Fuck 23
Shit 8
Stupid 5
Cunt 5
Piss 3
Idiot 2
Suck 2
Bastard 1

And yet, for all of that, it was an entirely cheerful, intelligent debate amongst people who (I think) more or less like or at least tolerate each other.

What fun! A couple years ago I succeeded in thoroughly pissing off a fellow blogger b/c I jokingly called him a “doity bastid”. May I say you fellows are a much more genial lot

Cunt.

I was simply stating the reason these things exist & that they do exist for a very good reason. You may think they don’t a&effect or prevent anything untoward happening, but believe me they do & have & continue to do so. Most don’t see it, because they are too busy complaining they are being treated like animals, which is why you/they/most have the opinions you/they/most have.

What people are mistaking for SECURITY is the physical presence of the uniformed men & women staffing the x-ray machines — these may happily consider themselves security personnel, but they are not the policy makers; they simply perform whatever function they are directed to do so by their heads of department based on procedure informed by daily intel & the state of the security of the country as a whole. It’s not as straightforward as that, but I have simplified it for the sake of ease of explanation.

What you have is, at best, a best practice procedure in the face of insurmountable odds. The trouble is the General Public & its lack of compassion & understanding in such situations. They simply think it’s a personal affront/attack on their way of life/freedom/whatever & do not regard the wider picture. All they do (see above comments) is point out flaws & take what they consider to be the moral high ground, rather than think ooh, hang on… I guess I should be a little more flexible &, above all, vigilant in these rather trying times & let people get on with doing the best they can in their jobs without butting in.

Of course there are contradictions in terms of what can & can’t be taken on board but getting all ‘a-ha-haaaaa!’ about it is a little bit weak, don’t you think? What they (& I have to clarify this is a UK ‘they’ not a worldwide ‘they’) have done is drawn up a list of standard carry on items that are considered to potentially pose a risk. Other objects, random objects, are usually dealt with on an individual basis when they arise at the security area — most are picked up & confiscated, some are not considered a risk, some are missed entirely. I can’t account for why either way, so won’t even try. All I know is I wouldn’t want to be doing any of those frontline jobs because they rarely receive any respect/sanity from the public.

As for the Agent Cody Banks status – nothing so glamorous or exciting I’m afraid. I am loosely defined as an ahem expert in emergency/hostile environments & the survival therein/of; specialising, to a degree, in escape & evasion, & CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear) detection / response / counter measures. i.e. counter terrorism + domestic/homeland security, amongst other ‘survival/safety’ areas under a fairly broad remit.

I (i.e. through the company that employs me) work with both UK & USA & EU military, homeland security & police forces, as well as a whole bunch of departments/organisations normal people would never ever know about. We also work closely with all the NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations)/Humanitarian Aid Agencies (UN/WFP/WHO/ICRC/etc) on disaster response/relief/preparation. &, finally, as a nice cheeky aside I get to be chummy with the likes of Ray Mears & Bear Grylls & a whole host of other survivalists.

DC

I for one love flying, I like airports, I respect the rules in airports & understand why some of the more difficult to palate rules exist. I fly internationally & domestically at least 10 times a year & I witness arseholes on every trip who have no respect whatsoever for the airline staff, their very difficult job & the security issues involved in securing such huge compendiums of commerce such as an airport.

All I see is arguing for argument’s sake because, well, goes the argument, that’s how the human machine is built & why not exercise that ability?

I’m at a loss as to why people get so annoyed with airports – the procedure for air travel is hugely simple (even simpler these days since on-line check-in exists for most major airlines), their guidelines are availble on websites & you can ask people what the rules/restrictions are on the telephone; all over the airport before you check in & as you go through security there are signs telling you you cannot send stuff through

Who knows what dastardly things he may be plotting!