Don't get me started on fucking profiling, might be the fact I carry lots of computer gear, I'm sure the passports thing plays a role (mismatching departures/arivals) but I get dragged aside and questions every second flight, had my luggege pulled apart countless times, had to prove every fucking device I carry isn't a goddamn bomb, be put in rooms and asked to list names dates and times of where I've been and who I've been with, demanding to know where I went on previous trips and drug sniffing dogs going over my clothes. Then they wonder why I get pissed off. The best one was the guy that asked me what the suspicious white pills were, the ones with panadol clearly imprinted on the side.

George Carlin cited exactly that as the reason he carries only Flintstones vitamins on planes now.

I'm tempted to start packing wierd random item in my luggage just to fuck with them a bit, maybe a single tomato wrapped in gaffa tape or a photo of a picasso.

Freaks?

I don't think so... it sounds kind of like "Flo's"--it definitely rhymes with "ho's."

Well, this guy says it is indeed "flos". Alas, I was not able to discover what a "flo" is. I doubt he meant "arrows", and "floor" doesn't seem to fit.

I'm tempted to start packing wierd random item in my luggage just to fuck with them a bit, maybe a single tomato wrapped in gaffa tape or a photo of a picasso.

Peanut butter. No kidding. If you fly through an airport with the upgraded x-ray systems that flag organic material in red, packing a single jar of peanut butter (dense, organic, in a jar) will do it.

I'm not saying you should do this, by the way. ;)

Indubitably. :thumpsup:

She survived a flight with 14 harmless Syrian musicians -- then spread 3,000 bigoted and paranoid words across the Internet. As a pilot and an American, I'm appalled

Sorry Salon link you may have to go via their add to get to see it, click enter Salon premium

The follow up link that Breakingnews posted says nobody checked to see if they really were musicians.......that we know of. ;)

And if they were, the bass player is suspect. :lol:

I'm not suggesting we ignore everyone else, I'm suggesting we don't *intentionally* exclude the most likely type of potential perp because we're afraid we'll hurt someone's feelings. Big difference.

Fair enough -- I think, also, that it would be a bad thing to not do a security check on someone because it might hurt their feelings. You can't be concerned with that when people's safety is at stake. Maybe we should be basing security checks on skin color/appearance. Should this also apply elsewhere? If so, in what situations?

You know what really annoys me? When I get picked out of line for "special treatment" - which seems to happen a lot recently - and there's no good reason I can think of.

It's always when I'm flying to the US. I'm always flying from the UK. I always have a return ticket. I always depart on a direct flight from London. I pack no suspicious items, and have one carry on & if I have to, one checked item. I have a visa in my passport from when I worked for a US company, and always ensure I fill in an I-94 rather than an I-94W waiver form and enter on my visa. This I do voluntarily (I'm still entitled to enter on a waiver), because I'm all for biometric screening at the point of entry and exit from a country and waiver bearers don't have to do it. So I'm voluntarily getting fingerprinted and photographed by the nice immigration guy when I don't have to. I have a full UK passport, which has 3 years left to run on it and contains a variety of stamps from various points of entry into the US and Canada over the last 7 years. I dress casual-smart, and do not wear a hat for check-in or screening. For what it's worth, I'm a white caucasian male.

At no point have I blown up or crashed any planes.

So why, oh why, do I get searched, swabbed for explosives and made to take off my shoes when there's no goddamn seats available, every time I fly to or from the US for the last few trips?

What bothers me is not so much that they keep searching me; I wouldn't mind if they searched everyone. What bothers me is that every time they're spending their time searching me (and about 50% of the time, my girlfriend who's travelling with me - otherwise, she strolls through and waits for me) they're not searching someone who might be a terrorist. I mean.. am I really such a high match on their profiling that it's worth searching me to the exclusion of other people, over and over and over?

If so, I humbly submit that their profiling algorithm is crap.

Post a picture, maybe that could clear things up a bit. We could vote on how terrorist-y you look. :)

Maybe you have beady eyes?

I'm a brit, so obviously I have beady little eyes that are too close together, and bad teeth. :)

Somewhat astonishingly (to me, at least) I have no pictures of me online which I've published. All I can find is this:

http://www.freedomdivers.co.uk/image...yAug2003/6.jpg

...but it should be noted that I don't attempt to board aircraft dressed this way.

...but it should be noted that I don't attempt to board aircraft dressed this way.

I, for one, would pay to see someone try it. "Seat cushion used as a floatation device? Screw that."