Don’t read this post, Dad

Because I’m going to be complaining about the TSA.

Now, I fly a lot for work, and as a result of that I’m a pretty savvy traveler, by the time I get to security I’m practically naked and ready to submit myself to the tender ministrations of the Security Theatre. Now, I understand that not everyone is an efficient traveler – in fact most people are pretty damn stupid about flying, and just aren’t organized at all. I expect that, especially at a big tourist airport like LAX.

And that is what makes the security situation at LAX so completely ridiculous. Unlike the Seattle and Las Vegas TSA set-ups which prepare and assume that people will have lots of bags and be stupid, the LAX TSA does the exact opposite and assumes that everyone is seasoned and skilled; unfortunately that’s never true, and even less so for an airport like LAX, which gets about 10 hoji passengers through its gates.

You would think that a place like LAX would be better at this whole “security” thing. Of course, that would be logical, and LA is anything but that.

2 Comments

  1. my favorite part of LAX was the boarding pass / ID check at the start of the rat maze leading to the metal detectors and x-ray machines. They check at the start of the maze, at the end of the maze, at the bottom of the escalator that is less than 20 feet from the end of the rat maze you just left, and then again at the top of the escalator, then one more time as I passed through the actual metal detector. 5 checks in under 200 feet of travel. TSA must have a hell of a union to keep that many people employed doing that little actual work.

    dc

  2. Yeah, my friends 85-year old frail and tottering mother forgot to sign her passport so she was detained, strip searched, and her Ensure (just about the only thing she can eat) dumped out for fear it was a threat to security. Totally asinine treatment while the real terrorists are laughing at having accomplished just what they set out to do.

    Meanwhile tests have shown bombs and weapons typically are passed right through.

Comments are closed.