When people learn that I detest flying, they generally ask, “Why?” Here’s part of the answer.
I mean, shit, c’mon. Osama bin Laden probably saw this directive before Flying With Fish did. It’s like having the FBI kick down your door for for ripping off a Matt Groening cartoon (see previous post).
And what could the bloggers do but bend over and take it? If the TSA tried this sort of stunt with The New York Times it would be wearing a thick coat of lawyers the way a dead hog wears flies. A free-lance travel writer with a kid in his arms is going to be a good deal less aggro’ than a hungover editor with three bitchy ex-wives, ’roids and a bleak professional future without some best-selling book to pitch to Random House — say, about how he stood tall while having his nuts squeezed by some brownshirts from the Department of Open Your Duffel, Take Off Your Shoes and Shut the Fuck Up.
Jesus. This is why I drive everywhere. I don’t have to get to the Subaru two hours before departure, I can carry on everything from bikes to guns to jumbo bottles of booze, and nobody is ever setting his boxers ablaze in the seat next to me.
Mad Blog Media 
I hope that you realize that just because I, we, don’t make a comment to all of your posts that it means I, we, don’t love what you write. I’ve been reading your stuff now since ’08, at the insistence of my old friend Mr. Crandall, in yer ‘burg. Keep stirring the poop, I implore you.
Patrick,
What are you talking about? The Flying with Fish blog posting you link to expresses that the blogger received something and posted it on the net. Which if you are trying to make the argument that ‘bloggers are journalists too’ seems to fly contrary to good journalistic judgement. Right?
The TSA agents have a job to do, and according to this blogger: they did it. They are following a leak which, if you work in security (that’d be the “S” in “TSA”) you would understand this. They want to know HOW this information was leaked to the outside world. Nothing more. It is not the TSA’s job to punish people for posting anything. That might fall under DHS’ statement of purpose.
Is it a ban on your freedom to know? Yes and no. Do you have a right to know it? Nope. In a free society (as FWF points out) you have a right to information. It does not say “all information” the blog says “information.” In order for the TSA (or FBI, CIA, KGB, MI-5, Interpol, etc..) to do their job they need to keep things secret. That is why police have stings, the Feds have wire-taps, and your neighbors wear tinfoil hats. It is all part of the game. Sort of like “Spy vs. Spy” but with real people and not some freakish bird-like looking thing.
For those of us who choose to fly that is something which we gladly give up for the convenience of getting from Point A to Point B as soon as possible. Last time I checked the ‘friendly skies’ were a whole heck of a lot less congested than the 405 on a Friday afternoon.
And “yes” you can pack whatever you want into your Subaru but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the man/woman in the blue suit isn’t going to enjoy pulling you over for going 105 in the slow lane while packing a Derringer. The paperwork they’ll have to fill out is just the same no matter what. A crime is a crime bruddah. And freedom has a price….
“TSA’s Office of Inspections is currently investigating how the recent Security Directives were acquired and published by parties who should not have been privy to this information,” the statement said.
As Capt. Renault might say: Someone has leaked the goods. Round up the usual suspects. Or, as Orwell would remind us, we need someone to hate.
Most of us, frequent fliers or otherwise, still have a far better chance of meeting our maker courtesy of some asshole who is text messaging or chugging White Lighting behind the wheel of his pickup truck than as a favor of some Nigerian castoff from the bogus email business. Lets keep this shit in perspective. We kill 40,000 of each other each year with no help from Al Fido. Osama wishes he could do as well killing us as our own neighbors.
James,
This is what The New Journalism is going to look like — indeed, already does look like. People with few resources and no backup trying to report on news that affects you and me and getting stomped like rats in a shoebox as a consequence. But never fear, “America’s Most Wanted” will appear at its regularly scheduled time. Unless you subscribe to Time Warner Cable, in which case you just might be fucked.
Are you saying that you don’t mind trotting down to the airport for a crucial trans-Atlantic business trip with no idea as to what you might expect upon arrival? “Sorry, sir, no carry-ons, no clothes, please follow me to the cavity-search area (don’t worry, it’s televised for your protection). Forget that first-class ticket, we’re going to dope you and stuff you in the baggage compartment. And one peep out of you and we’ll jettison your ass at 30,000 feet like so much blue ice out of the crapper.”
The only thing power fears is power. Bloggers don’t have any. Newspapers used to, but there aren’t many of them left. Not with any balls, anyway. This is a simple case of a big cop pushing around a little guy. End of story.
Hey, K,
You may recall Captain Renault discussing the arrest and subsequent departure of Señor Ugarte: “I am making out the report now. We haven’t quite decided yet whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape.” Sounds like the dilemma faced by the typical modern airline passenger.
Just more reason I won’t fly for business any more. Your Papaazzz please !
And none of us will meet Ilsa Lund in the security line…
NY Times has an article worth reading:
Or if you want the metaphorical version:
Mmmmm … Ilsa … now there’s a woman I’d let pat me down.
