“Don’t Touch the Junk – Groping at the airport.
Boy, fliers and airline employees are really getting upset about the new
security procedures at America’s airports. Upon entry, they have two
options…..(1) submit to a body scan, which produces an image of the person’s
body underneath his or her clothes, or (2) submit to a full body pat-down by
a same-sex security employee that probes places ‘where the sun doesn’t
shine’. This examination routinely involves the touching of breasts and
genitals.
The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) says these new procedures
are necessary because certain items, such as plastic explosives, could
not be detected under the old metal detector system. But Ralph Nader
brings up a good point: “If anyone is going to try to get through, they’re
going to conceal items in body cavities”, Paris Hilton, who admitted that
she concealed drugs in her body cavities when flying, proved this can be easily
accomplished.
One outraged female passenger said that she was changing her plans for
the upcoming Christmas holiday, saying “there’s no way I’m going to let
them grope my children like this”.
A male passenger was ejected from the airport in San Diego when he
turned down the body scan, and then during the pat-down said “if
you touch my junk, I’m gonna have you arrested”.
In my humble opinion, this is just another example of government
overkill. There have been only two or three instances of anyone trying
to bring explosives on board an airplane; and as Ralph Nader points out,
if a terrorist is intent on blowing himself up, he’ or she will just hide the
explosives in a body cavity. To spend billions of dollars, and to subject
millions of fliers to the humiliation of a virtual strip search, is unnecessary
and outrageous in concept.
And look. We can skirt all around it, but what we’re most afraid of are
the radical Muslim lunatics. The TSA already have no-fly lists. In fact,
I believe the name of the shoe-bomber was on a no-fly list, and TSA
failed to notice it. The more practical way to address this threat is to
focus close attention on the no-fly lists, as well as intensified scrutiny
on passengers who flights originated outside the USA, and in particular,
from countries that harbor Muslim terrorists.
My brother and I have talked about flying our 89 year old mother down
to Florida to visit us this winter. This means that she would be subjected
to this new intrusive procedure twice. Mom would be mortified by
having to go through either the full body scan or the pat-down. Now
I don’t know what we’ll do.
If you want edit me? just go to your profile than add description text as many you like. ^_*
Sorry Hambone…disagree on this one…I fly every week, sometime three or four times a week…..Jesus, go thru the fricking machine….I go thru Atlanta quite a bit, and I beleive they only have one machine,not all airports have them ….and frankly, just ONE instance of someone trying to bring explosives on a plane is enough for me…..and our enemy is way to smart to let a “no fly list” stop them….here in Canada there are more Muslims than you may shake a stick at
now, I need to think of a a reason to hnag this on Obama, since someone will probably say is “Bush’s fault”
1Doesn’t anyone remember the Underwear Bomber from last year?!?!?!?
So, 4,000 plus American military can die for our country. Tens of thousands more injured. Hundreds of thousands of military families can sacrifice while their loved ones are in harm’s way gone for 12 months at a time. My cousin’s husband (NYC Fireman) can work the Pile for three months and get life threatening lung disease….
But we can’t go through a full body scanner? Or go through a pat down?
Man up America.
2Sam I know that your official position seems to be to disagree with everything anyone here says, but you are off the mark on this one. The TSA has never done anything to stop any terrorist act and probably never will. Yes we remember the underwear bomber. Apparently you don’t, or you would remember he boarded a plane in Amsterdam, not the USA!
I hope everyone refuses the scanner tomorrow and insists on the patdown. Lets see how the airlines deal with that!
3Ham I’m with you on this one enough is Enough.
4Gee Sam….I get all “misty” when we agree….you make good points…….and we are asking the public for a such a small sacrifice
5Sam and Squid, I value your opinions, and normally agree with you, but not this time. I used to fly a lot, but haven’t in years……not because there might be a bomb on board, but
because airplanes are heavier than air and sometimes they fall
to the ground. Which is far more likely than being blown apart
by a bomber.
I go back to my 89 year old Mom. She is very modest. Can you imagine the mortification she would feel to walk through a scanner that undresses her? Or to have someone groping up under her bra or running their hands up in her crotch area?
There’s just nothing anyone can say to me that would justify
subjecting my Mom – and millions like her – to such humiliation.
Besides, neither of you have addressed the issue of body
cavities. It would take a very small amount of plastic
explosives to blow the plane out of the sky. A bomber
could hide the explosives in a body cavity, and then during
flight, go to the restroom and retrieve it.
Further, there are other gaps in security. Baggage is screened,
but it can’t be 100%. Recently, a bomb was found on a cargo
plane, but it wasn’t great detective work that discovered it…
the airline was alerted by an anonymous tip. Without that tip..
BOOM……And, who says the only danger is a bomb. Couldn’t
a radical expose the passingers to Anthrax, for example? Deaths
wouldn’t be immediate, but they would die just the same.
My point, Sam and Squid, is that the intrusive searches really
6don’t promise safety in the air. All it does is force the
radicals to be more creative.
Squid, sorry but you and Sam are both off the mark on this one. The TSA has never stopped anyone from an act of terror on a US departing flight. The things that have been stopped were either by other passengers or by intel acts, not TSA actions. Yes I think we should have security, but what we already had worked good enough. No need to provide a political solution to a security issue.
7Hambone…Is my understanding that these scanning machines are not at ALL airports in US…In Atlanta, I have never been subjected to a scan or “pat down”….so I am bit confused to how this is being administered….I come to US thru Montreal every week and they have one “scan” machine, so is random if you go thru, 90% of the time, no search
8Guys:
I am on a plane every week. I fly through the NYC airports 3 times a month. Let me be the first to tell you that we can’t even enforce the rules we currently have. That rule about no more than 3 ounces of liquid, and they have to be in a quart sized bag? