Posted on 06/02/2004 10:04:40 PM PDT by Jeff Gordon
MSNBC is reporting that US Air Marshals are reporting that air passengers are frequently pointing the Marshals out to other passengers. I have played spot-the-Marshal for over a year now. Guess how I spot them...
The Air Marshal's management requires them to travel in freshly pressed suits with ties plus brightly shined shoes. In these days when most people fly in comfortable clothes, a fit, a clean cut man in a suit and tie sitting in the back rows of First or Economy stands out like a sore thumb.
This reminds me of REMFs who decided that our Special Forces in Afghanistan must be cleanly shaved and in regulation uniforms. There is no limit to the stupidity of chair bound government bureaucrats.
The Secret Service is dressed like that. I'm sure they practice in suits also.
Story was, that when a photograph of an FBI snipper in shirt sleeves (with his tie on) taking down the "Dog Day Afternoon" highjackers at Kennedy Airport appeared in newspapers and on television, J. Edgar Hoover reprimanded the snipper for removing his Jacket in front of the cameras.
LOL
And we won't even talk about the domestic enemy press who run articles like this to ensure that any terrorists who, having missed bin Laden's FAX on this topic, are brought fully up to speed.
As if the article wasn't suggested by the TSA, or at least ran past the Feds before it was published? The same basic content has shown up all over the news, the basic message being that the "suit and tie" rules are being changed, and "air marshals will now look just like the sheeple".
I'd be the last person to suggest that the feds control editorial content, or have any sort of veto power over what is published.
From what I have seen (and I've seen a lot), for the most part the media is anything but in cahoots with government or politicians; nor do most media companies put pressure on editors and writers to put a particular slant on a story.
One obvious place where it's hard to argue that big media firms put pressure on individual newspapers is in political endorsements. I suspect the one other topic on which the big corps lean on their local outlets is regarding FCC ownership rules, but I can't prove that.
OTOH, editors do select which stories get written, and the Editor In Chief determines what gets printed and where (above the fold, or buried on page 23). Generally these are crusty old conservatives who might not share your sense of "family values", but otherwise have a lot more in common with FReeper than you'd think.
But in the end, it comes down to circulation, revenue, and profit margins.
hopefully there are some Secret Service for 'show' in the immediate vicinity and then some others ...
btw, did you see the one wearing the sombrero and a suit outside the White House a few years ago? (news footage) ... he didn't stick out ... nope, there are always guys in suits wearing sombreros in my city ... yeah, that's the ticket ... LOL
remember the guy who shot the AK-47 at the White House a few years ago? ... news guys got some footage of it ... so you see this SS guy come running over and he's wearing a two-piece suit and a sombrero walking around the White House (outside the gate0 ... I'm glad he tackled the guy, but what an outfit ...
of course, I've never been to D.C., so maybe there are thousands of guys walking around in suits and sombreros ... LOL
Erm, I'd better stop now.
Most people do not fly in comfortable clothes. They fly in minute scraps of fabric with their inappropriate underthings exposed. Flying is gross for many reasons, and that's a big one.
no kidding ... WHO did THAT fool? ... well, apparently the guy that had the AK, but gee whiz ...
I'm surprised there wasn't one in a Blackbeard pirate hat, a Mouseketeer cap, maybe a top hat, and of course, the multi-colored rainbow wig ... blend right in ...
Being "cleanly shaved" is an absolute must for any soldier.. its not some beaurocratic nonsense.
The reason being cleanly shaved is required is because a gas mask won't protect and seal properly if your skin isn't. Which is why beards stopped being permitted to be worn by soldiers around the time GAS as a weapon showed up on the battlefield!
Rather than ranting about clueless beaurocrats, go do some research! Being clean shaven saves soldiers lives, its not some moron at a desk in washington with a thumb up his but deciding to make grunts lives more miserable.
...Yeah C'mon! Federal hotties packin' heat!
Not everyone is willing to fly leather-armored mini skirts with low-cut-cleavage-enhancing armor bustier. :-)
BTW: I assume you are not allowed to "carry on" your sword but what about your Chakram?
I wonder how many of those special ops guys in Afganistan carry the gas masks that go along with the required clean shave? :-)
I know which side of the bureaucratic line you are on.
I had forgotten all about that incident and I didn't catch the sombrero part. How funny!
Having been to D.C. only twice, I'm not really up on fashion in the nation's capital, but I must have missed the sombrero stands!
We're going back 9 months. Thanks for the fashion tip. "I won't forget my hat". LOL!
Perhaps what's needed is for the soldiers to wear fake beards when they need to blend in? Then they could remove the beards in a hurry if they had to use their masks?
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