You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy!
The restrictions that airline passengers are having to deal with now-a-days.
The Christmas-day underwear terrorism incident has put the bad taste of September 11th anxiety back in our mouths.
Because one nut job tries to blow up one plane out of millions of planes that have taken off and landed safely since December 11th, the government is going to suddenly, and irrationally over react, and tighten the screws.
Every televised interview has patient passengers saying the same thing; “if it makes the trip safer then it is worth the inconvenience.”
That’s true, but it is the knee jerk reaction where we the flying public are treated like the jerks that has me so full of spit and vinegar.
Where was the gradual implementation of safety and technology over the last 10 years? Are we so insipid that a potential Jihadist whose own father reports him as”radicalized” is allowed to fly to the United States with no luggage and a diaper full of C-4?
Hello? Are we just plain ignorant?
The answer is yes! And now heads must roll and the president didn’t react and the FBI and TSA and whomever else missed the warning signs and dropped the ball and …Enough all ready!
This is a systemic case of governmental diarrhea, that is what it is.
Rather than a decade of easing into security measures that the public can live with, now suddenly, we are contemplating security over kill!
What does that mean? Surprise rectal exams? Take off your shoes, drop your pants and bend over because the TSA missed a guy with bombs up his butt.
There is now talk of full body scanners at the airport that are so revealing they double as a prostate exam.
Soon TSA screeners will be heard saying: “Hello, my name is Consuela. Please turn your head and cough.”
Paranoia is even more acute in the once friendly skies.
Airlines are not dimming the cabin lights at night so that passengers can keep an eye on each other. That guy with the turban, if he so much as sneezes I’m jumping his ass. That old woman with the inhaler, if she even tries to put it to her lips, I’m going over the seat back and take her out.
New fears, and terrible security options mean new restrictions on travelers that will lengthen lines at airports and severely restrict passengers, certainly those flying internationally, from moving around inside a plane.
Airlines have indicated that passengers flying in to the U.S. will have to stay seated for the last hour of the flight.
“Hold the 2nd cup of coffee,” because you ain’t getting up till it’s wheels down sister. They better start selling catheters you can strap to your leg in the gift shop.
Airlines have indicated that passengers will also have to sit quietly in their seats for the last hour without any personal items. No lap tops, no books, no copies of JUGS magazine! Just twiddling your thumbs in plain site, with the cabin lights on, so everyone with a pair of pupils can see you aren’t trying to wire yourself up to a 9 volt battery.
The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, said in a statement Saturday that new measures were “designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same thing everywhere.” She said passengers should proceed with their holiday plans and “as always, be observant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior or activity to law enforcement officials.”
What she failed to say is the plan sucks!
Watch lists and no lap top fly zones and full body scanners. None of the above is 100 percent effective.
Short of taking each ugly ass passenger into a room and having a bomb sniffing dog shove his snout up their rear end, then we will always fly with the lingering threat of what if?
I want to take off and land without 3rd degree burns just like the rest of you. I welcome tougher security measures that ensure a higher probability of reaching my destination bomb free. But we need to be smarter on the front end and not be so knee jerk reactive every time there is a “situation.”
It’s a shame that we don’t exercise the same level of concern on our highways when it comes to DUI’s and TEXTING while driving.
Can you imagine if you had to do a full body scan to start your car. If you were inebriated or somehow impaired, sorry, the engine simply doesn’t start. Better yet, why not an IQ test. That would park roughly 1/2 of this nation at the curb. It’s hard to kill or endanger when you can’t leave your driveway.
All I’m saying is driving is still thousands of times more dangerous than flying. Outside of a shoe bomber and a plane landing in the Hudson, the friendly skies have been reasonably friendly.
I just wish I could say the same for the highways and byways of this great land.
So get to the airport 10 hours early for your flight, and don’t forget to drink a six pack of beer before driving your kids to ballet lessons.
and that is crazy.