Mid-Trans: I kinda know the feeling coming from the Philippines, is that the fact that US got Over-Secure since the 9/11 incident. So people even from the check-out source seems like they want to check you out left and right on your case, JUST because everyone thinks you have a .

Bwahahaa~
Poor Kogasa.

Poor Kogasa, forced to endure the security theater that is the United States airport.

Kogasa has the skeletal structure of an umbrella?

Kogasa appearing as a umbrella in the X-ray scan. My day is officially made.

23rd_Break said:
JUST because everyone thinks you have a .

Are you carrying any spellcards onboard?

[deleted]

I pay extra when I fly just to avoid primary screening at ORD. I can't imagine the mess it must be at LAX.

This year is the first time I didn't get 4Sed. I used to get 4Sed every time because I washed out of flying school. (My employer went bankrupt and I ran out of money)

The first time I tried to fly with Su-san they wanted to confiscate her because she's hollow inside and "you can't prove there's nothing inside." So I had to take her head apart in the security line and pull her stringing out to show inside her body. Then they tried to say the S-hook in her head was dangerous. Yeah, I'm going to wreck a doll I've put $1000 and months of work into just to try to hijack a RJ. I was about to give up and just cancel the trip when another TSA came along and said her daughter had a doll like mine and they were fine. Then the first TSA let me continue.

I later learned that once you start screening you can't stop. My choices would have been to surrender Su-san to the TSA (who would sell her on ebay) or be arrested for failure to comply, at which point Su-san would be forcibly confiscated and then ebay'd. Whatever way it went, if the second TSA hadn't come along and said something, I was going to lose my doll, my trip, and possibly go to jail.

So much truth in one image.

If you're going to have a pat down from the TSA make it as uncomfortable for them as possible. Start moaning and groaning as if they are hitting all of your erogenous zones.

Security checks seem to have gotten incredibly strict since 911. They examined so much, it was enough to make me say, "This too?" (^^;)

Reader-added tags include "The main body's an umbrella, so this is what happens when you take X-rays" and "Mysteriously sexy".

And the survey today says:

I've gained X-ray abilities!
• The power to make one layer of clothing transparent
• The power to see one layer beneath the skin, no questions allowed
• The power to see all the way to the internal organs
• The power to see nothing but a skeleton
• The power to see ghosts in the background

I was assuming that when Kogasa had her arms raised, it would show an open umbrella.

RiderFan said:
If you're going to have a pat down from the TSA make it as uncomfortable for them as possible.

You'll get arrested for that. Besides, it's not the line grunts who are responsible for this mess, it's the politicians who put them there. Harassing the agents is pointless.

It's still better than the TSA at Logan, that's for sure.

Another reader-added tag: "You're going straight to NASA, Kogasa-san".

...shouldn't it be Area 51?

That reminds me, I was on a flight late last year... I was afraid to play Touhou on my laptop because someone might have read the translated "Bomb" gauge in the corner xD Thankfully a couple of the games used "Spell" instead.

Suzuran_Majere said:
I later learned that once you start screening you can't stop. My choices would have been to surrender Su-san to the TSA (who would sell her on ebay) or be arrested for failure to comply, at which point Su-san would be forcibly confiscated and then ebay'd. Whatever way it went, if the second TSA hadn't come along and said something, I was going to lose my doll, my trip, and possibly go to jail.

You couldn't just check the doll? My mom knows someone who checked her purse when the TSA were about to confiscate over US$100 worth of makeup. That wasn't exactly recent, but it was within the past ten years.

BadRoad said:
You couldn't just check the doll?

And have the rampers throw her around like so much garbage? Gods no. I've seen how they treat bags. There's way too much risk of her being damaged. The manufacturer doesn't even ship them that way, they're specially packed and unpainted.

Besides, it's the principle of things that's the issue. I am a citizen in good standing with the law. I shelled out $500+ for the privilege of flying. I should not be treated like a criminal. I shouldn't have to put my priceless and irreplaceable friend at the mercy of the ramp crews simply because some dropout working for an ineffective bureaucratic boondoggle formed in a desperate attempt to slam the barn door shut long after the horses have bolted. Su-san is dear and precious to me, and I wouldn't risk her any more than someone else would risk a pet or a child.

Seems the USA made another step towards turning into a totalitarian state.

23rd_Break said:
Mid-Trans: I kinda know the feeling coming from the Philippines, is that the fact that US got Over-Secure since the 9/11 incident. So people even from the check-out source seems like they want to check you out left and right on your case, JUST because everyone thinks you have a .

No, just stupid. There is absolutely no evidence that the TSA checks have done anything other then make traveling in and to the US a mess.

