
    B. From New York City to Omaha
    C. From New York City to Washington, D.C.

    Take Today’s Quiz and find out the answer at Where did all the stuff go?

  10. Richard Reukema says:

    I have a great idea – simply travel naked! It’s my small protest against the terrorists – if that doesn’t give them nightmares I don’t know what will…

  11. D2 says:

    @Zuke
    “Yes, profiling by race is probably a civil rights issue and many will scream racism (I’m not anglo or KKK by the way), but just look at all the (air) terrorists they’ve caught in the last 5 years and tell me it would not be more accurate…”

    by that same line of reasoning all white men should have to go through a federal background check when renting a Ryder truck.

    Its like saying ‘Look at all those caught for corporate fraud or white collar crimes in the past X years, tell me it wouldnt be more accurate if the government strictly monitored the bank accounts of all white males over 30.’

    poor reasoning for an ineffectual process. if you are going to profile, you need more intelligent/smart profiling, “middle easter looking men” is dumb-profiling and will yield dumb-resutls.

  12. D2 says:

    @Pedro
    Yeah but you can also look at each individual “incident” and the result. Richard Reid (shoe bomber) wasnt even succesful in hijacking or bombing anything, yet we now have to remove our shoes.

    Similarly, couple idiots do something horrible with a truck, but there is no similarly absurd response. Its still painfully easy to rent a truck. In fact, its alot easier to rent a large moving truck than it is to rent a compact car in most States (note age requirements for car rental vs uhaul/ryder).

  13. tkane says:

    Naked travel – what a bunch of pervs! It probably would cut down on airline travel though, which is probably a step in the right direction (I mean, after all the snide comments about ugly beachcombers in Michigan I feel self-conscious wearing shorts in public – I certainly would avoid naked airline travel in everyway possible!)

    Anyway, I prefer Archie Bunkers answer to airline terrorism – just arm all of your passengers.

    Still, would’t it be practical to simply require of all airline travelers that they bring NO gear aboard of any kind (check all luggage)? Pay a little extra for secured storage (laptops, cell phones and other useless but expensive stuff) and you’re set.

  14. Chris Rempel says:

    Background Checks while renting a Ryder truck might sound trivial but it definitely makes sense when you are travelling in air with a group of people whose backgrounds might not be as clean as one’s own.

    I agree with the fact that airport security checks are not stringent enough. We also have to keep an eye on the ethical considerations of public background checks. At the same time we cannot turn a blind eye towards those families that have lost their near and dear ones due to terrorist attacks.

    In that light, I don’t see public access to court records and diligent background checks as being a bad thing at all.

    Just a thought,

    Chris R


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