“Freedom has a price.” Well, if that price is “no freedom,” then we have a bit of a problem, don’t we?
“In order to guarantee your freedom, Big Brother will be taking away the following rights from you …” Sorry, but not sure how James typed that with a straight face.
I don’t blame the TSA for wanting to plug its leaks, but my main concern is that the leaks were there to begin with. Chasing down bloggers in a heavy handed fashion after the fact is reminiscent of the story of closing the barn door after the horses are gone.
The problem with permanent war is permanent police state. Look at the big picture, not just the details.
Esp. worrisome is the whole notion of “freedom” now that we have been sold out by the sociopathic capitalists on Wall Street; major states like CA and NY are tottering closer to collapse with no money and lots of mouths to feed. Listening to NPR this morning is horrific. How long before the public, marching with torches and pitchforks, elects some Sarah Palin wannabe who promises to make the trains run on time, run off all the untermensch (i.e., illegals, gays), and put everyone back to work? Mussolini and Hitler can happen here. We dodged that bullet once. Might not be so lucky next time.
Heil Sarah and Happy New Year,
Khal
So… a reporter at the NY Times can put together the “intelligence” on the pants-bomber, but our counter-terrorism folks can’t?
Perhaps there is a place for all of the out-of-work newspaper journalists?
I’m still laughing at the image of someone setting his/her undies on fire in the passenger seat of the Subaru. Oh, hey Patrick. Surprise!
I guess Patrick is safe from an undies fire in his Subaru. We are all getting a little too old to be lighting farts.
As much Mexican food as I eat, it wouldn’t be the TSA that popped me for fart-lighting. It’d be the EPA. ICE might even weigh in (“Whoever heard of a Mexican name of O’Grady?”) ICE, ICE, baby.
Better check that Subie to make sure there are no potential sources of sparks or static discharge, or you might be going down in flames like TWA Flight 800 off Lawn Guyland.
Fortunately, the four-banger in a Forester doesn’t generate enough heat to fart lighting an issue.
Haven’t read the copyright infringement notice on the right in ages … still cracks me up.
Steve O,
I can write it with a straight face because it is true. If you want to be free you will have to give something up for it. That is, sadly, the price of admission. Or as Charton Heston was so fond of reminding us: “You can pry my gun from my cold, dead fingers” (or words to that effect). Remind me again when the last time you wandered in to a restaurant naked and were served food? Or the time you popped your gun off in front of the police station and weren’t arrested for discharging a firearm in public?
The problem is what you (and many other people) consider to be “freedom.” And the fact that almost all of us forget one very important thing: your freedom to do, say or act ends when it infringes on my freedom.
So the next time I walk to the security checkpoint at the airport and subject to the inane questions, searches and what-have-yous I can look at it as the price for being able to travel freely. That is a small (very small actually) price to pay for that ‘freedom’ in today’s effed-up world. It takes only a few minutes and if I answer the questions correctly, don’t look paranoid, act like a crazed Nigerian packing explosive Underoos, then all is good.
Besides the members of Congress passed the “Patriot Act” (twice!) so it can’t be too bad, right?
As for the defense of bloggers Patrick, I’d say you are correct except that New Journalism (at least as far as Wolfe et al. termed it) required that the author participate in the actions of his/her story. See HST, Plimpton and Wolfe as examples. So if you are going to be flying anytime soon, I could see your specific concern, however since you are an admitted non-flier than it just seems to be like me spouting off about life on the moon. Never experienced it so I really have no take on the matter.
“If you want to be free, you have to give up something …”
You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.
http://trainingtable.blogspot.com/2008/03/inconceivable.html
james: by the way, be very careful when you say “the problem is what you consider to be … ”
a bit omniscient of you, isn’t it? might want to tone down the all-knowingness part of your screeds. folks respond better to suggestions than to lectures.
other than that, a nice looping of non sequiturs. just another reminder that ideology never secured a border or filled a pothole. in 2010, we need few lectures about how perfect the world could be and more folks doing something about it. starting … now!
Steve,
You are correct in your read on the ideologies of “getting stuff done.” Sadly since our public servants are not rewarded for being pro-active, they generally are reactive. And since the things that they do (protecting borders, airbases, filling potholes, etc.) are based upon reacting to the whims of their managers/chiefs/supervisors and NOT the public they serve, then they tend to do things which best serve those people…and not the taxpayers. At least that is how this public servant sees it going down.
Which word were you refering to? The link wouldn’t load on my system so I was unable to view it. I’d love to debate it but then I have a feeling that you would miss the point. Which is: if you want to have something (cookie, new Kestrel, a blonde bombshell, the ability to travel, etc.) you are going to have to give up something (money, a house in the Hamptons, a week of your life, etc.) for it. Sorry if that sounds like a lecture but it is not. It is how sheit gets done in ‘merica in the 21st century.