Jaunted

TSA

Actually, It's More Like Animal Farm

September 29, 2006 at 11:05 AM | 1 Comment

We're not the only ones that think the TSA is a comically Orwellian organization. No, that feeling seems to abound, especially among propellerheads on the internet, even (marginally) famous ones. Salon's Patrick Smith, who has been riding the TSA harder than most, makes an excellent point about airport security's Big Brother (although, in truth, they are closer to the Other Sister) in an essay today:

At this point, if Kip Hawley and the TSA didn't already exist, somebody would have to make them up, simply for their value as entertainment. I was not present at Hawley's press conference on Monday morning, but one imagines a certain comic tension in the air as he stood at the lectern, talking to reporters about zipper bags and beverages and lip balm. My question would have been this one: "Excuse me, Director Hawley, regarding that 3-ounce limitation: What if a person has a 4-ounce container, but only 3 ounces of liquid inside?" Maybe that's the TSA's problem. It needs to laugh more.

At this point, that's the only explanation we would accept for this airport security torture: that Andy Kaufman has been behind it the whole time as a horrible gag. In the meantime, where did we put our plastic baggies?

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