Airport Security Welcomes YOU

Airport Security Welcomes YOU!

Now that the holidays proper have begun, a little comment on airport security. A Man Called Da-da has schlepped through airports all around the world, so he has a good handle on that rarest of animals, PERSPECTIVE. Observe.

In Tel Aviv, airport security is a trained phalanx of college-educated screeners who interview everyone who goes on a plane -- twice. No machines. No meltdowns. Wait times are 30 minutes. They've not had a serious incident in eight years. This is the old way of doing things. And it's cheap.

In Any Airport, USA, airport security involves a fun olio of increasingly expensive, intrusive machines and surly people with high school diplomas (and chips on their shoulders the size of a cadillac). Wait times are high. Meltdowns are high. And they have serious, lawsuit-spawning incidents all the time. This is the new way of doing things. And it's expensive.

In America, we don't believe in people, we believe in MACHINES and MONEY. People are merely consumers. Machines are glorified, and smart people are basically evil and should never be trusted -- unless they're smart MONEY people, and then you should trust them implicitly (they never lie). Indeed, Americans trust machines more than people, and place their lives in control of these machines more and more each day, mainly because of this warped trust issue and the fact that this causes us to keep spending money money money on the military-industrial-entertainment complex.

So you have to think, what kind of example are we making for our children? That we have no civil liberties, and dressing up in military uniforms and being rude is cool? That we have to be afraid all the time and everyone is an enemy (and therefore NOT a friend)? I think even a cursory think on this will show that old ways are often better than new ways, especially when it comes to capital outlays, making and keeping friends. Old human ways are cheaper and often friendlier than new inhuman ways. They're more economical. And they make people happy, what a concept.

So, employ smart, well trained, friendly people (um, we have a lot of smart, trained, friendly UNEMPLOYED people at last check), or deploy "smart" (intrusive, civil rights violating) machines and grumpy people. What could be more simple?

(NOTE: Los Alamos scientists just discovered that TSA scanners are shredding human DNA -- just like small children and brain cells.)