Arrogance & Retaliation at the TSA - Follow-up

To unabashedly steal Snarkybytes lead article:

"Queen Napolitano when informed that the peasants were upset about her TSA:

She added that “if people want to travel by some other means,” they have that right."

In other news, the arrogance of the TSA knows no bounds as TSA leaders prepare to engage in a retaliatory investigation against blogger John Tyner who not only had the temerity to decline to play a role in TSA Security Kabuki Theatre, but followed directions when told to leave the airport.

Especially offensive, apparently, was that Tyner recorded the encounter and broadcast it to the web, subjecting the TSA to harsh criticism.

Last I heard, this is still America. If you don't arrest me or get a judge to agree that I'm either crazy or infectious (or crazy AND infectious), you have no right to detain me from going about my lawful affairs.

At most, you can ask me to leave your private facility at whim (public facilities typically have a somewhat higher standard). As long as I leave upon receiving and understanding your lawful request, no harm and no foul.

You don't get to order me to leave and then impose a $10,000 (or $11,000 - seems the TSA kids can't get their unlawful punitive measures straight) when I, in fact, leave. You don't even get to do that if, struck by your utter obnoxiousness, I loudly announce "fuck you and the horse you rode in on, I'd rather *drive* five days than put up with you" and promptly depart mid-patdown.

I am not under arrest. I am not a prisoner. And you don't get to treat me, or anyone else, that way - barring an arrest taking place.

Further, you don't get to respond to my (or others) criticism of you or your agency by engaging in punitive investigations against myself or the aforementioned theoretical others - or by soliciting other agencies to commit retaliatory harassment investigations on your behalf.

Lese Majeste is not a crime in the United States - it is a founding principal and a virtue that has kept our government more reigned in than most. It's not something you arrest folks for, it's something you celebrate and encourage. Ask the hard questions! Be skeptical!

At this point, the new GOP initiative to abolish the TSA and encourage airports to opt out of using TSA for screening immediately (it was only mandatory for two years after its creation) both seem appropriate steps. As do not only National Opt Out Day, but subsequent No Fly Wednesdays until the idiocy ends.

And this morning, The Atlantic comes out in favor of the Kilted Conspiracy. One wonders if they know what happens when you remove the belt on a *proper* kilt.