...to realize the metal detector isn’t plugged in? No one knows how long it took for the light to dawn yesterday morning for one TSA agent at New York’s busy JFK International Terminal that his metal detector had been unplugged—apparently for hours: Amazingly, he failed to realize that alert lights never flashed once as...
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Today at SFO’s teeming passenger pick up curb, I saw about 20-25 San Francisco police passing through on their Segways. A long line of them was making and winding its way between people, very much as though they were on their way somewhere. They also seemed to be in training. I saw a lot...
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One might think that a Catholic priest removed from his position for sexually abusing children might find it difficult to find gainful employment. And one might think that this is a good thing—especially that he find it difficult to find employment involving intimate contact with children. But the Transportation Security Administration apparently thinks differently....
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It’s not enough, apparently, that the TSA has a well-established record for humiliating, degrading, stealing from, bullying, and terrifying the traveling public. Its agents’ arrogance is now moving into the realm of actually life-threatening. A Type-1 diabetic teen’s insulin pump was broken by a TSA scanner, despite her showing a TSA agent her pump...
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By the time you read this, I’m probably little more than a glob of metal, like so many millions of my brothers and sisters. And I did nothing wrong. For a while, I blamed my owner—didn’t he know that the TSA wouldn’t let him take me on an airplane? But, of course he did....
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This story reports that two TSA employees were arrested for taking bribes to allow large narcotic shipments pass through the Los Angeles airport. I put up a post about a similar story last year, so I’ll raise similar questions again. There is no rule against carrying drugs on airplanes, and carrying them did not...
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A Jet Blue pilot went loopy, started screaming about bombs, prayers, Iraq and Afghanistan, and running down the aisle. He was tackled and restrained by passengers and locked out of the cockpit by his copilot—just as it was passengers or crew that secured the planes targeted by the shoe-bomber and underwear bomber. Indeed, it...
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Here are a few good reasons to think about just how much more federal money ($5 billion and counting) should be poured into subsidizing electric cars: A new study from the University of Tennessee finds that electric cars cause worse pollution in China than standard gas-burning cars. The bottom line is that one has...
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The title of this post comes from the fantastical Andrew Fox, who laments another case of corporate welfare promoted in the name of energy conservation: the Fisker Karma, a new electric luxury automobile touted by its manufacturer as ”a bold expression of uncompromised responsible luxury.” Mr. Fox caught wind of the farce as he came...
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Here’s a story about TSA agents accepting bribes to allow passengers to carry large quantities of the prescription narcotic oxycodone onto airline flights. I have two comments. First, people are allowed to carry prescription drugs on airline flights. These drugs were pills, and there is no security threat to carrying them, nor are there...
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