Anyone Had Contact with VIPR Yet?

[K.Mooneyham]

I would refuse, not happy to be a test case but not willing to give up my liberties for someone else to feel safer. There is no way I would consent to a search outside of getting on an airline, and it chaps me then as well. They would have to arrest me and we'd see where it goes.

I can't believe this hasn't happened yet, too many people willing to be violated for the sake of feeling safe.

Anygunanywhere

I'm with you two on this one. One of the stupidest things I've ever had happen to me was to have my nail clipper set confiscated by TSA some years ago, when I was traveling on official orders going overseas. They wouldn't let me through because the clippers had that little nail file attached to it. And its not like I had the time to argue about it, either. Uncle Sam says get on the plane, you get on the plane. It was a very small thing, true, but it still irritates me to this day. I'm going overseas on military orders and they take my nail clippers...like I'm some sort of threat. My disgust with that organization is sizable.

[olafpfj]

I would refuse, not happy to be a test case but not willing to give up my liberties for someone else to feel safer. There is no way I would consent to a search outside of getting on an airline, and it chaps me then as well. They would have to arrest me and we'd see where it goes.

I can't believe this hasn't happened yet, too many people willing to be violated for the sake of feeling safe.

Anygunanywhere

I'm with you two on this one. One of the stupidest things I've ever had happen to me was to have my nail clipper set confiscated by TSA some years ago, when I was traveling on official orders going overseas. They wouldn't let me through because the clippers had that little nail file attached to it. And its not like I had the time to argue about it, either. Uncle Sam says get on the plane, you get on the plane. It was a very small thing, true, but it still irritates me to this day. I'm going overseas on military orders and they take my nail clippers...like I'm some sort of threat. My disgust with that organization is sizable.

A story I heard from a commercial airline pilot...

TSA: You can't take your nail clippers past security
Pilot: You're an idiot, and why?
TSA: You could take control of the airplane with them
Pilot: You can't be serious

[mamabearCali]

We are very quickly defending into totalitarianism singing all the way about how free we are.

[talltex]

My instructor said if domestic enemies of the United States Constitution are in the act of violating the US Constitution on US soil, they can be executed on the spot by any United States Citizen witnessing the attack.

I don't think it works like that. I wouldn't want to be the test case on that one.

Even if it does work like that, I wouldn't want to be the test case.

I've heard some really STUPID things said by an instructor in a CHL class...the last one I went to kept spouting personal opinions and presenting it as legal fact to the class. Additionally he was making some really racist and anti-feminine remarks while rolling his eyes and shaking his head indicating "you all know what I'm saying is the truth". I waited until the first break, then got him off to the side and informed him that he needed to lay off the derogatory comments and personal opinions and stick to the actual law or I was going to stand up and leave and embarrass him when I did. Since I was the only renewal, He probably went right back to it after I left at lunch, but at least he stopped for a couple of hours.

[The Annoyed Man]

The potential?

Exactly. Somebody please tell me how these goons are any different from fascism?

[RoyGBiv]

nail clipper set

I had to break off my nail file from the clippers once. Silliness.

[The Annoyed Man]

nail clipper set

I had to break off my nail file from the clippers once. Silliness.

And yet, I've had one of these on my keyring every time I've flown for the past 13 years:
http://www.swisstechtools.com/proddetail.aspx?pid=5



My favorite TSA theater story of all time: A woman I know from my church is married to a retired USAF Col., who is a Captain for American Airlines, who flies their international routes all the time. He was going through the TSA crew inspections before boarding a flight to Europe, in which he was flying the aircraft. He had forgotten a pair of nail clippers in his pocket, and found it when he was emptying his pockets for TSA. The wannabe cop took the clippers from him and told him he could not be allowed to carry them onto the aircraft. When he asked why not, the wannabe says with a dramatic flourish, "because with THESE, you can take control of the aircraft!" .......totally oblivious to the fact that he was talking to the aircraft's Captain, and that he of all people didn't need a pair of nail clippers to take control of that which he already had control of by virtue of his job title. The confiscation of the nail clippers would have made no difference if the Captain had decided to fly the plane into a building in the name of allah.

I'm sorry...... I'm sure that there are some decent and honorable people employed by TSA, but the vast majority of them are mindless drones who are not the least bit disturbed about what they put people through in the name of theater. And for the men and women serving on these VIPR teams, they have mindlessly signed on to an abdication of their moral and constitutional obligations. That makes them no better than the SS, who ALSO thought they were defending their nation's interests and security.

If they encounter me, I'm probably going to go to jail, because I'm going to insist on my rights. Loudly.

I urge all who have not done so to read Matthew Bracken's "Enemies, Foreign and Domestic" trilogy, and then seriously ask yourself if this country has not already actually become the stuff of fiction. We are in deep kimchi folks, and VIPR is just another datapoint along the slippery slide into the sewer. It's getting near time to batten down the hatches.