What the TSA Thinks of You and Your Rights

Mom vs. the World blog is apparently a former TSA screener and offers telling insights into what screeners think about passengers and about passenger protestations about their rights. Seriously, here’s an unvarnished perspective that will help you understand the mentality of the checkpoint.

Even without the nude-o-scopes, the TSA mocks you, And the way you dress and what you pack isn’t just your business. It’s disrespectful of the TSA screeners.

[T]hat vibrator in your carry-on luggage that looks like it would satisfy an elephant, yeah I see that and I see you standing right in front of me. But sure be offended by the naked x-ray image a person in another room is seeing, don’t worry about the vibrator at all or the other weird and crazy crap in your bag.

I have seen the way parents treat their kids and kids treat their parents in the airport and security checkpoint. I have seen 12 year old girls dressed like Tijuana whores with mommy right next to them dressed the same way. I have seen husbands and wives get into fist fights over who is carrying a bag. I have seen grown men and women throw hissy fits like a two year old child because they were asked to remove their shoes. This is the stuff you should be ashamed of and worried about TSA officers seeing. This is what should make you feel humiliated because trust me, we may be professionals but when you come through the checkpoint with crazy stuff in your bag or acting like an idiot, we are going to talk about you after you leave. Oh hell yes we are. It is going to become the highlight of the conversation at TSA officer gatherings.

Transportation is a privilege they grant to you, not a right.

Flying is a privilege not a right. As such, it can be and is regulated. Requirements can and are set up to ensure that everyone who flies is safe. If you don’t like it, then don’t fly.

You have alternatives, you’re choosing to be man-handled and gate raped. Since it’s a choice, there’s no rights involved.

Your right to privacy isn’t being violated at all. You always have the option to drive a car, take a train, grab the bus or start rowing a boat. You do not have to fly, you just want to fly.

(Except, umm, for those pesky TSA folks at Amtrak stations or showing up in the DC metro or at sporting events.)

And even this batshit crazy jackbooted anti-civil liberties ex-TSA stooge realizes that the enhanced pat-downs that they’re putting nude-o-scope opt-outs through is purely retaliatory and has nothing to do with security.

Ok that one is bullshit. It is a terror tactic by TSA to get you to walk through the more thorough body scanner. I can’t defend TSA on this one. I have talked to the TSA officers and it is no more effective than the old pat down procedure. They tested it out with trainers and each other. It is purely a terror tactic by TSA.

Still, respect my authoritah!

Now if you want to fly, suck it up and accept that you have to submit to the security procedures. Yes you think they are stupid or unnecessary but TSA officers and TSA don’t care what you think. They try to make it all warm and fuzzy but they can’t because it is security not a trip to Disney World. Shut up and get in the scanner or don’t fly.

There you have it, might as well have come straight from Blogger Bob.

(Via @TPCarney.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. “batshit crazy jackbooted anti-civil liberties ex-TSA stooge”… couldn’t have said it better myself.

  2. I have a son named Jeremy. When I was traveling with him once, the TDC found it really funny what she got when you put our two names together. She cracked up, and kept repeating it over and over again, to the point where I felt like I needed to explain something to my then 9 year old.

  3. This costly charade will surely bankrupt this Great country and bring us to third world status…simply, because ‘we’ gave up our rights, handed them to unintelligent beings, and let them make the so-called sound decisions….No wonder why the world things we are a buncha idiots. If you want to secure your homeland, find the root issue(s) and remedy them. You don’t kill weeds by snipping the tops every 2 weeks.

  4. Just called my state representative and let it be known I will not be treated as a criminal when I try to fly.

  5. These slugs need to rtemember that being the servant of the US People is not a right. It is a privelege.

    They need to fly straight or get a job at Walmart. Oh wait, they’re probably unqualified for that.

  6. TSA to turn normal citizens into new millionaires?
    Make sure you file a complaint with the police department if you feel molested during your pat down. This will protect your rights should the TSA employee be arrested in the future as a child molester or a sexual predator. Should a report be filed and the individual that did the molestation actually be found guilty, you may be able to sue the police department and TSA for exposing you and endangering your children for failure to catch this predator.
    The legal risks to local and state police departments for closing a case on someone who is later found guilty due to a future arrest is not something to be taken lightly.
    http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-02-01/news/os-tsa-security-myspace-orlando-20100201_1_tsa-spokeswoman-sari-koshetz-lewd-myspace-page
    If you or your child was groped by said agent, and you filed a complaint with the Police Department after the incident at the airport, you may be entitled to an extremely large settlement.
    When you opt out, and experience what you may believe is a molestation pat down make sure you ask for a police officer to be called and file a complaint immediately. Follow up to make sure you have the Police report number. Protect your legal rights now. Create a record and a paper trail showing negligence in background screening and investigation follow up. The odds that you are being violated are greater than winning the lotto?

