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TSA: Don't touch my junk, man
Modern Man
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, as we enter the busy Thanksgiving travel season, the TSA has adopted new security rules that are...controversial, to say the least.
There's the "Don't touch my junk guy"
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/14/tsa-ejects-oceanside-man-airport-refusing-security/
As well as more disturbing Youtubes videos of TSA agents feeling up crying little kids.
And November 24th is National Opt Out Day, where passengers are being urged to opt out of the porno scanners and require the TSA agents to search them by hand, which could lead to havoc in airport lines.
http://www.optoutday.com/
I'm fortunate to not be flying this Thanksgiving. So, I don't have to worry about whether the new X-ray machines are actually as safe as TSA claims they are. And though I'm not generally opposed to random strangers stroking my dangly bits, having it done in line at the airport seems a little too kinky for my tastes.
Are people overeacting to this whole thing? Or, after a decade of progressively more onerous security rules at airports, is the flying public reaching a point where they've decided the trade-off between safety and liberty has gone too far?
There's the "Don't touch my junk guy"
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/14/tsa-ejects-oceanside-man-airport-refusing-security/
As well as more disturbing Youtubes videos of TSA agents feeling up crying little kids.
And November 24th is National Opt Out Day, where passengers are being urged to opt out of the porno scanners and require the TSA agents to search them by hand, which could lead to havoc in airport lines.
http://www.optoutday.com/
I'm fortunate to not be flying this Thanksgiving. So, I don't have to worry about whether the new X-ray machines are actually as safe as TSA claims they are. And though I'm not generally opposed to random strangers stroking my dangly bits, having it done in line at the airport seems a little too kinky for my tastes.
Are people overeacting to this whole thing? Or, after a decade of progressively more onerous security rules at airports, is the flying public reaching a point where they've decided the trade-off between safety and liberty has gone too far?
Aetian Jupiter - 41 Gunslinger - The Old Republic
Rigorous Scholarship
Rigorous Scholarship
Modern Man on
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i for one will be opting out when i fly home this holiday season
1. I find it onerous that the TSA can essentially treat all potential passengers as if they're under suspicion automatically. There's a presumption of guilt, and the TSA can treat people worse than police can during an arrest.
2. This all seems like an incredibly inefficient system, given that the number of people who want to blow up an airplane is, essentially, 0. The money and resources could be spent on better intelligence and communcation, identifying potential criminal or terrorist acts before they get to the airport.
3. Dammit, how much is this whole thing costing?
4. My junk, and the potential touching thereof.
5. I can see this doing irreperable damage to the airline industry, which has been on life support for years anyway. It seems the TSA is willing to burn down the village in order to save it.
That said, I don't have any bright ideas about how to do it better.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
I keep reading horror stories like the bladder cancer survivor whose catheter was pulled out by an inept TSA agent, resulting in urine leaking all over him. Or the flight attendant who had a breast removed due to breast cancer, having to pull out her prosthesis in front of everyone in line.
The TSA seems like the worst-run federal organization.
Rigorous Scholarship
Still, not entirely fond of the venue and timing for this protest. Even though it's the only way it will be heard.
And why the FUCK are elderly or extremely young passengers being patted down? Where is the justification for this?
Another thing. TSA is all up in our collective faces about how safe and anonymous the scanners are and how professional the agents are; yet every day we hear horror stories about various actions taken by overzealous guards and oops moments from searches. From the examples above, to hundreds of scanned images being leaked over the godammned Internet (even though the scans are to be deleted immediately? Really?)
I really do hope that TSA gets hit by the biggest backlash. Hey fucking deserve it.
TSA agents themselves seem to be a permanent case of putting the worst possible candidates in a position of immense actual and assumed power (your average traveller won't actually know that they can object to anything, considering how confusing and draconian some of our travel rules are and how often they change)
But seriously, TSA agents keep getting busted in power abuse scandals above and beyond the inept thing. I don't feel any safer with larry moe and curly cupping my balls for freedom.
As the mayor in The Dark Knight said, we must remember that vigilance is the price of safety.
We hear there's an upcoming problem with Baby Boomers. *rimshot*
TSA forces cancer survivor to show prosthetic breast
TSA pat-down leaves Mich. man covered in urine
I have many, many problems with this new system the TSA has set up to keep us "safe."
