I’ve hesitated to write this one, for fear of the black helicopters. If this blog suddenly goes dark, you’ll know that the TSA got me.<\/p>\n
I flew back into the country from Korea last Thursday (May 1, 2008). I had to clear customs at what must be the worst airport in the history of the world, Dulles. This is the gateway to the country. The gateway to our nation’s capital. And the first thing foreign visitors see is a piece of crap with construction and repairs not happening everywhere. Then they get to Passport Control. It made the lines at Disney World during Spring Break look tiny. So, we get through Passport Control after dealing with the surly ICE agents only to be immediately faced with another ungodly line at security. This is where it gets ridiculous. <\/p>\n
Security at Dulles is right up against the big x-ray machines they use for luggage. There is no barrier, no curtain, nothing between everyone waiting to deal with the surly TSA security people and the TSA “baggage handlers.” While I was standing in line we all witnessed them tossing bags at least 15 feet from one area to another. Anything even slightly breakable in those bags was surely destroyed. The foreign visitors I happen to be standing in line with definitely noticed. Then, a little further up the never-ending security line, we were witness to TSA breaking into someone’s bag. This poor sap, not knowing the fascistic rules of traveling in the US, had locked her bag. The TSA agents beat on the lock and clasp with a variety of tools, finally prying the whole thing apart with a hammer and prybar. The bag, of course, was destroyed. So, after the TSA agent finally gets in the bag, he pulls one item from the top of it. A paperback book. He flipped through the pages for a couple of seconds, tossed the book back on top of the clothes, sealed the bag with a piece of yellow tape, and tossed it across the floor. The German visitor beside me leaned over and suggested sotto voce<\/em> that he must have been hoping to grab some free porn.<\/p>\n Welcome to Amerika!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve hesitated to write this one, for fear of the black helicopters. If this blog suddenly goes dark, you’ll know that the TSA got me. I flew back into the country from Korea last Thursday (May 1, 2008). I had to clear customs at what must be the worst airport in the history of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}