He and his wife, Suzanne, are parents of a 1-year-old son, Jack. Before Jack's birth, Tyner competed in bicycle road races on weekends. Tyner is something of a political junkie, browsing dozens of articles from favorite websites such as the Libertarian Standard and Salon.com every day.
He didn't vote for Barack Obama or John McCain in the 2008 presidential election and thinks both parties are "terrible."
"They're both out to secure power for themselves," he said. "I don't think they're really committed to the liberty that this country was founded on."
And if that sounds like the standard "tea party" pitch, Tyner isn't fond of that conservative movement either. "They've got some good ideas, but they've been in large part co-opted by the Republican Party."
If anything, Tyner said, he believes in common sense. And it just doesn't make sense to him to subject the entire flying public to invasive screening procedures when alternatives could do the job just as effectively.
He mentions behavioral profiling, the process of interviewing passengers flagged for closer screening, as one way to catch potential terrorists. There are others, he said, but before he can explain, the phone is ringing again and another reporter is calling.
"Sorry," he said. "Gotta go."
catherine.saillant@latimes.com
