“You’re not going to like the new pat-down regulations that just came into effect,” the TSA agent at the small airport in Redding, CA, (14 agents for fewer than five departing flights a day) told The Idiot, who is regularly patted down because he has been wearing a permanent gold bracelet on his right wrist since 1969. “They’ve discovered that bad people conceal weapons in their pants and we’ve got to do more extensive vertical and horizontal pat downs.”
“Well, what do you think about this increased intimacy so long after 9/11?” asked The Idiot, who has permanent TSA Pre status, knows the agent in Redding and tries to practice patience and tolerance during frequent individual security checks in US airports.
“We don’t like it either,” the inspector told The Idiot, who was on the first leg of a multi-flight return to the MedTrek in Egypt via Boston and Washington, D.C., as he got down to business.