Category: Airport Security

Life as an Airport Screener

No thanks:

Inside Job: My Life as an Airport Screener : Condé Nast Traveler on Concierge.com

Six months earlier, I had spotted a job advertisement online for part-time airport security screeners. The posting was notable for its dry recitation of the drawbacks of the job, as if to discourage all but the most desperate from applying. “This is a very physically demanding job with unique requirements,” it read; I’d have to stand for up to four hours without a break, lift seventy-pound bags, and walk the equivalent of two miles during my shift. I would be expected to maintain my cool while dealing with constant stress from the noise, crowds, and “disruptive and angry passengers,” which I couldn’t let distract me from my ultimate objective: to ferret out what it described as “devices intended on creating massive destruction.” For this I’d be paid $13.91 an hour; I’d work weekends, holidays, and odd hours; and I’d remain on probation for two years, during which time I could be fired without warning.

The story (all 15 pages of it) starts here.

Senator Ted Stevens on Airport Security

Alaska’s Ted Stevens is a real piece of work. He’s the kind of guy who looks out for Americans by trying to pass bills that would let telecommunications companies decide what you can and can’t see on the Internet.

I ask you: have you ever heard someone say that they want to hand over their right to use the Internet as they see fit to telecommunications companies? It kinda makes one wonder who Sen. Stevens is representing when he tries to push anti-net neutrality bills.

Knowing that Sen. Stevens is a real man’s man, is the sense that he only cares about himself, I was amused – but not shocked – to hear Stevens’ views on the problems with airport security:

At a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee, Hawley ran into inquiries from lawmakers with family members or friends who had encountered problems at airport checkpoints.

Among them was Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who complained that his wife, Catherine, was being identified as “Cat” Stevens and frequently stopped due to confusion with the former name of the folk singer now known as Yusuf Islam, whose name is on the list. In 2004 he was denied entry into the US, but officials declined to explain why.

So, by Sen. Ted Stevens’ logic, there wasn’t a problem with airport security when the folk singer, Cat Stevens, was being stopped by the TSA, but there IS a problem with airport security when his wife, Catherine Stevens, is stopped by the TSA.

Here’s a big thanks for nothing to Sen. Stevens for expanding your political representation beyond yourself and campaign contributors to include your wife.