[Just arrived in Boston. It's cold! I wrote this on the plane, and can upload now. Yay for Wifi!]
At SFO earlier today, I was selected for "additional screening." They said it was random, but I bet it was my funny hat. After the usual x-ray and metal detector, I was tag-teamed by two TSA agents. One frisked and wanded me very carefully, and the other rifled through each and every bit of my stuff on a cheap card table. They were both good-natured about it, but still odd to have someone flipping through my papers and questioning my lunch. (She: What's this? Me: Um, lentil sprouts....) In a deep forgotten pocket, she even found a packet of unused malaria pills, sitting there (and being carried around) since India.
They also swabbed the insides of each compartment of my backpack and laptop case, and inserted the swabs into a machine. Looking for explosives residue, certainly, but I really wonder whether the machines are also calibrated to detect anything else, like illegal drugs. (See Barlow's recent travails for more on TSA's 4th Amendment overreaching.)
I am supportive of heightened security at airports and beyond, but I see clear civil liberties/mission creep problems going on, as well as farcically ineffectual practices, which are a waste of time, money, and public confidence.
Posted by Jason at January 14, 2005 09:18 PM | TrackBack