Saw this from Steve Marmel:
Marmel’s contribution is these parts:
Ginning up hate against the TSA and the government has consequences.
Thanks, Tea Party. This blood is on your hands.
Fuck you, Steve.
I’m not in the Tea Party (whatever that is these days), but I do believe the TSA routinely violates our rights, and that internal checkpoints are a hallmark of an authoritarian state. I would like to see the TSA disbanded, especially the fucking VIPR teams. But that doesn’t mean I take any pleasure from an agent getting shot. I’ve never advocated violence against the TSA, and I don’t think you’ll find any actual Tea Party leaders who did, either.
The shooter sounds like an angry, evil little prick, and unless someone turns up real evidence of a conspiracy, he’s the only one to blame. Don’t try to pin this on those of us who speak out against the excesses of the TSA and the government in general. We’re not responsible for how crazy people react to what we say.
There’s no contradiction in saying that this shooting of a TSA agent is a tragedy and that the TSA is still a bunch of douchebags who trample our freedom.
Ever read the 911 commission report? My takeaway from that thing was that the technology, safeguards, and security to prevent that tragedy were available and in place at that time. The failings were human more than anything.
The fixes were much more simple than what we implemented, but seeing as a huge part of the public operates under the “no dollar is wasted if it could potentially, possibly thwart one bad guy… even if it very likely will not,” I expect it will just keep going the same direction.
I read parts of the 911 commission report, but I was focused mostly on the engineering descriptions of how the buildings collapsed. Security experts I trust seem to be of the opinion that except for secure cockpit doors and better passenger awareness, most of the changes have been security theater.
The TSA has pretty much evolved as libertarians predicted it would: Detached from any financial need to serve the public, accountable only to itself, with a staff that is no better selected or trained than before, but which is now protected from accountability by civil service protections, it has become an outrageous and nearly uncontrollable intrusion on the privacy of travelers.
I suppose I should be thankful the TSA goons haven’t started funding themselves through in rem civil forfeiture. Yet.