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"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." - John Adams

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Unless something changes, I may never fly again.

I have made a living over the last 25 years, travelling extensively around the world as part of my job. I am in a machinery manufacturing business, and we have zero local customers. Everyone we do business with requires our technicians, sales and field engineers to travel. That is the nature of building production machinery.
After 9/11, most of us looked the other way and didn't complain too much when we had to start taking off shoes, belts, opening laptops, subjecting our luggage to bomb sniffing and x-rays, throwing away our pen knives (I lost one my grandfather gave me, priceless), no more nail clippers, no tools of any kind ( I lost a set of digital vernier calipers, valued at $200, to the TSA), and after the famous Michael Vick incident and someone with a suspected "liquid explosive", you may no longer have any liquids - over 3 ounces- taken through the security screening area.
More recently all travellers are required to have an exact match of your name on your "government issued identification" on your ticket. If it's misspelled, you don't fly.
The last straw, in my mind, is the new backscatter full body radar scans, a device of questionable safety. If you want to opt out of the radiation, you may, but be prepared for a cavity search.

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