Airport experience with fundie family

[maybeizfundie]

^

And what they said about the scanners. It ain't just fundies who have issues with them (or with the groping).

I still, for the life of me, fail to see how this improves security.

[keen23]

If the scanner gets me through security quicker, sign me up. Seriously. You are going to be exposed to more radiation on the plane in the first 15 minutes than you are exposed to by going through the scanner. I don't care if it makes me safer or less safe, I just want the damn line to move. I have no expectation of privacy, and it's not an issue to me. If it bothered me, I wouldn't fly, and if it does bother you don't fly. No one is forcing you to do so. But truthfully, I just don't give a shit. I just want to get from point A to point B quickly and without crashing.

[Wolfie]

Well, my opinion is, that with MOST locations, you have a choice about whether or not you fly. There are trains and cars that can be taken to most places in the US or Canada.

I do think that airport security is a little crazy, but I doesn't make me angry or anything, sometimes it makes me laugh. (like fluffy animals who are being shipped have to be patted down- small dogs, angora rabbits, long haired guinea pigs and cats...)

[Kitchen Princess]

I only ever fly Southwest. I wouldn't know what to do with an assigned seat.

It's ridiculous to be offended that you can't sit with your child....get some balls and politely ASK someone to switch seats so you can. It happens ALL THE TIME on SW, and there are plenty of people who will switch. They just need to be ASKED.

My kid is happy to sit apart from me now that he's 17, but we asked all the time for someone to switch so we could sit together when he was younger. Southwest flights are always full now, because they cut routes to cut expenses. It's going to happen. If you want to board early, pay the extra $10 to get in the A-group, and the problem is solved.

[Blonde not dumb]

If the scanner gets me through security quicker, sign me up. Seriously. You are going to be exposed to more radiation on the plane in the first 15 minutes than you are exposed to by going through the scanner. I don't care if it makes me safer or less safe, I just want the damn line to move. I have no expectation of privacy, and it's not an issue to me. If it bothered me, I wouldn't fly, and if it does bother you don't fly. No one is forcing you to do so. But truthfully, I just don't give a shit. I just want to get from point A to point B quickly and without crashing.

This!

And coming from a person who loves to get on a soap box about anything and raise some hell, in the airport I just want to get to where I'm going in one piece and relatively on time. That is all I require.

[slickcat79]

If the scanner gets me through security quicker, sign me up. Seriously. You are going to be exposed to more radiation on the plane in the first 15 minutes than you are exposed to by going through the scanner. I don't care if it makes me safer or less safe, I just want the damn line to move. I have no expectation of privacy, and it's not an issue to me. If it bothered me, I wouldn't fly, and if it does bother you don't fly. No one is forcing you to do so. But truthfully, I just don't give a shit. I just want to get from point A to point B quickly and without crashing.

Also agreed.

[denimjumper]

If the scanner gets me through security quicker, sign me up. Seriously. You are going to be exposed to more radiation on the plane in the first 15 minutes than you are exposed to by going through the scanner. I don't care if it makes me safer or less safe, I just want the damn line to move. I have no expectation of privacy, and it's not an issue to me. If it bothered me, I wouldn't fly, and if it does bother you don't fly. No one is forcing you to do so. But truthfully, I just don't give a shit. I just want to get from point A to point B quickly and without crashing.

The line not moving had nothing to do with pat downs or scanners. It had to do with them not being able to DECIDE. I've decided. Radiate your kids as much as you want. That's your perrogative.

[Witsec6]

I have to agree with the fundies on this one. Those machines are too invasive and don't actually make us more secure. I've been against them from the beginner. I'm the farthest thing from a prude and I certainly don't care about "modesty", but people should get to make their own choice of whether their junk is made public or touched by others. The scanners don't make us safer; they just make us more scared and more willing to watch our rights go down the drain. The next generation will grow up with this being normal and won't even know what it's like to have something better. I'm so sick of security theater and I hope so many people protest that the airlines have to change it. If you think this machine makes us safer, then you're gullible and naive.

This.