And yes, blame the grunts as well as the politicians. The politicians for making stupid rules and the grunts for applying them as if they don't have brains to bless themselves with. My favorite still might be taking the airline issue butter knife away from the airline pilot... who has a freaking ax in the cockpit.

Ah, poor Kogasa-san. Security really has gone overboard in the last decade. The TSA feel more like a money-sink than anything else.

They put the long checks in as a facade, politicians want to get reelected so they appease the public by doing something that is immediately noticeable, not necessarily effective. Sadly after the fact of the matter the hassles that came about from a threat long gone are still around because no one sees a reason to remove them, it's too much trouble, or to do so would hurt someone's image.

Democracy my ass, it's all in the corruption, whoever can make the most. They don't even care about what happens to he people who have to deal with it, as long as they get their votes they could be shooting people in the streets for all the general public would know.

And yet I still wonder what one is supposed to do with money after a certain point, likewise influence. What are they after, divinity? Or at least glory, which you seem to be alluding to...despite glory being utterly worthless, and incompatible with honor (what is glory, besides puffing-up?).

Besides, I would think that if a politician wants re-election, it's not going to be its own purpose. There must be some precept they want to personally ensure gets through in the oncoming years, if they seek re-election that avidly. If the desire is for money and/or power, I'd think there'd be easier, less stressful ways to do it than statesmanship.

Skyknight said:
Besides, I would think that if a politician wants re-election, it's not going to be its own purpose.

Dude, NEVER underestimate the desire of the One to stand above the Many. Power is always achived for the sake of Power. In a democratic republics Statesmanship as a mean to achieve power is extremly common due to the fact that it's part of the whole package to acknowledge politicians as having power over you.

When I had to come back from Anime Boston, the security staff at the airport was really nice and it was a lot faster and easier to go through than Montreal's airport! Montreal's airport was really frustrating to go through, they made us wait forever to tell where we were gonna stay and why.

Also, Kogasa-san is an umbrella, ha! I'm following this 4koma a lot more closely since the con :3

They should just have Koishi on staff.

Suzuran_Majere said:
You'll get arrested for that. Besides, it's not the line grunts who are responsible for this mess, it's the politicians who put them there. Harassing the agents is pointless.

They seem to enjoy making others' lives hell.

Honestly the TSA is just a relic of the Bush administration that hasn't been dealt with yet.

StriderTuna said:
They seem to enjoy making others' lives hell.

Honestly the TSA is just a relic of the Bush administration that hasn't been dealt with yet.

Whether they enjoy it or not is a separate question, but they do have a lot of latitude for judgement calls. TSA #1 in Suzuran's story could have let the S-hook pass. He/she decided not to (at first).

I used to work military security - that was a long time ago, and not in the US, but in any case our job was to check for unauthorized materials going into military bases. This included stuff like pirated CDs or CD-Rs which might be carrying viruses or rootkits, etc. One day, I was passing by when another section was on duty, and they searched this guy's bag and brought out a CD labelled "Voodoo". Not a CD-R either. And the sergeant in charge of that section looks at it and goes "Voodoo, huh? That sounds fishy. Confiscate it."
It was a manufacturer-supplied video driver disc, for crying out loud. Perfectly within regulations.
I bitched about it later to my sergeant, and he basically said, well, it's that section's business. Out of our jurisdiction.
tl;dr: the politicians put the security guys there, but what they get up to when they're there, whether it's because of malice or stupidity, is very often over and above what they're put there for.

Suzuran_Majere said:
You'll get arrested for that. Besides, it's not the line grunts who are responsible for this mess, it's the politicians who put them there. Harassing the agents is pointless.

http://www.explosm.net/comics/2708/

We can try to get an erection.

This brings back memories for me... when I used to be in the Navy, I always got pulled over for the extra security checks. Never really understood that one very well.

StriderTuna said:
They seem to enjoy making others' lives hell.

Honestly the TSA is just a relic of the Bush administration that hasn't been dealt with yet.

Not only is it a relic of a failed administration but it turns out private security is three times better at finding simulated bombs then the TSA.
So as far as I'm concerned the organization should be disbanded.
People should boycott flying on the airlines for maybe a week or a month to send a message to disband the TSA.

This sums up perfectly why I don't fly anymore. Encountering the TSA is far more terrifying than the faint possibility of terrorism.

Pumpkin_Eater said:
This sums up perfectly why I don't fly anymore. Encountering the TSA is far more terrifying than the faint possibility of terrorism.

All because everyone has to be too politically correct to use profiling. It works well for Israel, but nooooo, we might hurt somebody's feelings if we do that here... >_>

Pumpkin_Eater said:

This sums up perfectly why I don't fly anymore. Encountering the TSA is far more terrifying than the faint possibility of terrorism.

Go by train. :D No luggage limits (in theory), no overly long security checks and you get to see your home country.