Re: Warning

I really don't think it was eBay - or Fire Mountain,

saucy wrote:

Me either, but you never know. Fire Mountain, eBay, or any company in the world could employ a scoundrel without knowing. Although criminal background checks are normal as part of the corporate world, you would be surprised at those places that don't do them or follow-up on the checks.

Starlia

background checks are normal as part of the corporate world, you would be surprised at those places that don't do them or follow-up on the checks.<

Yup. I was just reading about all the airport screeners AND a few Federal Air Marshals (!!!!) who were "let go" months after they were hired, when their background checks were FINALLY completed. I think I'll stay grounded for a while.

-- KarenK Desert Dreamer Designs

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 0:17:02 -0400, Karen_AZ wrote (in message ):

Amusingly, when DD and my mother were on their trip three weeks ago, my mother was pulled out for a "random" search on both in outbound and inbound flights. They went through every bit of her hand luggage, did some kind of body scan, and tried to confiscate her shoes.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Unless there is some very strange intelligence gathering going on, I see very little reason to target a 60-ish grandmother, flying with her grandchild to a family reunion. So far, I haven't seen one terrorist attack even attempted by such a person.

OTOH, it was a kind of cruel justice for the way she treated DD on the trip.

Kathy N-V

Well, at 54 I'm close to 60ish, and I've been singled out too. And I hate that shoes thing, especially when I'm going from Alaska to Mexico, so I've got my boots on, and it's hot. Actually, if you go through and forgot to remove something that rings (like a cheap belt I have), they won't let you just take off the belt, empty the change or keys or whatever and walk through again. They run the detector over you and you have to explain to them about your underwire, and metal buttons, rivets in your jeans, and the metal plate in my ankles. That's also how I learned my Cappezio maryjanes have a metal shank.

When they pull you out for a random search they're even more thorough.

Of course, unlike your mother, I'm a radical. Aren't I?

Tina

ROFL!!! When we flew back east in July, I got my semi-annual giggle. I breeze through every time (and I was wearing a heavy silver necklace), but he has to half-undress and sometimes something STILL beeps. This time it was his pocket knife, which we both told each other several times while packing to remember to put in the suitcase. It's a good-sized Gerber and is definitely what I'd consider weapon-quality. Luckily they had a kiosk right outside security so he could mail it to himself. He griped the whole week about being naked without it.

When he went back through security again, he STILL beeped! It was the little metal eyelets on his summer straw cowboy hat. He joked to the guard, who actually had a sense of humor, that he'd rather just volunteer for a strip search and get it over with, this stuff was just a lick and a promise. She pointed to a rather large, unattractive male guard and said "he's your man, then." "Um, thanks anyway."

-- KarenK Desert Dreamer Designs

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from snipped-for-privacy@aol.comeatspam (Sjpolyclay) :

] I'm a white-hair. the one twit who felt so empowered and tough ]with her psuedo-cop uniform treated me as though I was trying to shoot them all ]because when when she told me to hold my hands out to the sides, one side ]drooped after while. "Get your hands up!!" is not something that I am used to ]hearing barked at me these days, nor do I usually pay hundreds of dollars to be ]treated like criminal scum, when all I am doing is going to a family reunion. ]They even felt my ponytail!! I told them that next time I will wear a hospital ]gown and surgical booties to make it easier.

like we really fit the profile, right?

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

My sister was chosen at "random" on both legs of a flight from NM to SLC, and then on the return flight to NM her minor daughter was the one randomly selected, LOL. It was the first time my sister had flown since her surgical implant for radiation therapy, and she was terrified that the implant would set off the body detectors they used on her. They didn't (whew), but she didn't feel very "secure" about her flights since she and her daughter were the only ones chosen for searches. Guess the airline didn't want to be accused of "profiling."

Carol in SLC My new stuff:

What profile? Besides, I don't consider myself to be harmless.

Tina

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Christina Peterson" :

]What profile? Besides, I don't consider myself to be harmless.

but so far, the supposed profiles were of relatively young, Middle Eastern males.

white-haired, pale complexioned grandmothers are a long way from that, too.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

Diana, thats my drug induced opinion, but if it makes sense then Ill claim it when Im straight too.<

If that's your drug-induced wisdom, can I have a hit, man????

-- KarenK Desert Dreamer Designs

My 82 year old mother was selected randomly for a search last year when she flew to Tennessee from Florida. Guess they figured she wouldn't put up much of a fight. I'd have told them where to get off.

Linda2

grandmother, flying with her grandchild to a family reunion. So

Confess, Kathy....you tipped them off, didn't you? ; ^ )

Couldn't resist,

Turtlelover

On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 14:28:38 -0400, Turtlelover wrote (in message ):

No, but I wish I had.

Kathy N-V

On a cross country flight last year, I had to leave a set of fingernail clippers, the kind with the tiny file that flips out.

There is very little involved in our reaction to collective fear that is rational... including what we confiscate, and who we 'profile'.

The truth is, we can't really anticipate who will do harm, or what they will look like, or where they will come from. Vulnerability is the human condition. The red-white-and-blue doesn't exempt or shelter us from it.

Deirdre

However, let me point out that you paid the airline, not the federal government. The airline does not control the Feds running security.

Blame the right people, OK?

Mary, the retired Fed

When my son's class flew out to the DECA conference in Salt Lake City last year, the only person in his group to be searched was one of the teachers. This guy was searched BOTH going out and coming back. Patti

Moxley and I flew last weekend to see his family in Sacramento, and we were treated like criminals; we are an ordinary family, with an

Furthermore, as they spend more on harrassment disguised as "security", the odds of planes falling apart in midair from inadequate maintenance increases. No thanks; I'd rather take my chances with the odd terrorist... far less likely than mechanical failure, if you ask me. America's air industry in on a short slope to extinction, if they keep this up.