The War on Tourism: My TSA Horror Story, Part 1
Posted by Andrew | Filed under War on Tourism
The War on Tourism is real. Despite the best efforts of the United States government, there are still people who wish to travel to destinations domestic and foreign. Here, I cover the valiant efforts of the Transportation Security Agency and Border Patrol in there battle against this foe.
Last May, I flew from Boston’s Logan International Airport to Brussels, Belgium to visit my grandparents for two weeks. Let me just say that I love to fly, I love to travel in general. But, I absolutely hate dealing with security at the airport. This is the way I see things. There’s humans, and then there’s chimps and other monkeys, and then there are TSA personnel right after dogs with rabies.
So, I always have low expectations when I’m going into security at the airport. But, this experience was just unacceptable. It all starts when you give the first guy your ID (in this case, my U.S. Passport) and your boarding pass. It always takes them 4 tries to match the picture to your face, something that a 3 month old child could do flawlessly. And why do they scribble on my boarding pass? Is there a reason for that besides the fact that for some reason someone gave them a pen and they are just making sure that it still works?
Then you get to the part where you have to take your shoes and your belt off, and take all of the metal, like your keys and the change your carrying, out of your pocket. Oh, and don’t forget to take your cell phone or any other electronics in your pockets out too. Make sure that you get your laptop out of your bag and into a tray, and all of the liquids you are carrying into a small plastic baggie in precise measurements. Did I mention you have to do all of this at once? So, you better grow a couple of extra arms before you fly.
What makes this process worse is the butch lady with the badge yelling at everyone to hurry up. It’s done in a fashion that makes it seem like the metal detector should say “Work will set you free” over it. Is it just me, or does that eagle on the Department of Homeland Security seal look awfully German?
Adam Curry once said that the best response to a TSA…person, I guess…yelling at you is to yell back at them. Is it just me, or does that sound like the worst idea in the world? I’m pretty sure if you were to yell at them, you would miss your flight. Little did I know that overpowered government officials yelling at me would be the least of my problems.
More of this story to come…
2 Responses to “The War on Tourism: My TSA Horror Story, Part 1”
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Duo Citizenship » Blog Archive » The War on Tourism: My TSA Horror … | Famed Story Says:
March 21st, 2009 at 00:59[...] View original post here: Duo Citizenship » Blog Archive » The War on Tourism: My TSA Horror … [...]
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Duo Citizenship » Blog Archive » The War on Tourism: My TSA Horror … | Famed Story Says:
March 21st, 2009 at 14:21[...] View original post here: Duo Citizenship » Blog Archive » The War on Tourism: My TSA Horror … [...]
Ooops, should have added great post! Waiting for your next post!