Yeah!

Been watching this one since it first occured. Basically, the reciepient of the $240,000 created a shirt that said "I am not a terrorist" in arabic.

He was denied boarding unless he put on an approved shirt, and of course that's where all the trouble began..

http://www.democracynow.org/2006/8/21/iraqi_peace_activist_forced_to_change#tran script

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/tsa-pays-240000.html

Good. Stupid people doing stupid stuff should cost a LOT of money. It's about the only thing they understand.

The Wired story claims the shirt said, "We Will Not Be Silent" in English and Arabic.

Andrew

Yeah, I had that wrong from another blog entry.

There was a claim that some other passengers on the flight said that the shirt made them "uncomfortable." I wonder whether that was true or a figment of somebody's imagination. Nonetheless, the entire premise that somebody felt uncomfortable over the writing on the shirt, yet that same person felt all was OK if the shirt were removed is pretty goofy.

Airlines, while entrusted with keeping up safe ( well, not Airlines exclusively. But you know what I mean ) have always pulled this kind of stuff. Breast feeding moms and their milk, mini-skirt too high, this, other stuff too.

I don't know what the solution actually is, but I do know we never hear about the ones in which they made a call of some sort...because it MADE SENSE.

Most of the ones we hear about don't.

But there was an SNL skit that showed the interview process and sort of touched on how, when you pay as little as TSA applicants get, you get what you pay for.

Even if it's the bar tab from the pilot taking off in an hour.