  7. many congrats to the TSA and their homeland security bosses. in just a few short years, they’ve managed to become the most hated, contemptible and despised federal employees in the whole ‘uncle sam’ pantheon.

    always a mistake to give power-mad scumbags a badge and a tad of authority, but MUUUCH worse to let them have a *federal* badge, it seems.

    the guys over at the IRS must be just **burning** with envy!!

  8. For all the griping you and similar travel bloggers do about the TSA and airport security, would you care to point me in the direction of where you have set out your solutions and approach to air travel security?

  9. “It is purely a terror tactic by TSA.”

    I believe this 100 percent! The new pat-downs are invasive and humiliating. I’m for profiling.

  10. The reality is – most TSA officers or agents – whatever they call themselves – were flipping burgers a few short years ago.

    They are uneducated morons and rarely do I find one smart enough to bother talking to.

  11. @TI: You’re just being silly here. Your average flyer is not an expert in physical security, and it’s beyond absurd to suggest that we should be figuring out the best way to secure airliners from hijacking. That’s not our job, it’s the job of the people we’re paying billions of dollars to “protect” us. We are, however, generally mentally competent enough to know that being molested by strangers every time you want to travel by air is not a reasonable solution.

  12. Here’s some simple math that can be understood by anyone who wants to stay gainfully employed:

    Zero pax = Zero jobs

    Don’t be so flippant with the “don’t fly if you don’t like it” card.

  13. “Here’s some simple math that can be understood by anyone who wants to stay gainfully employed:”

    The math might be simple, but the semantics of your terminology are not. You’re saying what, exactly? No peace equals no jobs? If so, what do you mean?

    I suspect I agree with whatever point you’re making (your final sentence suggests we’re on the same side here), but I don’t quite know what that point is.

  14. (I hasten to add that I realize this is an industry-specific site, so perhaps it is trade jargon that is outside my comprehension.)

  15. This is some of the same crap I hear these idiots talking about on the employee bus almost daily.

    They are doing nothing for real security & people are now not flying by the thousands thanks to TSA. They are worthless & every one of them should be un employed.

  16. Wow. Frontline employees become contemptuous of the public. Stop the presses.

    I mean, really. Think back to every low-level customer service job you ever held. When you ran into a person who was especially dopey or entitled or obnoxious, did you or did you not talk shit about that person to your co-workers? Of course you did. But you bottled it up when you had to deal with the public, at least if you wanted to keep that job.

    There are plenty of other things about the TSA that are appalling. I’m not going to get worked up that they’re human as well.

  17. While it is easy to pick on the asine rank and file TSA workers, really the source of evil for anti-civil liberty policis are the corporate elite and lobbyist who benefit the most from all of these policies. Corporations like the airlines, google, etc want more detailed information on their customers so as to sell them more crap no matter what it is… Lots of people make money form fear whether it is of flying or other nations or whatever… Plus when people are afraid they are willing to suspend their good judgment and criticism or at least keep it quiet and obey…

  18. solution: arm the pilots & employees. Go back to the less invasive search. Arm the cops off duty too, that are flying on the plane. Keep the terrorists guessing who might me armed.
    Remind the adminstration & the TSA the attitude “guilty til proven innocent because you fly”. is NOT what being a US citizen is about. My relatives would “turn over in their graves” if they thought this is what they died for. I didn’t choose to fly cross country, it was the only way to get there before the family member died.

  19. ya want revenge on the TSA …. do what i did:

    Me: Excuse me … can i get a hand job instead of the Xray.
    TSA: WHAT?!?!?!
    ME: I would like one of you sexiest men to come rub his hands all over me in a very enhanced manner
    TSA: Are you serious
    Me: We I am opping out of the xray

    …. about 10 min later a guy comes out to “perform his job”

    As he does it i make sure everyone can hear my “excitement”

    then when i am done. i said very loudly

    NOW WHO FEELS VIOLATED !!!

  20. I have no problems with safety and security process but i want a rationale of things, TSA can’t say it’s part of the rules, there must be a good reason.

  21. To TI;

    98% of terrorist are 25-40 year old men of middle eastern descent who belong to a certain un-named “religion”. How about we start there when looking for things that make flying dangerous for the rest of us.
    Also, flying is not a right or a privelege. It is a choice to engage in a financial transaction for the fliers convenience. That boarding a plane has been turned into a mightmare by agents of the Imperial Federal Government is a crime.
    The recourse is, of course, to not fly. Many people will take that option. When the airlines are facing bancruptcy again because they have lost all of their customers, perhaps this will change.Sadly, things the government runs rarely get better.

  22. Why not copy the Israeli’s? Never hear of their planes getting blown up in the sky, but they don’t use naked body scanners. They profile, theu ask questions of passengers and are trained to note their responses, they use sniffing dogs– in short, they treat the problem the way an adult would!

