This Norwegian killer is why the TSA will pat down ANYONE

[BluegrassDem]

And that's why I support the TSA policy of not letting people go through security just cause they 'look' like they're not a terrorist. That Norwegian terrorist is the prime example of someone that would not be challenged if we started profiling individuals in airports. All it takes is one to slip through and you see the calamity that can happen.

[hobbit709]

1. and patting people down at the airport would have stopped this how?

[sabrina 1]

3. I was going to ask the same question!

I guess we need to have the TSA on every street corner now to 'keep us safe'!

I hope Norway does not succumb to cowardly fear-mongering and give up its freedoms, the way we have in this country, but the fear profiteers will be working overtime there now, there is money to be made!

[guardian]

38. It's been done before

[sabrina 1]

42. Yes, this is what we are headed for if some people have their

way. Some people will defend every foolish, useless 'policy' put forward depending on which team is in power.

[Shagbark Hickory]

4. It'll stop the terrorist from blowing up a plane. Of course they may blow up a building or go on a

shooting spree at a summer camp but at least it's not a plane.

[hobbit709]

10. Unless you plan on going up with the plane you want to blow up.

There are easier ways to blow up a plane than go through TSA security.

[pnwmom]

26. Yes, there are easier ways. That's the whole point.

To make it difficult enough that terrorists will be deterred from even trying.

[hobbit709]

27. Maybe they should put more effort into inspecting what gets loaded on the plane.

90% of air freight is NOT inspected.
NO amount of body scanning and pat downs will put a stop to that.

[pnwmom]

29. Yes, they should do that, too. n/t

[hobbit709]

31. but the Geheime Staats Security kabuki doesnt do that.

which exposes the whole thing as a farce right there.
If it was really about security, then EVERYTHING that gets within 100 feet of a plane should be scrutinized.

[pnwmom]

7. It would have stopped this man from bringing a bomb onto a plane.

The point, obviously, is that you can't tell who a terrorist is by looking at him.

[LisaL]

18. Which he obviously never tried to do.

:wtf:

[pnwmom]

24. So what? This is about the impossibility of judging who might

be carrying a weapon simply by looking at the person.

[sudopod]

22. And if he'd brought along some ham he could have had a ham and cheese sandwich

if he'd had some cheese.

Incidentally, he did neither of these things.

[sabrina 1]

40. And since he didn't get on a plane, how would TSA

pat-downs or machines have stopped him?

[Warpy]

2. I would dearly love to see a little common sense exercised

Feeling a toddler's crotch is excessive. So is freaking out at elderly people in incontinence briefs or veterans with prosthetic limbs.

It's the constant barrage of petty humiliation, day after day, that eventually piles up and leads to the type of large scale violence that lets you know the occasional terrorist out there isn't the worst problem we have.

The lessons of history are clear on that account.

[Brigid]

11. Have you ever read "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?"

It's by Mark Twain. It's about a man from Connecticut who suddenly finds himself (a blow to the head, as I recall) in England during the time of King Arthur. At one point, he gets to commenting on the endless petty humiliations that the nobles heaped on the heads of the peasantry every day. He says that now he knows how the French Revolution finally exploded centuries later. People will only take so much, even if it takes a long time for them to finally get fed up.

[Warpy]

13. Exactly.

and it was certainly at work for many years before the urban riots in the 60s and early 70s.

I need to reread Twain's works, all of them, one of these days.

[sudopod]

28. It makes perfect sense, in the proper context.

I prefer to think of it as "obedience training."

[Edweird]

5. You don't need a 'pat down' to find a gun. Old school metal detectors do the job just fine.

You don't need to sexually assualt people to find explosives. Properly trained dogs do the jobe much better than humans.

[pnwmom]

8. Properly trained dogs require paid human handlers.

They require expensive training and they can only work for a few hours before getting tired. Using enough dogs to do the job would be much more expensive than using scanners.

