Friday, November 18, 2011

'Nothing better than a disobedient government agent'

A friend wrote to tell me his recent encounter with the TSA at the Houston airport:
So, I'm was at the Houston airport which just loves the porno scanners. The TSA agents seem to be the most gung-ho here. I don't know what it is...perhaps it's a Texas neocon thing. Well, I figured out that they usually have people go through the regular metal detectors, and then they randomly switch to the porno scanners. In the past, I've just gotten into a line where I've seen about a dozen people pass through the regular metal detectors. I did the same thing this time, but they decided to switch to the porno scanner right as I got there. So, I decided to opt out. I thought that my luck had run out but it hadn't. The lady at the scanner was the regular TSA thug, but the guy that was supposed to search me was much more relaxed. I didn't get an authoritarian vibe from him at all. Essentially, he didn't even do his job. He gave me the old-fashioned search one would receive if the metal kept beeping -nothing invasive. This reminds me of a saying, "There's nothing worse than an honest bureaucrat when the laws are dumb." I actually thanked the agent afterweard. Thank God for government agents that refuse to follow rules and procedures!

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