LarryC Posted October 20, 2009 Author Share Posted October 20, 2009 jheis's link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/business/20road.html?ref=todayspaper TSA is led by idiots. They're so deep into this fiasco, I wonder how they're going to crawl out. One only has to ask the Social Security Administration how easy or realistic it was to carry out a precise name-match requirement. The first-middle initial-last name "model" is not typical enough to work without lots of problems, as just the few tales in this thread show. It's a nutty exercise to try to get people to conform their names to any model let alone that one. I can't believe how many businesses and forms have been driven crazy by my first initial-middle name. The NYT article shows how much more complicated things have become in the variety of relationships and naming conventions, as earlier name versions pile up for individuals and families. We have known for many years about a very large number of errors in the Social Security names data base. All this IMO represents a desperate attempt to prop up a misconceived name-based watch list. It's like they are so reluctant to backtrack that they have to make one more hail-Mary try to make it real by forcing a hopeless conformity on peoples' names. Most would agree that Islamic radicals have been, or should have been, the first suspects in terrorism. Yet, as I mentioned in my first post, Arabic naming conventions make accurate name ID a hopeless proposition! The Middle Eastern world has to bend their own names out of shape to conform to us. Given that, what is the government's purpose in targeting WHITE WESTERNERS with this bureacratic mess? It certainly is NOT to target likely perps! The government is lying to itself as well as the rest of us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Yep. Bad model. Unfortunately the alternative for accuracy sake is so much more invasive that it gives everyone the heebies. As for the NYT, I would rather knock them upside the head with a baseball bat than read their schlock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted October 20, 2009 Author Share Posted October 20, 2009 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 It's not just Arabic names that can be hard to sort out. Lots of Asian countries have different naming conventions from Europe and most of North America, even something as simple as putting the family name first and the given name(s) after. Also, aren't 40% of all people in Vietnam named Nguyen? It's not that they're all related, but that they changed their names to that of the new monarch's family to avoid trouble, somewhere back in medieval times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z4! Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 So when exactly did these changes take place? The reason I ask is that my brother, sister and I all flew to a funeral in another state a couple of months ago. I made the online reservations for all three of us. I made an error in my sisters legal name (the one on her drivers license); her legal name is Judith, but we have called her Jude for over 40 years, and I made her reservation in the name of Jude. We got to the airport and discovered the error but when we went through security and we explained the difference, they said "no problem" and let her through. I can't stand all the new regulations either, my 84 y/o father-in-law (in a wheel chair and tubing inserted into his stomach for a food pump) would be required to undergo a strip search every time he tried to fly from his summer home to his Florida fhome or the winter...go figure! He did have a suspicious name though, (Abbott)! [] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 Costello put them up to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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