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The TSA Owes Me Lunch

Tourists. Terrorists. It's too hard to tell the difference.

The TSA has been popping up a lot lately in my blog. The latest occurrence is once again at Portland International Airport, the origin of the David Nelson saga and show me your tits baggage screening.

So how did the TSA cost me lunch? I'm glad you asked...

We were supposed to meet two reps from a software company in Seattle for lunch today. They called and told us they wouldn't be able to make it because they were stuck in Portland. After leaving the Seattle-Portland plane, they were detained at the gate for the Medford-bound leg of their trip because one person's driver's license had expired. That license is certainly less secure than before it expired, a few days earlier.

I can (almost) understand not allowing someone to board a flight with an expired license, but after they're on the second leg of their flight? I suppose I can see a reason. After all, who knows what terrible mischief they could have caused in a small commuter plane flying over central Oregon wilderness. Instead, the rocket scientists at the Portland airport allowed them to board a jet back home to Seattle.

The TSA wins and I'm out a free lunch.

This is why I'm grateful I no longer travel for work. The innocent traveling public suffers the cost and outrages of ham-handed federalized airport security while the tragic stupidity of government-mandated security practices leaves us worse off than we were two years ago. Maybe we can all help the TSA by pointing out when their metal detectors aren't plugged in.

Posted by Mark Friday, July 11, 2003 12:02:00 AM | permalink |