I would refuse the TSA porno scan and opt to be groped any day of the week. I am Canadian, and luckily we don't do backscatter radiation scans for domestic flights, so I've never been submitted to this.

[Letgo]

Fly in and out of smaller airports to avoid the full body scan. My local airport does not have them so I have never had to make a choice. We just walk through that metal detector arch to see if there is a beep. I don't like the body scan idea as I am too fat to submit. For some reason, I would rather have them pat down my fat than show it on a screen. Or I could go on a diet...

[Olivia]

Yeah, I have to fly every other week for work, so just not flying/flying in and out of smaller airports is not an option for me (of course, I assume the TSA workers also don't have the option to easily switch to another job anymore than I do, which is why I don't understand how rude some people are to them).

Although I'm always pleased by how many airports I got through where they have these ridiculously expensive and ineffective backscatter scanners sitting unused and I just walk through a regular metal detector. Seriously, I don't see how anyone can even pretend to themselves this makes us safer.

[apple1]

Yeah, I have to fly every other week for work, so just not flying/flying in and out of smaller airports is not an option for me (of course, I assume the TSA workers also don't have the option to easily switch to another job anymore than I do, which is why I don't understand how rude some people are to them).

Although I'm always pleased by how many airports I got through where they have these ridiculously expensive and ineffective backscatter scanners sitting unused and I just walk through a regular metal detector. Seriously, I don't see how anyone can even pretend to themselves this makes us safer.

THAT. I occasionally (not too often) am required to fly for work, and I have no choice over from which airports. I don't have the option of quitting my job, either. So it's not so optional as some like to say. It's not "modesty" per se, but I am a cancer survivor and have had a lot of cancer-related and reconstructive surgeries. I just feel "violated" in the sense that my medical history is unnecessarily on display (to the TSA employees, not the public).

I also do not believe that the TSA stuff actually makes anyone safer.

I think I may have posted this before, but one time that I flew for work, the TSA failed to even re-close the zippers on my checked bag (randomly selected for "extra" security screening), and my things were spilled out across the conveyor belt when it came out after the flight. Forgive me for not thinking that this crap does any good.

[lisespieces]

I fly to Frankfurt a lot and there they use "behavioral screening" or whatever you call it. From what I can tell they ask you a lot of questions and judge your reactions, and apparently it is LOADS more effective then the crap we have. But honestly if we used it here people would scream racism or sexism or what not no doubt. Just my two cents.

[3 is enough]

DH recently took the kids to New Orleans for a weekend. On the way home my youngest son (18) failed to stand still while going through the scanner, and was treated to a TSA pat-down by a man who apparently looked like Colonel Sanders. As my son put it, there was "latex to junk" contact. DH, my daughter and other son found this wildly amusing. My son joked about being "violated", but it really didn't phase him.

When I do fly, it's from a fairly large airport, but I've only been through the scanners once. I'm not crazy about the idea, but I just want to get through security ASAP. I do agree that "behavioral screening" would be much more effective, but it would never be allowed here.

[Soulhuntress]

I am not an inmate. TSA treats all fliers, train riders and bus riders worse than criminals. Got a BIG problem with security theater that does not do One.Single.Thing to make flying truly safe. That being said, fundies are annoying but amusing.

[tinuviel]

I find it weird that the fundies were raising a fuss about now being able to sit next to their 16 year old daughter. It seems like she'd probably survive just fine. Were there younger kids that they were worried about or was it really about the teenagers?

Yeah, body scanners seem totally ridiculous to me from a security standpoint. Would an underwear bomb really show up? I mean, it's made to see through clothes, and presumably and underwear bomb is made to blend in with clothes.

Also...people can shove stuff up all kinds of bodily cavities. Don't think the backscatter thing is going to help us there. *shudder*

Not to mention the fact that a person well trained in martial arts can use their body and pretty much anything else as a highly effective weapon. If people want to cause trouble in the air, there are still more than plenty of ways to do it that will still get one through security. Whoever started the term "security theater" was absolutely dead on.

Have to take issue with the "don't like it? then don't fly," line though. I live in a big city without a car. My family lives 1500 miles away. Renting a car is prohibitively expensive for me since I'm under 25, and it would be difficult to make the trip alone even if the car weren't an issue. I could get hotels for the night or something, but that would once again up the cost. Weather is a problem too. If I didn't fly, then I would see my family less often than I already do, and I could pretty well forget about Christmas.

[Ozzie]

I think the TSA screenings are mostly a waste of time (having accidentally brought pocketknives and razor blades in my carry-on without anyone noticing), AND I don't care. I have to do dumb stuff in my life because it's a requirement, even though it's a waste of time and money. I'm not really sweating the radiation exposure levels, and I don't care if anyone 'gropes' me (scare-quoted because I've been groped sexually, and it's different from a requisite pat-down by a person who is probably thoroughly sick of touching strange crotches). *shrug*

[ladypuglover]

Good grief, my 5 year-old, who hasn't even started the evil public school yet, could give a rudimentary explanation of time zones and the Earth's rotation. All it took was for her to question where the sun goes when it "sets" for us to be breaking out different sized balls and having an impromptu lesson in the driveway. We recently followed up with another lesson when she asked why there's daylight so late in the summer. I find a teenager being ignorant of this far more disturbing than her fundie parents holding up the security line (though I'm honestly shocked they weren't thrown out after holding it up for more than a minute or two).

When I was about your kiddo's age my grandfather asked me to prove the world was round without using the globe in the room. He was teasing me that the earth was flat and showed me that everyone thought so a long time ago. I took him outside to show him the prairie. Grew up the first half of my childhood on the plains of Colorado with the nearest neighbor miles away. Out there you really can see the curvater of the earth and the sky looks like an upside down blue bowl. Pointing out all this to him I also showed that there wasn't any end to it that if we kept walking it would look the same and if we went far enough my house would disappear. We would never find a drop off or any corners like on a map. He asked how did i know that it wasn't my eye tricking me and I said because it was the same when we looked off the top of the mountains. I was about 4-5 at the time and I guess it was good enough to please my grandfather that I couldn't be fooled into agreeing with something I didn't think was true.

So if a little country kid who believed that gullible really wasn't in the dictionary could see that the earth wasn't flat how could a teen? How do they get a child to fall for such crap?

[PBrooke]

Now, did the teen *really* believe the Earth was flat, or has she just not been exposed to any of the science behind time zones, seasons, etc? You can point to a globe and parrot that it's the Earth without understanding how it tilts on an axis, etc.

[apple1]

Now, did the teen *really* believe the Earth was flat, or has she just not been exposed to any of the science behind time zones, seasons, etc? You can point to a globe and parrot that it's the Earth without understanding how it tilts on an axis, etc.

I wondered the same thing.

I have known a LOT of "fundies" in my life. I gotta say, I have never met even one that believed that the earth was flat.

I also have a hard time figuring out how she knew nothing at all about time zones. I live in Ohio, and driving south through Kentucky, I go through a time change. Nothing unusual or exotic about that. Shoot, even on regular TV (although that family might not have TV), program timing is announced on 2 time zones (for example, 9 EST-8 CST). And surely most people experience the change to and from "daylight saving time". That was a very strange story. Maybe the girl just didn't know how or feel comfortable talking to a "stranger".

[Wolfie]

I wondered the same thing.

I have known a LOT of "fundies" in my life. I gotta say, I have never met even one that believed that the earth was flat.

I also have a hard time figuring out how she knew nothing at all about time zones. I live in Ohio, and driving south through Kentucky, I go through a time change. Nothing unusual or exotic about that. Shoot, even on regular TV (although that family might not have TV), program timing is announced on 2 time zones (for example, 9 EST-8 CST). And surely most people experience the change to and from "daylight saving time". That was a very strange story. Maybe the girl just didn't know how or feel comfortable talking to a "stranger".

Could have also been the girl playing with her neighbor since her parents weren't around.

[Extricated]

Could have also been the girl playing with her neighbor since her parents weren't around.

That was my impression as well. I was homeschooled and did my share of that to make people wonder. It was always more fun if I knew the person I was talking to was a teacher. :lol: