We were not alone. Other carloads of parents and kids parked nearby did the same thing. Once or twice, we actually walked into the airport terminal, where you could visit the observation deck perched above the second story of the terminal. It was a great hangout for tourists and expectant fliers alike.

If memory serves, the observation deck was on the roof of the terminal buiding at the top of the photo

Those days, not many kids my age–or even their parents–ever flew anywhere. The tickets were too expensive. When people did fly, they dressed up for the occasion. Most men on planes wore coats and ties. That practice waned about 25 years ago, about the same time as a British friend of mine told me he wore a suit to the airport in hopes the gate agent would notice and bump him to first class. Supposedly that worked.

Nowadays, nobody dresses up. The parking overlook disappeared. The observation deck is no more. The romance has gone, and people don’t marvel at flight any more. It is now as commonplace as a bus ride used to be.

Storm chasers flock to the area, meaning the dangers from the storm are not your only concern.

A higher volume of traffic on the roads, persons pulled off the side of the road, and in some cases, amateurs not paying attention to the road all become a major concern.

Verno’s concerns are shared by many in the weather community. There just seem to be too many people out chasing. Here is a timelapse of chaser movement between 5 pm and 8 pm CDT on May 10 as tornadoes moved through a high risk area in eastern Oklahoma.

The yellow and red polygons are the severe thunderstorm and tornado warning polygons. The chasers are the other moving parts, congregating around the areas where the storms are expected to be. While there are dozens of chasers visible in the display, it it only shows chasers equipped with GPS devices. It does not include the armada of vehicles with the Vortex2 tornado project, which deployed near Oklahoma City. Nor does it include amateur, untrained eyes out on the roads looking for tornadoes.

I am not in any position to tell people what they should and should not do if they want to see storms. It is that part of nature’s majesty that attracted lots (if not most) of the top meteorologists into the field. But with so much traffic clogging the roadways near tornadoes, there is just no way everyone will have a clear escape route if a tornado heads toward a crowded group of amateur and professional onlookers. It’s not a question of “if” there will be storm chasers hurt, but when it will happen.

…and this is what the link reported:

The reason, of course, is that the NFL has decided to pursue with nose tackle-like force anyone who utters or writes the words “S**** B***®” without paying a licensing fee.

In the past, rabid NFL lawyers (or more specifically, four law firms it has unleashed) have gone after anyone – even churches who announced plans for an afternoon of fellowship while watching the S**** B*** game. In 2007, the NFL went so far as trying to usurp the words “big game” in a trademark claim – but fortunately that heavy-handed legal maneuver failed. (One other warning, from the over-lawyered league: if you are watching the S**** B*** on a screen that is larger than 55”, you may be in violation of the copyright claimed by the NFL.)

One irony is that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is married to a television news broadcaster. I wonder – when they’re conversing over dinner, whether he refers to it as the big game, the NFL championship, or the S**** B***?

The Transportation Security Administration announced unspecified extra security measures that were immediately implemented upon Abdul’s capture. While the TSA won’t confirm what those measures are, passengers on other flights have reported that they were unable to get up or move about plane during the final hour of their trip, and that blanket usage was prohibited during the same time – presumably to prevent anyone else from secretly igniting their underpants.

Amsterdam's Schipol Airport, gateway to Europe.

I have been on that same Northwest/Delta’s flight from Amsterdam to Detroit several times, and I can tell you that this guy had to get through multiple layers of security. Before anyone can board a flight at Amsterdam’s Schpol airport, one has to pass through standard passport control, where passports are scrutinized by Dutch security. There are always a number of disappointed travelers sitting outside the security office, because their passports were refused until they undergo additional scrutiny behind closed doors. Abdul’s name must not have appeared on Holland’s suspicious passport list.

After they clear passport control, passengers go through metal detectors and have their bags screened before proceeding to their gate. But for those flying to the United States, there is another security screening that takes place at the Northwest/Delta gate. This time, each passenger gets a personal interview by Dutch security personnel presumably employed by the American TSA. Passengers are asked the standard questions… “Where have you been, what have you been doing, who packed your luggage,” etc. Then there is another set of metal detectors for bodies and bags before anyone gets on the plane. Unlike the Dutch screening, this time passengers are forced to remove their shoes – a tip of a hat to shoe bomber Richard Reid.

Somehow Abdul got on the plane. He apparently had the right answers to the questions, and his crotch failed to trip any of the sensors. And the TSA responded with some new regulations that would have done nothing – NOTHING – to prevent Abdul’s diabolical scheme. If a terrorist gets explosives on a plane, he will still be able to use them – as long as he is courageous enough to disobey the seat belt sign.

The TSA announced the irritating, meaningless measures because it feels it has to do something - even when it is powerless to do anything meaningful. There will now be calls for those full-body scanners, the same ones that were criticized by civil rights and women’s groups because they allow screeners to see beneath clothing. A better idea would be to do what other countries do: profile. Take everyone whose passport isn’t attached to a documented, long-time history of law abiding behavior, and run them through additional screening including highly-invasive pat-downs. After all, 80 grams of explosive hidden in underpants is pretty hard to detect.

As I see it, we have three choices: full-body scanning that violates people’s privacy, profiling that violates people’s rights, or new TSA regulations that irritate everyone without providing one bit of actual protection.

Given our society’s adherence to political correctness, I’m betting on the latter.

UPDATE, 1/5/2010: Here is a sure-fire way to make the TSA more effective: Give any TSA employee who finds explosives on a passenger a 50 thousand dollar cash bonus. Really. That includes the Dutch contractors, too. There is no better incentive for a thorough job of screening than by offering big cash for a terrorist collar.

After writing a previous blog about the high cost of flying out of Sioux Falls, I asked the Department of Transportation for some data about Sioux Falls airfares. As of the second quarter of 2009 (the most recent data available), the average price of an airline ticket, excluding taxes and fees, was $397.91. Compare that to a single-ticket average of $354.83 in Des Moines, and $290.27 in Omaha. I created a chart from the long-term data, and it appears those booking flights out of Sioux Falls have paid premium prices for years.

Without Allegiant Air service in Sioux Falls, the price gap between Sioux Falls and other cities would probably be even greater. According to the Research and Innovative Technology Bureau of Transportation, the bargain carrier Allegiant now accounts for 21.43% of the passenger traffic in Sioux Falls, second only to Northwest (which used to dominate the airport) at 22.48%. Skywest (feeder for United) is third at 20.20%, followed by United at 11.40%, and Pinnacle (feeder for Northwest) at 7.58%. The numbers were compiled between September, 2008 and August, 2009. With a relatively even spread of passengers across several carriers, one would think that Sioux Falls would have a competitive price structure – but that does not appear to be the case.

I should perhaps mention that the entire Sioux Empire has fallen victim to full retail-priced ticketing. Airfare Watchdog says this about the airport in Sioux City, IA: “Sure there are fares from Sioux Gateway Airport…but they’re way too high to meet our Dealhound standards.”