HOW SAFE DO YOU WANT IT?
I seem to travel quite a lot in the course of a year, though when I get back to Long Island again on Saturday I don't anticipate leaving any more this year, except for a ten days trip to India right after Thanksgiving.
Like millions of other Americans I've lived with the security changes the past few years have bought, but I have to admit that Monday capped all I have ever seen.
At Islip McArthur Airport, hardly likely to be a major terrorist target in the grand scheme of things, they have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. Now unless the Department of Homeland Security and Southwest Airlines have some information that I am not privy to, I would have to conclude that they have lost their marbles at McArthur.
Here's the deal, they ask you about liquids, make-up, shampoos, toothpaste, etc at check-in. Then they x-ray you and whatever you're carrying on to make sure you didn't lie. You are then free to go up to the concourse and hang out at the gate area for ever because they told you to be there at least 37 hours before take-off for domestic flights (I think it's three weeks for international).
But God forbid you get thirsty. If you do, you must go and sit in the small cafeteria area in one corner and are not allowed to take any drinks out of there with you into the gate area. They examine your bags as you leave food tables just in case you couldn't finish a 20oz bottle of diet Coke and were harboring the stupid idea of holding on to it to sip while you waited for the plane to come in.
They don't even do that to you at a serious airport like JFK. But in McArthur they coral you into one small designated space where the drinking of liquids is permitted.
Somewhere in a cave in Pakistan or Afghanistan Osama Bin Laden is laughing his socks off.
Years ago I heard the first heart transplant surgeon, Dr. Christian Barnard, say - There is a quality to life as well as a quantity. The quality of life isn't great over there in Islip while they supposedly work to keep people breathing.
Disagree with me all you want, but the First Amendment, which our enemies would love to see crushed along with every aspect of our lifestyle, says I have the right to an opinion and to expressing it.
Speaking purely for me, I don't want to be kept so safe at a small, suburban airport that I have to sit in a guarded area where I am compelled to down my beverage of choice in its entirety and then have my belongings searched as I leave.
Rant over!
Like millions of other Americans I've lived with the security changes the past few years have bought, but I have to admit that Monday capped all I have ever seen.
At Islip McArthur Airport, hardly likely to be a major terrorist target in the grand scheme of things, they have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. Now unless the Department of Homeland Security and Southwest Airlines have some information that I am not privy to, I would have to conclude that they have lost their marbles at McArthur.
Here's the deal, they ask you about liquids, make-up, shampoos, toothpaste, etc at check-in. Then they x-ray you and whatever you're carrying on to make sure you didn't lie. You are then free to go up to the concourse and hang out at the gate area for ever because they told you to be there at least 37 hours before take-off for domestic flights (I think it's three weeks for international).
But God forbid you get thirsty. If you do, you must go and sit in the small cafeteria area in one corner and are not allowed to take any drinks out of there with you into the gate area. They examine your bags as you leave food tables just in case you couldn't finish a 20oz bottle of diet Coke and were harboring the stupid idea of holding on to it to sip while you waited for the plane to come in.
They don't even do that to you at a serious airport like JFK. But in McArthur they coral you into one small designated space where the drinking of liquids is permitted.
Somewhere in a cave in Pakistan or Afghanistan Osama Bin Laden is laughing his socks off.
Years ago I heard the first heart transplant surgeon, Dr. Christian Barnard, say - There is a quality to life as well as a quantity. The quality of life isn't great over there in Islip while they supposedly work to keep people breathing.
Disagree with me all you want, but the First Amendment, which our enemies would love to see crushed along with every aspect of our lifestyle, says I have the right to an opinion and to expressing it.
Speaking purely for me, I don't want to be kept so safe at a small, suburban airport that I have to sit in a guarded area where I am compelled to down my beverage of choice in its entirety and then have my belongings searched as I leave.
Rant over!
posted by Roger Blackmore | 4:31 PM
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