http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45791004#null

The problems with the TSA in airport security are well-known.  They generally involve abuse of authority or decisions declaring petty items as threats and able to take down an airplane.  The rest of the nation gets outraged for a flash and then the abuses continue.

I think the problem is mainly the people working for TSA as screeners.  These people are in positions which to do well  requires tact, tolerance, discipline as well as a thorough knowledge of what is OK and what isn’t.  In fact, they are much like policemen at a traffic stop.  We expect a professional cop, not one who draws his or her gun the minute a person expresses frustration.

I know my one difficulty with them involved a 300 ft length of Spectra line, about 3/16th inch, about a dollar a foot at the time as I recall.  I forgot to put it in my main luggage, cleared through security at PDX, was going through security in LAX.  A TSA agent objected to it.  When I ask why, she said in her best Ebonics, “‘Cause I say so.”  I asked if it were written anyplace she replied that “Don’ have to be.  I say so.”  I asked for a supervisor and another officer came over, didn’t look at me.  The two women spoke Ebonics for a brief while and the supervisor left.  The TSA person with whom I’d been dealing simply turned and looked at me.  I had to check my bag, leave it with friends, run what seemed like a mile to the KLM ticket counter, had to apologize my way to the front of the line, put up with them hassling me to not ask them to run out to the plane, open the baggage, and so on.  Not a world shaking problem, nothing like what hits the papers, but simply an abuse of authority in my mind.  I know a case can be made for the use of that line for some nefarious purpose, and as far as I know long lengths of line haven’t been used in hijacking anywhere.  In the context of the other climbing equipment I had it seemed harmless.  After all pantyhose can be used to tie people up quite effectively and is probably faster.

Regardless of the merits of my situation, these folks are an ongoing problem.  They are low paid, poorly trained and given virtually unlimited authority.  I suspect most of these people have never been in a position of authority before, may not have had jobs before, and certainly not screened for their command of English.  In my travels I have not experienced many who had an ability to relate with people as human beings.  There HAVE been a few, and they seemed very good.  But overall I don’t think any competitive industry would have these folks.  And I realize many of these people are private enterprise employees.

I’m afraid as the US gets more and more paranoid, more and more willing to spend a billion dollars to prevent a thousand dollars worth of damage, that more and more authority will be delegated less and less qualified people.

Osama bin Laden has to be laughing in his grave.  An attack utilizing American equipment against American targets has created a response costing untold trillions of dollars, thousands and thousands of lives, and the dollar drain continues with no end in sight.  And no end to the vexation problem, either.

Security for freedom becomes too much of a burden sometimes.  Jails are a great example.