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This is What a TSA Beyond-the-Checkpoint Soft Drink Inspection Looks Like

September 7, 2012 at 9:24 AM | by | Comment (1)

There's been a fair bit of controversy over the newly prominent TSA practice of randomly testing liquids after checkpoints. Some people seem to believe the idea, which has agents inspecting the coffee and soft drinks of passengers waiting around terminals, is the end of freedom. Other people (for instance, us) can't get worked up over it.

It's not that we think testing someone's Diet Coke measurably increases airport security. It probably doesn't. We just can't see how it'll hurt anything. And given TSA's history on new rules, as long as something is merely useless rather than actively counterproductive we're willing to dismiss it with a "meh."

Now video has been uploaded of TSA agents actually doing their liquid inspections. According to the YouTube post, the film was taken at CMH in Columbus, OH. The gentleman who took the video, by danno02, is very upset about how American "SHEEPLE" are allowing themselves to be "searched with out probable cause or warrant." We watched the video and...yeah, we just don't see the big deal. We tried this time guys. Really. But of all the things TSA is doing and not doing, this just doesn't seem worth the outrage.

Judging by the looks of things, incidentally, the only people who are less interested in the inspections than us are the agents who have to do them. As a Wired writeup nicely catches, they're not even changing their gloves between checks to prevent cross-contamination.

They know they're going through the motions. We know they're going through the motions. Meh.

[Photo: danno02 / YouTube]

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"Meh."

Start Quote It probably doesn't. We just can't see how it'll hurt anything. End Quote 1. It is paid for from our tax dollars. That's the harm. All egregiouslyusly stupid, unconstitutional, counterproductive nonsense the TSA engages in is funded by you and I. 40% of it is deficit spending. Forty cents out of ever dollar our Federal Government currently spends are deficit cents, money taxpayers will be forced to pay interest on in the future. 2. It sets a bad precedent. The TSA has a track record of behaving badly, then behaving worse. They do something obnoxious long enough for us to give up complaining about it, because the complaints fall on deaf ears. Then they ratchet up the abuse. If we let them annoy us with their silly little swabs and drink inspections, it won't be long before they'll be performing an even worse abuse in the "secure" area. 3. They're picking on us because the retailers in the secure area have economic leverage over the airport and are willing to use that economic leverage to prevent the TSA from picking on them. That's right. The logical time to test these beverages is before the retailer brings them into the secure area, but the retailers won't put up with that. The retailers know the TSA's tomfoolery will contaminate their perishable merchandise. The reason the TSA is pestering us is because the retailers said no. If stand up on our hind legs and say no, the TSA will quit bothering us too. All we have to do is say no firmly. 4. "Meh." is the wrong response to having your Constitutional Rights violated or observing someone else's rights violated. If you're a U.S. citizen then it is your civic duty to grow a pair. Ovaries or testicles, take your pick. Just grow a pair.
Elizabeth Conley1 on September 7, 2012 at 11:40 AM #Permalink

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