Serfdom Under the TSA
By now, I’m sure that most Americans have their own personal stories about TSA abuse. The U.S. government’s takeover of airport security after the 9/11 attacks has made flying an unpleasant experience.
This past weekend, I was flying back to Virginia. A TSA agent took my carry-on suitcase aside and opened it up. She then pulled out a container of talcum powder. She spent around 5 minutes intensely examining it and then testing it. Up to that point, it was simply a matter relating to the talcum powder. No agent was hassling me ,and I was just waiting for the testing of the talcum powder to be completed.
I nonchalantly and innocently said to her, “So, I’m curious as to whether it’s bad to bring talcum powder with me.” Well, that was obviously a wrong thing to say. I think you’re expected to keep your mouth shut and not question anything they do.
In what appeared to me to be an effort to teach me a lesson, another TSA agent approached me and informed me that I was now going to be subjected to a complete pat-down search. Even worse, he advised me that it was going to be conducted by a trainee, who was about 70 years old. The trainee was obviously nervous, given that his boss was right there watching him. The trainee patted down almost every square inch of my body. For example, I was wearing a button-down dress shirt. He had me turn around and he curled my shirt collar backwards, presumably to see if I had a gun hidden there. (I didn’t.)
In the meantime, the talcum-powder lady decided that she needed to needed to go through my
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