  23. many congrats to the TSA and their homeland security bosses. in just a few short years, they’ve managed to become the most hated, contemptible and despised federal employees in the whole ‘uncle sam’ pantheon.

    Amazing that they can supplant the IRS is this regard, and in such a short time.

    The real issue, of course, is when is resistance going to reach the point where the perverts over at TSA end up in jail where they belong — along with the politicians and CEOs who are behind them?

  24. “would you care to point me in the direction of where you have set out your solutions and approach to air travel security?”

    Screening the blond-haired blue-eyed family of four traveling on Swedish passports is a waste of time.

    Throughly screen everyone named Mohamed, and anyone else with a name that can be found here

    http://islam.about.com/od/babynames/tp/babynames.htm

    and leave most of everyone else alone.

  25. The fact is the TSA are using the threat and reality of RAPE to force people to choose to be irradiated and exposed to cancer causing rays so the TSA rapists can enjoy lots of porno they can masturbate to – or strangers whose gonads they can fondle.

    FACT: they dig doing this to women while their husbands are watching. The helpless rage of the husband makes them feel powerful, a real drug for the TSA people, most all of which are subhuman grotesques unemployable in any other context.

    FACT: it is rape.

    The choice the TSA subhumans hold out is the same as the choice between being shot or sodomized at gun point.

    All TSA agents must be indicted for RAPE or for aiding and abetting a rapist.

    You know what these guys at TSA do when they’re done sexually assaulting women they feel up?

    They keep the gloves they use and trade them for each other to sniff, catching scent from the women whose crotches they fondle. Yeah, they ARE that sick and twisted.

    They stand around during breaks, sniffing them and laughing. Don’t ask how I know but it is NOT heresay. This is FACT.

    Congressmen have to know this WILL happen to their wives! Their daughters! Their granddaughters. The TSA monsters are psychopathic sexual sadists.

    On the day of the protest against TOTAL SEXUAL ASSAULT on Nov 24, go through the pat down with a full bladder and bowels and let them both go the very second that the TSA maggot touches your gonads. By the 20th time this happens, they’ll get the message.

    If you can’t defecate and urinate on command, you can at least shriek, ‘RAPE! I AM BEING RAPED BY MY GOVERNMENT! RAPE!’ over and over again until you psss out when the TSA rapist touches you.

  26. @TI

    Airlines can not be secured due to the threat of surface to air missiles, a great many of which have been distributed by our government to our enemies. In addition due to the large number of workers and customers it is not possible to secure the actual airplanes. Air Force One is secure. Some private flights are secure. It’s just not possible or reasonable to secure the commercial flights. All of the measures possible are at best a sick twisted joke that eats up time and money in order to present the facade of security. If you know anything about security you’ll see dozens of holes just by flying with only a superficial examination. A detailed study would provide any wanna be terrorist with a multitude of opportunities.

  27. [quote]
    would you care to point me in the direction of where you have set out your solutions and approach to air travel security?
    [/quote]

    Ti, it’s called freedom.

    Those who wanted to be patted, probed or xrayed to feel “safe” could fly with an airline that offered that. Those who wanted to do without that could fly with an airline that didn’t.

    Imagine an airline that encouraged the passengers to be suitably armed, or even gave a discount for those who could demonstrate appropriate training!

    The point is that nobody would be forced to fly with anyone who made them uncomfortable. Nobody would be forced to surrender their dignity and morals to get to where they needed to be.

    The airlines that satisfied customers the most would be successful, and those not doing so not so much…

    Freedom and free competition is the answer to all problems like this. TSA is a symptom, not the disease.

  28. All TSA fondlers are twisted homosexuals that get off on groping men and women against their will.

    Why does TSA provide victims for psychopaths like this?

  29. FACT: TSA agents can only have sex if they cover their gonads with peanut butter and jump into a cage at the zoo.

    They are subhuman freaks who feed on human terror.

  30. I would never blog so negatively about a previous or current job. Anyone who insults their current or former customers so much is missing class.

  31. The funny thing is, people are now realizing that this treatment is lawful after 20 years of supreme court decisions. Because to many members of the Court there really is no consititutional right to privacy and search and seizures protections have been soo weakened as to be irrelevant today in the face of law enforcement demands. And now people are upset, well its too late.

  32. I recently passed through a TSA checkpoint and witnessed a woman of eastern decent wearing her ethnic clothing who opted out and didn’t get the full groping I did when I opted out. I want to know if this is being applied evenly or if TSA is reluctant to offend people of eastern decent.

  33. I wonder when we will move to the rational solution: Ethnic and national origin profiling combined with a few random searches? Something Israeli style. But I guess political correctness with intrusive, PC universalism is to be preferred to rational, lower cost, more effective screening.

  34. I can tell you this, some piece of shit TSA officer grabs my dick, I will cave in his head. FUCK YOU, YOU GOVERNMENT MONKEYS!!!!

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