Morrissey alleges sexual assault by TSA

British indie rock musician Stephen Patrick Morrissey -- better known simply as Morrissey -- became well known in the 1980s with his band The Smiths. He's now 56 years old. And yesterday he filed a complaint against the TSA for sexual assault.

Welcome to the club, Morrissey. 

TSA: "Careful what you say. You don't like this? You respect this badge right here."

Well, well, well, shock of shocks, we have yet another of our fine, upstanding blue-shirted civil servants who don't know their own rules. Or who pretend not to. 

As we've pointed out, with evidence, dozens of times: yes, you are allowed to videotape, film, photograph, audio-record, or sketch the TSA in action, including while they're doing their "pat-downs." It says so on the TSA's own website:

TSA does not prohibit the public, passengers or press from photographing, videotaping or filming at security checkpoints, as long as the screening process is not interfered with or slowed down.

But 

Another day, another passenger screwed by the TSA

Almost every day I receive emails from people telling me about their TSA experiences. They often wonder if they could have prevented the abuse meted out to them by dressing differently, talking differently, acting differently, flying out of a different airport, you name it. As I always tell them, no. You have no power over how the TSA treats you. The TSA has absolute power. Whether a TSA agent woke up on the wrong side of the bed one morning or is simply being sadistic, it has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with them. 

"Awesome" Idiocy, or A Compendium of Synonyms for the Linguistically Challenged

Enough already with "awesome"! If I hear one more person use this goddamn word, I'm going to kill them (note to NSA/DHS goons: that statement is what's known as hyperbole; it's a perfectly respectable rhetorical device. It doesn't mean I actually want to kill anyone).

Not only millennials, who are the greatest sinners here, but even 50-somethings and 60-somethings are going around frothing at the mouth with "awesome!" I can't take it anymore. I would say I'm going to scream, but I've already been doing that, in spades. Fine people who are otherwise perfectly lovely are, apparently, so bereft of vocabulary that they can't think of any other way to describe something they like other than by saying, "Awesome!" 

TSA snoops in passenger’s bag, finds money, calls DEA to take it

From the Washington Post comes this story of not only another instance of TSA abuse, but the TSA's bragging about said abuse.

The headline reads: "Why the TSA posted a photo of a passenger's cash-filled luggage on Twitter." And the TSA tweeter in question is none other than PR flack Lisa Farbstein, about whom we've written so many times before. From the Post: 

. . . The photo, from the Richmond airport, shows a passenger's luggage containing $75,000 in cash. Farbstein asks, "Is this how you'd transport it?" Most people would not, but there is nothing illegal about simply checking a bag containing $75,000, or carrying it with you on the plane. Passengers aren't under any obligation to report large sums of cash unless they're traveling internationally, though the TSA recommends that passengers consider asking for a private screening.