[sudopod]

19. From Wikipedia

The following companies manufacture commercial backscatter X-ray devices that are used in security scanning applications with price ranging from $500,000 to $900,000:

American Science and Engineering<6> (device name: Smartcheck)
Rapiscan Systems (a subsidiary of OSI Systems Inc.)<7><8> (device name: Secure 1000)
Tek84 (formerly Spectrum San Diego Inc.)<9> (device name: AIT84 Body Scanner & Castscope)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray

-----------------------------

Color me skeptical, but the cost of a half-million dollar device with a 3-5 year lifetime could buy a lot of beans and kibble.

[pnwmom]

23. You would need several dogs to cover each 24 hr period

at each checkpoint. Each of these dogs will have gone through training costing approximately $60K, and needs to be accompanied by a trainer. And dogs don't live forever either. The expense is a lot greater than beans and kibble.

[sudopod]

25. Not many airports run 24 hours.

And dogs live a lot longer than those machines will...machines that exist only to fulfill this market, and which also require training to use along with parts and technical personnel to maintain, external facilities which examine and report on the scans themselves, not to mention regular safety inspections. Both will have long-term costs.

Why are people so invested in these silly contraptions?

Anywho, how would either sort of goofy security theater have stopped the tragedy in Norway exactly? Profiling is evil, but the TSA profiling is only piling an evil on top of organized idiocy.

[piratefish08]

6. 100% complete and total nude cavity x-ray searches of every traveler in the world

would have had ZERO effect on this atrocity.


Can we PLEASE all stop buying into the fear mongering!

The government does just fine spreading fear it all by itself.

[demmiblue]

9. Dude. n/t

[Trajan]

12. Yes ...

You never know when 90 year old ladies and little baby girls and boys might be hiding a Glock in the shorts ....

[NNN0LHI]

14. Joe Stack and Tim McVeigh were enough to convince me

[sudopod]

16. Well then, I guess the terrorists did win after all.

lol

[WinkyDink]

32. Really? Because tons of fertilizer are hard to hide in one's pockets.

[sudopod]

33. That's why they always stop people who wear Hammer Pants.

More pants, more explosives.

[WinkyDink]

34. No way! "Can't touch this!" :-)

[sudopod]

35. XD nt

[sudopod]

15. Because groping his balls at the airport would have stopped any of that.

The Norwegians aren't going to change jack about how they do business, and that is a victory for the side of the angels.

[LisaL]

17. Using that logic, TSA agents should be lining up in front of our doors,

to pat us down as we exit our apartments. What an incredibly bizarre statement of you to make, considering this guy never tried to get onto the airplane.

[uppityperson]

20. Are you saying TSA should recognize that anyone can do bad things, no matter how they look?

If so, I agree.

[CBGLuthier]

21. And it also proves you aren't safe ANYWHERE so what's the fucking point?

I am a hell of a ,lot more likely to be killed by an average american than any fucking terrorist.

Whether murder, Drunk driving, or simple god damned negligence life is fraught with danger. Fuck living in fear.

[sudopod]

37. Why won't you submit to your legally selected authorities, citizen? nt

[WinkyDink]

30. Yes, the suspect looks JUST LIKE an incontinent 95-yr-old woman in a wheelchair! (P.S. This wasn't a

PLANE.)

[MichiganVote]

39. lol

[Blecht]

36. Somebody needs to develop some logic

and critical thinking skills.

[TheKentuckian]

41. All it takes is a few well meaning cowards to turn a free society into a police state

in exchange for the illusion of safety and the appearance of official action.

[Taverner]

43. This, actually, is true

The one thing that TSA did right was not implement a profiling policy

Say what you will of the tactics, it was never profiling - well, most of the time

[Stinky The Clown]

44. Boo!

We won't even talk about probability and reasonable or acceptable risks.

Boo!

[UTUSN]

45. K&R (attempted) #1, but apparently, may not Rec. n/t

[seabeyond]

46. so afraid... make it stop. what is it to be so afraid of life. nt

[WVRICK13]

47. What Does This Have To Do With Airports?

You lost me there bud.