The pervs everyone most hates are still at it, trying to justify their pathetic existence even if they destroy the country. Not only are they ginning up fear but, in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment (“The right of the people to be secure in their … papers … against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…”), scrutinizing all of a passenger’s papers, even Post-It Notes, I kid you not.
Our first story concerns a new “report”—more accurately described as a fairy tale—from the TSA that its obliging lapdogs at NBC trumpeted: “Truck owners and truck rental agencies in the U.S. must be ‘vigilant’ about the increasing frequency of ‘ramming attacks’ by terrorists using vehicles as killing machines… The report notes that in the past three years, at least 173 people have been killed and more than 700 wounded in 17 ramming attacks around the world. Of the 17 attacks, 13 resulted in fatalities.”
Yep—and during that same period, how many folks died after being struck by lightning or in car-crashes? Indeed, “You are 35,079 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack. You are 33,842 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack.” So minuscule is the threat from terrorism of any kind, including “ramming attacks,” that the gentleman who sent me this story wants to edit its headline from “TSA Report Warns Against Truck Ramming Attacks By Terrorists” to “Warning to Americans of Being Rammed by the TSA.” He adds, “Last time I looked TSA has harmed innocents, not a Ford F150. Another fed fake news story. Let’s make ourselves look relevant and needed while stigmatizing truck owners. And my taxes fund this theater of the absurd…”
Meanwhile, from Kathleen Sheridan comes this story about the TSA’s latest lunacy: “Your Paper and Post-It Notes Have to Come Out in One Airport (Soon Maybe Nationwide) … You already have to show your papers in order to fly. Now the TSA is testing having to show all your papers. In Kansas City the TSA is running a test to have passengers take all pieces of paper out of their bags for separate screening.” Be sure to catch the readers’ comments; most are vastly encouraging because of their implicit loathing for the Thieves and Sexual Assailants (for that matter, the article itself is thrillingly anti-TSA!). Except for one poor fool who asks about the “logic” behind this dictum. As if the TSA ever operates on logic!
Finally, if the TSA’s depredations aren’t enough to keep you on terra firma, how about yet more abuse from the airlines in another “row over overbooking”? “A California couple were told they’d be sent to jail if they did not give up their two-year-old son’s seat on a Delta flight, they have claimed. Brian and Brittany Schear allege they were also told their children would be taken from them, and have now demanded an apology. … Mr Schear claims a member of airline staff told him: ‘You have to give up the seat or you’re going to jail, your wife is going to jail and they’ll take your kids from you.’” (Thanks to Bill Martin for alerting me to this article.)
No destination on earth is worth enduring the TSA’s groping and voyeurism. But if airlines—no surprise: our taxes heavily subsidize this industry, so they’re far more eager to please politicians than they are customers—can now threaten passengers with the loss of their children… Well, the sensible serf stays on the ground out of self-defense, if for no other reason. Then, too, no man should tolerate a corporation’s emasculating him in front of his family, threatening the latter while daring him to do something about it. Why voluntarily place yourself in such a situation?
10:13 am on May 4, 2017
