The TSA Wants to Remind You That You Are A Captive
“We need to be vigilant and maintain high security protocol at all times. These portals were designed and approved by TSA which is important,” said Syracuse Airport Commissioner Christina Callahan.
Right.
They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
Little Bear 2009-2018
Laddie the Amazing Torso Boy 2011-2020
"Freedom Outlaw. It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it. It’s an attitude — from which actions always follow. It’s a do-it-yourself occupation. And a lifetime vocation."
- Claire Wolfe, Backwoods Home Companion, 6-07-10
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
- G. K. Chesterton
"If every Jewish and anti-Nazi family in Germany had owned a Mauser rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition and the will to use it, Adolf Hitler would be a little-known footnote to the history of the Weimar Republic."
- Aaron Zelman
"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force."
- Barbie
"Never underestimate the ability of shit to find a fan."
- F. Paul Wilson
"You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." The sophistry of villains - Bah!
- Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star
“Truth is, I’m not specifically interested in an armed society. What I want is a free society.”
- George Potter
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
- D. H. Lawrence
Aristippus passed Diogenes as he was washing lentils.
He said, “If you could but learn to flatter the king, you would not have to live on lentils.”
Diogenes said, “And if you could learn to live on lentils, you would not have to flatter the king.”
Sandy Hook was a Gun Free Zone. So was the Westroads Mall. And the Aurora Theater. And Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Should I go on? They were all Gun Free Zones. Why do the gungrabbers never mention this?
- Reality
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
- Robert A. Heinlein
"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand
If ever a man should ask you
For your business or your name
Tell him to go and fuck himself
Tell his friends to do the same.
For a man who'd trade his liberty
For a safe and dreamless sleep
Doesn't deserve the both of them
And neither shall he keep.
- Frank Turner
Don't be afraid to try something big, just because you're an amateur. The Ark was built by amateurs. The Titanic was built by professionals.
- Anon
"Nothing scares a police officer more than the threat of being treated the way that they treat people every day."
- Anon
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
- Gen. James Mattis
"Lust for power is the most flagrant of all the passions."
- Tacitus
"The man who knows what freedom means will find a way to be free."
- F.A. "Baldy" Harper
"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude."
- William James
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
- Viktor Frankl
The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country.
- Milton Friedman
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
- William Faulkner
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
- Ernest Hemingway
"Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
John Moses Browning - The most badass Mormon who ever lived.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"
- Ronald Reagan
The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
- James A. Baldwin
"It is better to be a warrior in a garden than to be a gardener in a war."
- Anon
“I tried to live in such a way that, when dying, I would rather feel happy than scared.”
– Witold Pilecki
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
- Sallust
"Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark."
- Lazarus Long
Read, every day, something no one else is reading.
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
– Christopher Morley
“I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.”
-Frederick Douglass
ESSE QUAM VIDERI –
To be, rather than to seem
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
“A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.”
– Ida B. Wells
Do what thy manhood bid thee do; from none but self expect applause.
He noblest lives and noblest dies, who makes and keeps his self made laws
– Sir Richard Burton
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
– Winston Churchill
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Dance as though no one is watching you. Love as though you have never been hurt before. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.”
― Father Alfred d’Souza
They are called “man traps.” The TSA did not invent them.
What total fucking bullshit…
“Man trap” was my immediate thought also; it is obviously an easy way to isolate our subject from the crowd and would help contain an explosion. I personally would demand TSA escort me out via a less claustrophobic route. My least-favorite work-related man trap had metal bars and required a passcode and handprint scanner to get through; I didn’t like it…
I’m morbidly anticipating the first good terminal fire, and the resulting stampede/traffic jam-induced trampling fatalities.*
—
*As opposed to the fire and smoke-inhalation fatalities among those who couldn’t make it through the default-locked powered doors.
^^^^^^ that!
I have seen man traps like this before and, while they look bad, they are no big deal. It could be worse for example in one establishment that I know of the system is set up so that you enter a restricted area with a pass card then all the doors lock and you place your palm on a palm reader while being weighed all under the watchful CCTV eye. If the print doesn’t match or you are 50 pounds heavier then you should be (every 2 months personnel who work in restricted area have their weight taken) then the doors don’t unlock and security is summoned. The only way to unlock the doors is for a fire alarm to go off and only the door leading out will unlock. The folks inside get out via emergency exits into a safe confined yard to be quickly counted and marshaled into a safe area. It is a very high security place.
@Bear… I suspect that should there be a fire alarm the doors would automatically unlock to let folks out but not in and the fire department would have overrides. :^)
MJR, the doors should unlock in case of fire, but…
(based on my own experience with government contracting and systems maintenance)
1. I wouldn’t bet on anyone at TSA (this is a TSA-approved design) thinking to include that in the RFP specs.
2. If they did remember, I wouldn’t bet on it being tested and working.
3. If the fire alarm interlock does work, I see terminal personnel overriding the locks when traffic backs up (and forgetting to restore later).
But assuming that everything works as it should (this from the Security Theater Administration), you’ve still got a gated choke-point through which panicked masses will fight to get through first, in the event of a fire, bomb threat, disgruntled hunter of TSA goons, etc. It won’t be pretty.
I’d love to get the pay-per-view rights.
@ Bear… With the pay-per-view rights I think you would make a mint from residuals. :^) You reminded me that people in government contract things to be built from the lowest bidder standpoint.
The point about TSA employees overriding the locks to speed up the flow and forgetting to restore them later is an excellent one. When this happens, and it will, it will happen only once and when the gaff is discovered the employee who forgot will get slapped i.e. some minor disciplinary action. The resulting ripples of decent in the union ranks will cause it to be game on with union verses management and it will be a long time before any overriding of locks happens again. The result will be longer lines and more complaints plus a pat on the back for TSA for doing a good job with access control. A long time ago I learned that when government is involved the object of the game for management is to cause problems so as to be seen solving the problems and it does not matter if the problems are internal or external.
As for me I don’t fly in the United States, I choose not to have to endure all the security feel good theater because it is just that, theater.
The first question I had was, who gets the contract to fit them for Zyklon-B pumps?
@MJR, an even better point about remote-controlling the locks: Imagine a bored TSO locking down the pods just for the halibut. I recall a couple of officers who didn’t that on a fairly regular basis, trapping fellow officers simply because they thought it was funny. I’m sure it will be hilarious to lock down the pods when a multiply-delayed transoceanic flight finally arrives chock full of near-homicidal passengers and cabin crew.
At the local fairgrounds, there are big metal revolving doors that let people out at any time, but never in, with no need for electricity, special instructions, or any of that stuff. Push one way, and it turns. Push the other way, and it doesn’t. Interdigitated tines filter out anyone attempting to pass through the return side. But, that’s not high-tech. And it, quite intentionally, doesn’t allow locking people in.