Monday, July 05, 2010

T.S.A.: This Stuff's Asinine



[UPDATE JULY 6--The TSA reversed part of the ban in face of public ridicule today]

Continuing a long and breathtakingly expensive tradition of security theater farce, the Transportation Security Administration is blocking its Web users from accessing sites that might contain "controversial opinion," according to a report by CBS News. [UPDATE, July 5--The TSA reversed part of the ban in face of public ridicule today]

An e-mail was sent to all TSA employees from the agency's Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon. It states that TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed "inappropriate for government access."

The categories include: "Chat/messaging; controversial opinion, criminal activity; extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content; and gaming."

Wait a dang minute now, TSA. I hate to offer a "controversial opinion" here, but employees of the security agency can't get information on "criminal activity" and "violence," which sort of defines the terrorist threat? I'll bet that's going to go over big with the public and in Congress, where patience with TSA folly has worn very thin.

As to cartoons, let me quote the fighting words of Mr. Daffy Duck: "What a revoltin' development thith is."

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1 comment:

ChefNick said...

Don't, repeat DON'T do this to me, Joe. Just because you're in a position to know things we don't know (as a respected journalist!)

Don't

Tell

Me

my trip to Osaka from Montreal in 9 days is threatened! By mindless bureaucrats in mindless places like the TSA!

By the way, I can come up with more colorful explanations of "TSA" than you can.

(Insert smiley here)