When the government forces you to act like a clown for no apparent reason
When the government forces you to act like a clown for no apparent reason
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35 comments
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Annoying part about the kabuki theatre that is TSA is that they are inconsistent airport to airport. Shoes gotta come off, shoes can stay on. Laptop by itself in a bin, or with other things in a bin. Other electronics (e-reader, battery pack, etc.) in a bin, or in your carry on. But if you make the wrong choice they will let you know… loudly.
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Inconsistent within the same airport.
One time the line split into two, with announcers for each line shouting different instructions. One had you take all electronics out of bags, the other didn't. One lines instructions included taking your shoes off, the other didn't. The line without shoes off instruction had agents insulting people for taking their shoes off for not listening to instructions. 10M away there is an agent shouting at people to take your shoes off.
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Almost like security isn't the point...
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It isn't wholely the point. It's also a massive jobs programs.
But specifically for not knowing what to expect is a feature not a bug.
If you don't know the exact procedure every time - then you can't plan for every countermeasure. You cannot plan 100% when the variables are always changing.
It also distracts any would-be bomber because they need to waste attention on following whatever rules they decided apply today only.
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It used to be consistent for years post-9/11. Rules were enforced more or less consistently. Especially the liquids rules. Some variations but not to the degree that it is at today. This chaos is only the past few years.
Strongly suspect it has nothing to do with security and everything to do with the system breaking down due to abysmal leadership.
Also probably the paid extortion programs like CLEAR which have separate relaxed rules standards for people who pay the extortion fee.
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I just had this experience the other day. Flying SFO to BOS and it was like the security people didn't even care. Leave everything in your bags, leave your shoes on, leave your belt on. The only thing they asked was empty your pockets, and it could all go in one bin. I thought that finally TSA was getting a bit better about not being such pricks about every little thing.
And then on my return flight, I got pulled out of the security line three times. Once for a mistake printed on my boarding pass (not my fault, but I had to get it corrected at the service kiosk anyway), once for my CPAP machine that I left in my carry on bag (which is exactly how I did it in SFO and they didn't give a shit), and once a bottle of liquid that was 8.5oz (limit is 8.4oz), so they made me pour out 0.1oz of fucking liquid.
They yelled at me all three times and said that I should know the rules by now, but none of those things came up during my first flight. The rules change literally every time I fly somewhere, so there's no point in memorizing them anymore. There are the "hard" rules which are sometimes not enforced and then there are the "soft" rules that seem to vary from airport to airport, or even individual TSA agents having a bad day or going on a power trip or something. I hate it.
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And if it’s busy and you’re in hurry say goodbye to your small electronics in the bin
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Had TSA take me aside and X-ray my laptop for a good 20 minutes last time I flew.
To be fair, the laptop had a sticker that insinuated drug use, but it's not like I had hidden a thousand doses of Mega LSD under the SSD (which it really looked like they were scanning for).
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they are inconsistent airport to airport
Forget TSA, international travel with my baby for the first time, anxiety problems, little time between connections, laptop and pram fucking freaked me the fuck out.
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I imagine they asked you to power the baby off and on whilst they hid behind a blast shield.
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35 comments