I've been flying about twice a week, on average, since Sept 11. This is getting more and more ridiculous: today I was asked to remove my belt entirely at X-Ray.
Not, please unbuckle and let us hand-search, but take it off entirely. This is insane. Without some shred of dignity left, there is no point to patronizing the airline system at all, except under duress.
Federalizing this -- making it more rigid -- is only going to hurt the airline industry further.
For protesting, I was hand-searched *anyway*, after *not* triggering the metal detector.
I challenged the supervisor -- a United employee, as per current policies -- who told me the usual runaround: FAA has told her buckles can be made into shivs, that she doesn't care about policy elsewhere in the US in my flying experience, nor even that of other terminals at San Jose Airport itself...
I know United has been traumatized. I know that I prefer diversity to literal-minded Federalism. I am also beginning to fear I've lost my interest in traveling as a hobby.
Not because I'm inconvenienced for a few minutes -- but because I'm waiting here in the gate area afraid that I've pissed off some employee who wants to add me to the selectee list for even more intrusive inspections.
It's the fear of privatized retribution that makes me fear for the Republic...
Rohit </paste>
a previous post on airline security: Profiling, from the front lines http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/0110/1484.html