laurion: (legoindy)
[personal profile] laurion

Spending millions of dollars to treat every one of the over 2 million people that fly in the US, including pilots and babies, as potential terrorists? Totally means that the terrorists have won. They’ve succeeded in turning American against American, so that we now treat each other as presumed criminals on a regular basis. Fear now rules over liberty. We now abuse our airline passengers more than any other country, including places like China that are notorious for their human rights abuses. The only real gains in this maneuver are to the companies that sell this equipment, and to those people who like seeing the US froth at the mouth with paranoia. I repeat: the terrorists have won.

I am fortunate enough that most of my family lives within easy driving distance, and I don’t need to fly that often. Others are not so lucky. But I did get to experience the new procedures first hand recently as we flew to Hawaii for 2 weeks. It is incredibly impractical to get to Hawaii through any other travel method. Logan has the new body scanners. I got to go through one. And because I was still wearing a pewter pendant necklace, they decided to go ahead and give me a pat-down too. I was annoyed, I was inconvenienced, I was mildly embarrassed. But most of all, I felt sorry for the poor sods who are required to administer these treatments, who are forced to look at things they don’t want to see every day – people they never want to see naked, including toddlers (does taking their image count as child pornography?), medical implants, unfortunate deformities, broken bones, etc. on a daily basis. I hope the TSA has hired counselors, and requires every screener to take the same oath of confidentiality that doctors do.

Freedoms and liberties mean being exposed to a certain amount of risk. I get that. I also understand that one of the things the government does for us is to help minimize those risks. But there’s a law of diminishing returns here, and I, for one, am ready to experience some personal risk in exchange for greater freedom.

UPDATES:

1) I will be posting copies of this to my elected representatives.

2) Part of this is inspired by the reporting and research done by Jeffrey Goldberg over at the Atlantic. I should acknowledge him as one of the tipping forces behind me speaking out, and one of those upon whom I’ve built some of my opinions. Here is a clip of him on the Colbert Report, rather a good bit. I wrote this post before seeing this clip, so it is interesting to see him also give a ‘terrorists have won’ perspective. Jeffrey has called for everyone traveling on the day before Thanksgiving to ‘Opt-Out’ (use that phrase specifically) of the scans and to submit to pat-downs, as a form of protest, tying up TSA resources on a massive scale. I appreciate what he is trying to do, but I am ambivalent about it. Choose for yourself what action to take.

3) Also, here is an article from Gizmodo on body scans that have already been leaked. I’ve not checked to see if I am one of them.

4) Some scanners are using radio waves (millimeter wave) . Some are using backscatter X-rays, and these could pose a health risk. Are the TSA and the FDA taking this into account? According to this Ars Technica article, so far the data has been brushed aside.

5) Toddlers are being put through scanners and subjected to pat-downs.

6) The Pilot’s Union is asking all pilots to reject scanning. Pilots are already exposed to large amounts of radiation as a normal part of their job (flying above some of the protective layers of the atmosphere). Further, as highlighted in the above Colbert video clip, we trust them to fly the planes, we can’t trust them with a pocketknife?

7) The experiences of one individual who refused both the imaging scan and the pat-down, but was willing to go through the still-in-use metal detector, and was in all other respects polite and compliant.

Mirrored from The Black Horse of the Blog World.

Date: 2010-11-17 05:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] frozencapybara.livejournal.com
You should print this and mail it to John Kerry and Scott Brown, and your congressman. Or be lazy like me and use their email forms. But please do send it, if you haven't already.

Date: 2010-11-17 06:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] benndragon.livejournal.com
Just as a note, they're not porno-tube-or-grope-check screening children under 12. So, no toddlers, but barely pubescent children are A-OK!

Date: 2010-11-17 06:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bluestocking.livejournal.com
I read an article yesterday where they grope-checked a passenger's 3-year old daughter.

So, I don't know if that's entirely true.

Date: 2010-11-17 07:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] benndragon.livejournal.com
The sad part is, I don't know if I was misinformed, or if the TSA agent doing that grope-check was.

Date: 2010-11-17 07:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bluestocking.livejournal.com
I don't know either, really.

I just went hunting for more reports, and found a few, but TSA training seems to be inconsistent.

Date: 2010-11-17 06:51 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I have zero pity for TSA workers: ZERO. IMHO, those who have a problem with it should resign immediately. Yes, it may mean personal poverty. Yes it probably means extended unemployment. However, there are greater things at stake here than a few thousand more people on the breadline. If more TSA folks 'fell on their swords' and resigned (or even went on strike), the administration would change the policy a whole lot faster than the current political bickering back and forth. I personally would rather be unemployed (or even flip frozen cow-parts for a living) than be employed by the TSA, but I understand that's just my opinion and it's not for everyone. For those who choose TSA employement over that, they get NONE of my pity, ALL of my derision, and nothing but the back of my hand should they ask for anything more. Fuck those unamerican bastards.

Date: 2010-11-17 10:05 pm (UTC)
ext_267559: (Civil Liberties)
From: [identity profile] mr-teem.livejournal.com
How kind of you to feel sorry for the poor TSA screeners. (eyeroll)

Date: 2010-11-18 04:25 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)

Yeah, I'll bet they felt real sorry for the Nazi foot-soldiers too. Poor bastards, just following orders. Never had the chance to speak up, resign, or even have the critical thought processes to think "Gee, maybe what I'm being asked to do by 'my superiors' just isn't right"...

Date: 2010-11-18 04:43 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] hungrytiger
I keep hearing the argument that the TSA can't use the Israeli-style of screening, as that only works because Israel is about the size and population of New Jersey. To which I think, ok, so why can't we try it for New Jersey and see if it works there.

And FYI, I flew from Boston to and from D.C. three weeks ago and wasn't made to go through a body scan or pat-down (which were supposedly already in place in Boston), so as there's no uniformity in this process already, why not try out alternative systems in other airports.

Date: 2010-11-18 05:21 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] hungrytiger
Sorry, I agree with you but my point was badly phrased. Pronoun trouble.

I was trying to say that _the TSA_ should test out new alternative measures in smaller airports, not that we should go to smaller airports to avoid the scanners and pat-downs.

The other point was that even airports that have them (like Logan and Regan National), don't have them everywhere so no only is this a stupid policy, it's badly enforced as well.

Date: 2010-11-18 05:25 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] hungrytiger
And here's another small piece on the topic I liked from Wired's Geek Dad blog. It focuses on issues parents should consider before taking kids to the airport.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/11/our-take-on-the-new-tsa-security-measures/#more-47974

December 2022

S M T W T F S
    123
4 5678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 15th, 2025 05:27 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios