My father-in-law had to lower his pants for airport security

[Auggie]

He was wearing a knee brace under his blue jeans. He couldn't remove it to show security because the jeans were straight leg. So they told him to drop the pants.

He's 80 years old.

[Flying Dream Blues]

1. No words.... I don't recognize this country at times.

I can only imagine how someone who's 80 years old feels about it.

[Auggie]

2. Actually, he laughs about it while calling airport security a scam

to make us feel better about flying. He claims there's no way to keep someone from trying to blow up a plane if they really want to.

[madinmaryland]

3. It's a money making scam for the halliburton's of the world. Just remember,

the next time you are at the airport on a trip, each time you have to take your shoes off, Dick Cheney makes a dollar.

:mad:

[Flying Dream Blues]

4. Smart man! nt

[mnhtnbb]

16. He's right. All this security stuff is BS designed to get us used to a police state.

[dembotoz]

5. if they have the power to make people take off their clothes

perhaps i am in the wrong line of work

[Auggie]

6. Some day there will be an anal cavity search

[phasma ex machina]

23. In that case TSA can plan on a little blowback from all the passive aggressives out there.

+1 --> it's all about TAS pretending to exercise control over catastrophe. People cope better when they feel like there's a plan, even if it's flawed. OTOH chaos remains a big bugaboo.

[OregonBi]

26. If that ever happens...

...I am applying for work at TSA ASAP! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[old mark]

7. They seem to catch a lot of 80 year old Americans, especially those

in wheelchairs. Bunch of assholes going through the motions, and any good they accomplish is by accident.

mark

[crispini]

8. You have GOT to be kidding.

Tell me this did not occur in public.

[Auggie]

13. He said they took him to a private room

[sarge43]

9. He should have mooned them.

"Oh sorry. Just the blue jeans then?"

[valerief]

10. He should have pissed on them. nt

[Auggie]

14. I'll tell him that...

he'll get a kick out of your suggestion

[MadMaddie]

11. This is ridiculous, racial profile the right group of people and

stop playing political correctness and implement the rules like Israel does. This terrorist didn't have a passport, he paid cash for a 1 way ticket, he didn't check any luggage....does anyone need any more red flags? WTF?

[JonLP24]

15. No

I'm not favor of harrasement and the loss of civil liberties of the vast majority of law biding middle eastern/west Asian/Muslim citizens over the idea a small percentage are terrorists. In fact many serve in the armed forces.

Also there are white terrorists such as the KKK, McVeigh, and so forth.

[MadMaddie]

17. The terrorist that committed the 9/11 attrocity fit the same

profile, whether it was racial, a certain region of the world etc. Yemen is part of that profile.

What would have happened if they would have profiled this guy? They would see red flags, he paid cash only, he had no luggage, his father reported him being radicalized against the US.....

Yes, the same for the KKK or any other groups if individuals fit those profiles they should be looked at even closer. Timothy McVeigh had all of the markers of a threat to the US but because he was a white Christian he didn't make a blip on the radar.

That is the problem with profiling it has to be done across the board not just selected groups.

Yes, there are many Yemini and Muslim innocents but they wouldn't meet the red flags that I mentioned above. Now having said that yes there are flaws but what are the alternatives? Israel does not experience these incidents, have you ever pondered why? That's right - they profile everyone.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

22. Racial profiling is highly ineffective and morally wrong.

Even based on the incorrect assumption that all terrorists are Arabs, many non-Arabs would be caught up in the dragnet -- those that "look like" what people think Arabs look like. It's a horrible idea.

Behaviorally profiling someone, on the other hand, is acceptable and should be practiced.

EDIT: And I think airport security harassing senior citizens and children is beyond stupid.

[Initech]

12. Wow. I'm at PHX right now and didn't have to do anything differently.

[SeattleGirl]

18. Interesting how they like to pick on older people, but some

putz like the underwear bomber can just sail right through (yes, I know he boarded in another country).

I'm all for airline safety, but I do wish they'd take some of the stupid out of it.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

19. My mother in law was in a wheel chair.

She is so tiny and frail, 85 yrs old, has two knees and two hips replaced and has had a stroke. She can walk a little if helped by a person or a walker but I still couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them make her get up from her wheelchair and walk through the metal detector.

[LibDemAlways]

20. At the Seattle airport I saw a woman much like your mother-in-law - tiny,

frail, and wheelchair bound. This particular woman was hunched over and looked completely "out of it." There was no way she could get up out of the wheelchair. Instead they wheeled her through the metal detector and then proceeded to yank off her shoes, hoist her up by her arms and wand her up and down. I'll never forget the terror in her eyes. Her daughter had been instructed to stand back, but she was crying and pleading with the TSA goons from a distance, explaining that her mother had Alzheimer's and begging them to leave her alone. It was one of the most pathetic, cruel things I've ever witnessed.

No aged Alzheimer's victim is going to be plotting to take down an airliner. Whatever happened to common sense?

[Boudica the Lyoness]

21. People with alzheimer's can get terrified so easy.

The poor woman could have been really traumatized by it and created one hell of a scene for those goons. These people are not intelligent enough to have any common sense.

[TheKentuckian]

24. Living in a free society entails some risk

I'm not worried about terrorist as much as fascists.

Give everyone a knife and the passengers will square any yahoos away.

[undeterred]

25. If they're going to get away with making the hot women drop their pants

they have to make the old men do it too.