Along with my siblings I am flying this weekend to visit my father who will probably pass within the next few weeks. After I return I will really, really try to not fly again. I'm sure it won't be avoidable for the occasional business trip but future vacations will be within driving distance unless things change for the better.
Sorry to hear about your father.
What's pushed me over the edge is the deployment of the backscatter xray machines. While the TSA agent who views the image of your de-clothed body supposedly will see an image with facial details blurred, the image that is taken & stored for possible forensic use won't be blurred. And that stored image will be on a server managed by some low-level government grunt (or worse yet, outsourced) who might get their jollies by posting the odd pic online or might pad their pocketbook by selling image collections.
I don't have a problem with the new machines. I have a problem with the complete and utter suspension of reality that the TSA and the Federal Gov't operates under.
Every time there's a failed terrorist attack they make traveling more inconvenient for everyone because they're not willing to acknowledge the nature of the threat. We have to take off our shoes, can't bring liquids on a plane over 3oz, and now have to sit there doing nothing with our hands in our lap in our seats for the last hour of a flight. The last one is especially laughable. What's to stop someone from doing something 90 minutes before landing? Or during take-off? Pretty soon we'll have to sit there with nothing in our laps for the whole flight.
Too many people in the US are sheep and think the Federal Gov't is going to save them. They say really stupid stuff like, "I don't care how long it takes to go through security as long as we're safe." Uh... Lets put a number on that and see how long air travel stays viable. 10 years ago a 6 hour drive somewhere was undesirable, and now it's the fastest way to get somewhere. Once they've finished making commercial air travel nonviable they'll start attacking the trains & buses so they become nonviable too. There's gonna be good money in selling horses as a means of personal transportation soon enough.
If you're on a plane and something happens you'd better home there's a dutch tourist to jump the guy because Janet Napolitano and the TSA agents who let the guy through the checkpoint won't be on the plane to save you. You're going to have to take matters into your own hands. Sitting in your seat with your nothing in your lap but your hands is only going to make you a victim.
We're giving the terrorists exactly what they're after (degrading our standard of living) under the guise of "keeping everyone safe" because we'd rather be politically correct and dead instead of focusing all the man hours and money on the threat and save some lives. If an old white man with gray hair, a beard, and a glass eye robbed a local bank and the local police stopped and searched every person in the area while looking for the robber making sure everyone was treated the same you would have them all fired for their incompetence, but at the airport we take pride that everyone is treated like a possible terrorist.
Sign me up! I know I can't wait to fly again. :tdown:
