Bizarro is brought to you today by Hair at First Sight.This cartoon was inspired by the laughable system of security that we have adopted at U.S. airports since 9/11. I've long thought that it was designed primarily to create an "appearance" of safety so as to calm travelers and a couple of airline pilots I've spoken to in recent years confirmed that. A couple of weeks ago, while a small bottle of distilled water that I was carrying to keep my cigars humidified was confiscated by security, the guy who put a car bomb in Times Square was allowed to board a plane unmolested. He was on the No Fly List and was sought by every law enforcement agency in the free world, but at least he didn't have a bottle of water.
If you fly as much as I do, you cannot help but just shake your head at the idiotic structure of the T.S.A. I'm convinced that the only reason a plane hasn't been victimized since 9/11 is because nobody with any brains has tried very hard. One of the pilots I referenced above told me they consider T.S.A. to stand for "thousands standing around."
On to lighter subjects, here's a look at the old "a million monkeys typing" theory. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed finishing it and moving to the couch for a nap.
6 comments:
Love your cartoon! "Mauve," ha! And I think your theory about "airport security" being nothing but window dressing is right on. I'm sure you also caught this recent news story... Man Flies from JFK with Two Guns, Several Swords, Knives, Dagger and 300 Rounds of Ammo in his Luggage." But, as you say, at least he didn't have a bottle of water! "Thousands Standing Around"... lol! If a million TSA employees spent a million years searching a million pieces of luggage, they still probably wouldn't find what they were supposed to be looking for.
Security expert Bruce Schneier calls this "Cover Your Ass Security" or "Security Theater".
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/cya_security_1.html
"Once you think about this in terms of CYA, it starts to make sense. The TSA wants to be sure that if there's another airplane terrorist attack, it's not held responsible for letting it slip through. One year ago, no one could blame the TSA for not detecting liquids. But since everything seems obvious in hindsight, it's basic job preservation to defend against what the terrorists tried last time."
Here's another cartoon on the topic:
http://syndicam.com/cartoons/april-2010/5345712
(Loved the monkey cartoon!)
Normally I write something that feigns some objection or offense to your comics, trying to out-do all those folks who think they legitimately have a beef. But here, I'm truly, truly offended and disgusted that you would equate white people with monkeys. Please use an ethnic stereotype in the future.
Having left the country with a tube of hair gel, but having it confiscated on the way home, I can verify that the TSA is inconsistent at least. Anyway, If it takes more than 3 oz. of a gel of some sort to make a bomb, wouldn't someone just have gel in several 3 oz. containers?
The frightening thing about the TSA is that they a only reactive, not predictive, in that they only respond to an incident. Guy tries to explode a show bomb, so now we have to check shoes...well of course the next guy won't do a shoe bomb, but now everyone takes off their shoes for the TSA while Mr. Underwear Bomb goes undetected.
Anyway, good joke. The color thing is pretty silly. Am I supposed to act any different when the alert level is yellow as opposed to orange? What am I supposed to do?
Well said. I passed this post on to LewRockwell.com. They hate the TSA too!
Love the cameo appearance.
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