transportation security administration

Chris Knight's avatar

Comic book writer Mark Sable is reporting that last month while going through Los Angeles International Airport bound for New York, he was detained by Transportation Security Administration agents after being flagged for “extra screening”.

What nefarious act did Sable commit that deemed him worthy of notice as being in possible collusion with “the terrists”?

The fact that his new comic miniseries Unthinkable deals with 9/11-ish scenarios that start coming true.

Here’s what Sable said happened…

“Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for ‘extra screening’. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then ‘discovered’ the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.

“The

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Chris Knight's avatar

(I soooo wanted to put an “i” in that word, but as it’s a Sunday I’m trying to restrain myself.)

Longtime readers of this blog already know that I loathe, loathe, LOATHE the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, and damn nearly everything else that George W. Bush implemented in the name of “national security” when he was President. I have never liked them for a very many reasons: that these were measures that were rushed into becoming enacted with little consideration or even seriously reading the language of the associated bills, for one thing. Because there are numerous fascist connotations surrounding it all. And because the Department of Homeland Security and everything connected with it has proven to be the most abused, corrupt and inefficient example of government bureaucracy to have come along in a VERY long time.

But most of all: because I have never ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Ya see, this is why I’ve come to say that TSA stands for “Too Stupid for Arby’s”…

The Transportation Security Administration is enforcing federal law that requires background checks on those involved with the transportation industry to such an extent that mule skinners – AKA costumed, seasonal mule drivers at a historic park in Easton, Pennsylvania – must also submit to the same rigorous scrutiny.

Sara B. Hays of Hugh Moore Historical Park is boggled by TSA’s mandate. As she puts it: “We have one boat. It’s pulled by two mules. On a good day they might go 2 miles per hour.” The article also states that the “park’s two-mile canal does not pass any military bases, nuclear power plants or other sensitive facilities. And, park officials say, the mules could be considered weapons of mass destruction only if they were aimed at something.” Hays tried ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

I just finished watching Lesley Stahl’s story on 60 Minutes about the Transportation Security Administration: what many consider to be the most worthless government agency ever created (thanks for nothing again George W. Bush). It pretty much encapsulated everything that a lot of us have been saying about the TSA since its inception. Namely, that it is absolutely impotent when it comes to apprehending real threats before they begin. One Congressional source cited in the report said that of the tens of thousands of travelers who had been stopped for TSA “interviews”, not one was found to be carrying anything that could be deemed dangerous. That didn’t stop outgoing TSA Administrator Kip Hawley from demanding that “THESE PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO KILL US!” as a justification for (1) harassing 90-year old ladies in wheelchairs and (2) the cushy job that the Transportation Security Administration gives him and thousands of others ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

USA Today is running a story about the high rate of crime among the Transportation Security Administration’s federal air marshals. One marshal used his badge and top secret security clearance to smuggle cocaine and drug money. Another attempted to “disappear” his ex-wife via a contract killer (who was another federal air marshal). Still another used his authority to engage in child pornography. There have been dozens of such cases since 9/11, when the number of marshals ballooned from about thirty to more than thirty thousand.

Maybe it’s time to reiterate a suggestion that I made over two years ago. During the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks I proposed the creation of “citizen marshals”: ordinary American citizens who, after a background check and some training, would be allowed to carry firearms on commercial airlines as a volunteer service to their fellow countrymen.

From my post in 2006:

Such persons

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Chris Knight's avatar

The last time that I flew anywhere was this past December, when I went to the Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in Texas. I took Southwest Airlines – a carrier with superb service, I might add – out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport. And one of the few unpleasant memories that I have from the trip was watching the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) goons at RDU doing things like throwing bottles of baby formula and shampoo out, telling travelers that it was “regulation”. And not one traveler protested, because everyone knew that the TSA goons could have them arrested or worse for “talking back” or some other bullcrap. I also saw things like how the TSA scans for “shoe bombs”: they actually made one girl take her flip-flips off to have them x-rayed, and made another remove her ballet flats.

It’s stuff like this that makes me chalk up TSA as one of ...

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