A long few nights and the wisdom of Saturday Night Live

A long week with challenges, joys and the idiocy of the way we secure air travel.

Spent a good hunk of the week in training a rookie right out of the academy…good and bad about that but love the challenge of getting someone to take a book and apply it.  I also had the joy of putting a law student in jail for DWI…something about that makes me feel good. “Here soon to be lawyer, here is your first real experience with the legal system…hey, you can tell your clients I know where you’ve been and it’s not that bad….three hots and a cot!”

Now I look at the joke this Transportation Security Administration is…not has become because it was a disaster from day one. You make jokes of the incompetence of civil service workers and they prove they joke by going beyond it. Take a look at these idiots (source Drudge Report) patting down a child. From the You Tube source material,



Lets get the facts straight first. Before the video started the boy went through a metal detector and didn't set it off but was selected for a pat down. The boy was shy so the TSA couldn't complete the full pat on the young boy. The father tried several times to just hold the boys arms out for the TSA agent but I guess it didn't end up being enough for the guy. I was about 30 ft away so I couldn't hear their conversation if there was any. The enraged father pulled his son shirt off and gave it to the TSA agent to search, that’s when this video begins.

Why the hell are we selecting a child like this for a pat down...I mean this kind of stuff is meant for satire, like this from Saturday Night Live last night.



And the Weekend Update had a few good pointers...here is the WU summary



The difference...at least the writers on SNL limited their perversions to adults or close to adults. In this case the truth is not stranger than fiction...it's more perverted than off color comedy. And we are paying for this. Upwards of 155K a year . Yes, I know the guys making the 155K are senior executive types but with benefits, etc I have no doubt they are making 100K plus a year.

Now, from the TSA's own website the duties of a Transportation Security Officer

Transportation Security Officer


Duties and Responsibilities: Implements security-screening procedures that are central to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) objectives and that will serve to protect the traveling public by preventing any deadly or dangerous objects from being transported onto an aircraft. Assists in conducting screening of passengers, baggage and cargo. May be required to conduct screening at any airport that provides commercial services to the public. Assists in monitoring the flow of passengers through the screening checkpoint to facilitate the orderly and efficient processing of passengers. Maintains close communication with supervisors regarding any issues that might reveal a weakness or vulnerable area of security screening that is discovered in the course of screening duties. Participates in information briefings concerning security-sensitive or classified information.

Key Skills

Ability to learn the theories, dynamics, and factors underlying the aviation screening process to enable authoritative and independent handling of screening functions.

Ability to learn to operate basic security equipment such as X-ray machines and hand wands at screening checkpoints

Ability to work with persons of diverse backgrounds

Ability to communicate non-technical information effectively to others

There is an old saying that familiarity breads contempt. Mediocrity and ridiculousness also breed it. Taxpayers understand the need to insure safety in commercial flights. Humiliating a child enhances our security how? These waste of taxpayer money accomplished what with this facilitation of “the orderly and efficient processing of passengers.” ?

Last week the Drudge Report had this photo with a nun being frisked and the caption was “The Terrorists Have Won”.

Seeing this child have to go through public abuse from thoughtless bureaucrats like this makes one want bring similar abuse on the TSA and the bureaucratic waste who allow this abuse of out liberty.

OK, facilitate the orderly and efficient processing of passengers...and delaying passengers so a child can be harassed like that was making things orderly and efficient how? I see a key skill is Ability to learn the theories, dynamics, and factors underlying the aviation screening process to enable authoritative and independent handling of a screening functions. What ability other than non thinking bureaucratic paper pushing brought to an extreme was shown by three government employees looking seriously like that are actually fulfilling a solemn duty while they are harassing a child whose knowledge of terrorism is from a school class.