RE: [DL] what new world we live in?

[Patrick Downs <knick_nevin@yahoo.com>]

--- "Heivilin, Jim" <banzai@missouri.edu> wrote:
> And to anyone whose flown in the past few years,
> have you ever looked at the security arrangements?  
> I suspect it was *never* what it needed to be to
> prevent a hijacking of any sort.  We had become
> complacent when hijacking went out of vogue with 
> terrorist after the 80s.  

airport security is entirely a joke, they don't check
you properly for weapons, and on the other hand,
sometimes they go too far. two stories:

i went to o'hare in chicago to visit my brother, he
had a one-hour layover and so i was just stopping
there to have a drink with him and see him off on his
next departure. at this time, i had a nice haircut, i
wore a fashionable jacket, and i had nice shoes.
security let me through without practically even
looking at me twice.

when i was fifteen years old (FIFTEEN!) i had a
mohawk, wore a black trenchcoat, and black army boots.
oh yes! i was the height of fashion. well, anyways...
my boots were steel-toed and i as i stepped through
the metal detector i realized this and said 'let me
take my shoes off' they refused saying 'it can't be
the shoes' and they proceeded to make me walk through
the detector about four or five times, putting myself
into a new state of undress each time and searching my
pockets thoroughly. eventually i said 'why don't i
just remove everything except the boots, then if the
buzzer keeps going off you can give me a cavity
search'
at this the security guard pulled out one of those
metal-detecting rods and found 'surprise, surprise' it
was my boots all along

what do these stories prove? probably nothing
it certainly proves to me that airport security razzes
you if you don't look normal, and let's you go through
easily if you have an acceptable appearance
although i looked like a bit of a miscreant when i was
FIFTEEN, i don't think i would've been hijacking any
planes
::holds steel-toed shoes to pilot's head:: "take this
plane to cuba!"

-doc

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