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any TSA advice?
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11-26-2010, 05:04 AM
Let's try to keep it Hawaii somehow please.....
Assume the best and ask questions. Punaweb moderator
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
11-26-2010, 06:58 AM
I had passionfruit syrup confiscated from me by the meanest TSA officer in Hilo a couple years ago. I quickly accepted my stupidity in forgetting the then new rule on liquids, but that wasn't enough for him. He was loud, lecturing, and hectoring -- a definite Type A+. His veins were popping out of his neck. I have never seen him again. He's gone. The TSA people in Hilo are very nice. He kinda reminded me of the lady I encountered when crossing one of those bridges on Kauai where only one car can go. I hadn't quite figured out which car should go and I went. As I drove across the bridge I could see a woman in a very expensive car seething and clutching the steering wheel for all she was worth. As I got to the other side of the bridge and passed her, she rolled down her window (horrors -- all that horrible real air coming in!) and said "You were supposed to wait for me you stupid idiot!" And then she caught herself, muttered something about a therapist and then literally spat out the words "Aloha anyway!!!!". So, now whenever I lose my temper even a little bit, or witness some person who does I make fun of that lady with those that are in the know.I do this by shaking my head from side to side, working myself up into a crescendo of shame at my own loss of control and anger that the world has not bent to my will. Then I sputter "Aloha anyway!!". It's hilarious. So....
Aloha anyway!
11-26-2010, 08:08 AM
quote: Probably because if you did you wouldn't be flying. "don't touch my junk..." I don't really care about the xray machines and full body scans. I also think it's a joke that they have to spend zillions of dollars on all this equipment... Then make us jump though all the BS hoops... Mean while how safe is it to walk down a neighborhood street? Personally I'd rather see the money go to more cops on the street. Homeland security is a joke. Maybe take the money and put up a few more street lights in puna! 
11-26-2010, 08:47 AM
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
11-29-2010, 07:42 PM
Does anyone on Punaweb know where figures are available showing increase or decrease in tourist &/or overall air travel to Hawaii for a given day/week/month during 2010 relative to the recent average (say, over the previous five years)? I am having a tough time talking a couple of relatively elderly folks on the East coast (who were previously enthusiastic about coming to Hawaii, before TSA's new backscatter radiation scans and aggressive pat-downs) into enjoying some sunshine and aloha here during a winter vacation. They are backed up about appearing naked on a screen or getting humiliated by a groping. Adult diapers for incontinence may have some role in all this, I suspect. I've pointed out that only a small percentage of passengers are screened that way so the odds favor them walking right through the regular metal detectors, but so far no sale. This TSA stuff may be impacting Hawaii's economy. Here is a good article, btw, on those alternatives we have been discussing. They enumerated at the bottom of this article by Nick Baumann... After John Tyner: A Five-Step Plan to a Sane Airport Security System http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/11/tsa-...ity-system which also notes: ...the elimination of existing useless security procedures is the heart of the plan. It's not about doing something "instead" of the current system—it's about not doing things that are wasting money and time and not making us safer. It's quite possible that we're already as safe as we're going to get —and every subsequent airport security "improvement" is just reducing our freedom without improving security...Everything else is a waste of money." All three experts favor scrapping most of the security measures that people hate —and not necessarily replacing them with anything. Ideally, the money that was saved wouldn't be spent on airport security at all: it would be spent on trying to stop terrorists before they got to the airport. That means better-funding law enforcement and intelligence. )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( Baby Hummingbird http://wimp.com/babyhummingbird )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some! http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
11-30-2010, 05:58 PM
quote: We are engaged in a robust conversation about a topic that affects all of our lives. Does everything that is discussed here have to be about aloha and pineapples? And for future reference, when I am irritated I plan on allowing myself the freedom to express that fact. So if that breaks some Punaweb rule, you'd better just kick me off the forum now. Also, @AlohaSteven: well said, that bit about keeping rage alive!
11-30-2010, 06:00 PM
Relax bub, I've been allowing a lot of latitude here.
Assume the best and ask questions. Punaweb moderator
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
11-30-2010, 06:56 PM
Bub... Hm. I like it. Maybe I should change my Punaweb handle?
[  ](edited to add a proper smiley face.) -Bub
11-30-2010, 07:10 PM
...@AlohaSteven: well said, that bit about keeping rage alive! Thanks, yet lest an important distinction become collapsed I went back to check on that which was actually written: I'd like to focus on having a nice day but I honestly do not think losing our sense of outrage and --stemming directly from this sense of outrage-- speaking up, making a fuss, and demanding huge changes (actual effective security instead of security theater) is going to accomplish that end. Feel the outrage! Give it voice! Take effective action! Outraged action is the only way, realistically, this venal grab for money and control can be stopped and corrected. If anyone knows how else this situation can be improved more effectively then please do speak up and educate me. I am glad to be wrong if a better alternative is presented. There is a big difference between "outrage" (resentment aroused by injury or insult an act that violates accepted standards of behavior or taste) and "rage" (violent and uncontrolled anger). The former I see as constructive when it leads to rational action. The latter, though, has severely limited positive application. Personally, while very much outraged about the situation I'd like to leave raw rage itself behind altogether and be all about enjoying the aloha and pineapples -which would be infinitely easier if my elderly friends would come and visit while they still have the health to make the trip, if other potential tourists like my friends who are not flying to Hawaii --or spending their money here-- were not lost to the local economy because of TSA, and if I myself did not ever run afoul of the TSA at the local airports. In my experience one's treatment at the hands of the TSA, even here in Hawaii, can be biased. If he is at the checkpoint then a specific TSA screener at the HNL inter-island gate (a fellow in his late 50s or early 60's with salt and pepper hair, wears glasses, sedentary physique) always singles me out for a pat-down and having my bags gone through ...though I have noticed he never once has tagged anyone ahead or behind me who is a member of his own racial group for such treatment. I do not get The Treatment very often anywhere else in the USA, just in HNL every single time this same TSA guy is there, so there has to be something causing him to behave in a biased manner relative to all the other TSA agents nationwide the vast majority of whom yawn and wave me past. In the absence of anything else I can figure as a trigger for him --versus all other TSA screeners when they look at me-- he may not like the demographic he identifies me with based on my race, sex, & age. The first couple times I did not particularly notice or connect the dots but after the tenth time or so this sort of petty passive-aggressive biased behavior becomes irksome. He knows perfectly well I do not fit any sort of terrorist profile whatsoever and that the result of the pat-down and pawing through my carry-on will turn up nothing, just like the last dozen times, yet there is just the barest hint of a subtle gloating expression on his face every time. I wonder if this is his little sip of revenge for having a $17,000 per year job, or an expression of racial bias, or what? The story linked here (http://www.menwithfoilhats.com/2010/11/x...east-milk/) documents biased treatment and TSA reprisals against passengers who make reports about inappropriate behavior or otherwise annoy the TSA agents, though honestly I have never done or said anything to this guy which could be taken as a reasonable excuse for annoyance. Maybe someday I will be authentically compassionate, like Yoda, and just feel genuinely sorry for this biased TSA screener in Honolulu, but I think I'd have to live 900+ years or so (like Yoda) in order to get there. )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( Baby Hummingbird http://wimp.com/babyhummingbird )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(
Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some! http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( |
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