Wednesday, December 22, 2004

TSA Agents Culled From Park Ranks

With the holiday crunch upon us the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) has looked to new sources to fill the ranks of their incompetent workforce. Outgoing Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said, “Traditionally we have pulled from a pool people not smart enough to work at Wal-Mart or McDonald’s. With the economy in the toilet and people staying at those jobs we have to branch out. Several amusement parks, notably Six Flags New England and Kentucky Kingdom, have just the kind of people we’re looking for.”

The official government term is “degree of sloth,” but in layman’s terms big brother is looking for slow, stupid people. Six Flags CEO Kieran Burke said he understands why the national government is turning to his employees. “When you need that unique combination of incompetence and slow-to-no movement one, with a healthy dollop of outright hostility, you’re hard-pressed to find anyone better than a Six Flags coaster crew. Our only concern is that they not forget some of our larger facilities like Magic Mountain. As we run everything at less than 50% capacity it is important to find new jobs for those ‘affected’ by cutbacks and government work is perfect for them.”

Steve Johansen, currently an X-ray specialist at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, spent a lot of time at some great training facilities. “Yup, I started out at Six Flags America, then moved to Busch Gardens’ Gwazi crew and ended up as Operations Director at Frontier City. I certainly know how to get things done quickly,” he laughed, with a small drop of drool slowly making its way down his chin.

There are many parallels between a career in parks and the TSA, such as low pay, long hours, irregular operating procedures and dealing with mullets on a regular basis, but the anti-literati take it all in stride. Standing under the TSA’s straight-out-of-the-Third-Reich logo of an eagle staring at nothing, Ridge proudly looked on at Washington’s Dulles airport. “Look at that line,” he exclaimed proudly, gesturing to a quarter-mile barely-moving line. “That’s what happens when you only hire the best.”

At that point Ridge excused himself to conduct a rectal exam.

--FMB