1. I should not have to give up a constitutional right (No unreasonable searches) to practice a constitutional right (freedom to travel).
2. The enhanced pat-downs and the x-ray screenings are a violation of my right against unreasonable searches.
3. Both the enhanced pat-downs and the x-ray screenings are excessive invasions of privacy.
4. Government approved sexual assaults via the enhanced pat-downs are still sexual assaults. No where else in America can you have your genitals touched for the sake of "security."
5. The x-ray machines don't examine body cavities. Does the government really think terrorists are above putting bombs in their rectums to kill airline passengers?
6. And finally, as an ancillary problem, this basically legalizes the untrained, racist TSA agents to pull brown people out of line for "random" enhanced pat-downs.
Are you suggesting that a massive governmental organization, created on short notice in a reactionary environment, given an unclear set of expectations, and whose primary requirement for employment as front line staff is possession of a GED, may be poorly run? For shame, sir.
Seriously, though - I write software for scanners based on the technology they use, and the idea that you would attempt to push millions of people through them as a *security measure* is a joke. The entire idea of in depth, universal screening of people is ridiculous and is analogous to trying to find a needle in a haystack by running each individual straw through a metal detector.
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And the "pat down" is nothing like what the police do in so-called "Terry stops." Cops are only legally allowed to do a general pat down that looks for weapons and other dangerous items. The TSA searches include reaching down into underwear, inspecting sanitary pads (!) and even more intrusive stuff. As one poster on another board put it, it's like getting to 2nd base with your high school boyfriend.
And even though the TSA searches involve contact with genital areas, it's not clear that the agents will change gloves between each search. This is obviously an issue in terms of spreading things like HPV and Herpes. Also, for people with any sort of medical device (such as an insulin pump) this raises real infection issues.
Rigorous Scholarship
I truly do not understand what all the puritanical hubbub is about.
My pregnant wife, who isn't even supposed to get dental x-rays because of the possible danger to the fetus, is understandably leery about getting a full-body x-ray scan. She's not thrilled about being groped by strangers either.
Yea, I guess going through those scanners is depriving us of our liberty. Wait, what.
And I'm like "Who are you?"
Pointless device that increases authority's power over the citizens with no noticeable up side for the citizens?
We're kind of big on that sort of thing not happening. Notice that we're a country where if a cop busts you, you don't have to give them any more information than your name. Because we're a TAD LEERY of giving shitloads of authority to random people who may or may not be total dicks without a very good reason.
Only terrorists have something to hide! Show off your junk for Freedom!
You understand that the scanners are fully capable of saving the images, right?
One Hundred Naked Citizens: One Hundred Leaked Body Scans
So yeah, I'd say that's a big fucking violation of liberty.
Hmm. Having my body groped or ogled by strangers, versus getting emails for four years (and counting) about my "points".
Far more likely that the next major attack involves people just joining the TSA. It's been shown that their background checking and standards are not exactly... high.
Won't somebody think of the children?
It doesn't raise my confidence that the company that makes the scanners also happens to employ Michael Chertoff.
Rigorous Scholarship
Not to mention that it's been pointed out you could walk into an airport on a Friday afternoon, wait until you're halfway through the security line then set a bomb off and kill more people than on a plane.
how about a letter from some doctors?
EDIT that is to say, feel free to get the pat-down if you want, but don't go UGGH RUB MY ROCK HARD PROP SHAFT to the poor person checking for a cock rocket
So you've never seen the scans. Got it.
Unreasonable searches and seizures? No, I get what you mean, dude. That's a good point. Very valid.
But who's to say what's unreasonable? It's kinda murky, doncha think? Plus, the wording seems to indicate searches of people's homes, not actually searching their body. And, well... if you get right down to it, there's no requirement that you use airplanes. If you object to these measures, you can choose not to fly.
True. I went to high school with someone who works for the TSA (or, at least she did two years ago). She's not dumb, but certainly not someone I'd place my entire safety with.
They're not actually anonymous. You know, the whole "picture of the person next to the backscatter image" and the whole "right click, save as" thing they've got going on.
But really, it's a question of: what gaping security problem is this device fixing. What problem is so great that it needs to violate the constitution to be solved?
If the answer is "nothing", then the machines are a giant waste of money, time, and our rights.