Curtis L. Olson wrote: > JD Fenech wrote: > >> Good thing I try to avoid flying anymore. It's an awful lot of fun being >> able to see everything from 5 miles up, but its getting to the point >> where you have to strip down for internal cavity searches just to get >> near the terminal. >> > > I don't know about that. I flew earlier in August on the day the whole > story broke about the 20 guys over in the UK who allegedly were going to > mix up liquids to make in flight explosives. Other than not being able > to take liquids or gells or perfumes through security [ok, I had to toss > a 1/2 bottle of water on the way in], and needing to send your shoes > through the scanner, not much was different from the usual routine. I > was flying through LAX and the line for gate security was out the door > and down to the end of the terminal, but I got through the entire line > in < 10 minutes which is probably a record for LAX. > > Fact of the matter is the biggest visible difference with airport > security between now and the good old days is you can't go back into the > gate area without a boarding pass and you can't see your loved ones off > as conveniently as before... That additionally sucks in MSP because all > the restaurants are in the gate area, so if you come out get your > baggage after a flight and have to wait for some reason (i.e. wife on > the other line: oh you are coming back today?) then you better hope you > have change for the vending machine. > > I'm way past the age where I'd be in favor of totally nude flights "for > security purposes." Or at least my personal contribution would tilt > this more towards the "bad idea" category. :-) > > Curt. > > I haven't had to wait too long in lines myself, even at O'Hare. Though it is kind of annoying to have to take off business shoes (a hassle) or sandals (not much room to hide anything). I was making the point that they're paranoid about security these days (and if you try to be equally paranoid about protecting your privacy, you get looked at funny). Mostly a short commentary on society in general.
Jon makes a valid point about what the 9/11 terrorists used for training and coordination and how our system seems to be reacting to such things. The homeland security people should be trying to think one step ahead of would-be terrorists, rather than being reactive. I realise that some clear liquid could be a dangerous explosive. Likewise, a person's hands can be a deadly weapon. Anything is dangerous if you let it be. People should exercise a little reason and discretion instead of simply blanket-banning or controlling entire classes of things to stop terrorism, such as flight simulators (banning or dumbing-down) or bottled water (sniff it, make them take a drink of it, etc). To be honest, I'm surprised terrorists even want to use planes anymore. Sure, they're a good way to efficiently kill a lot of people (if you can get ahold of one), but they seem to be doing a good job in Arabia without these. On the other hand, I'll risk being blown up if it means that I get to retain my freedoms. (I'm not too worried about keywords. I'm probably already on someone's watchlist.) As for your commentary, hilarious. I don't know about the nude flights though...not much to my fancy to see old ladies and their husbands naked. I haven't seen many girls my own age on the flights I've been on. Also, it's sometimes fun to leave something to the imagination, since it's not like I'll ever join the mile high club. :-P JD ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list Flightgear-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-users
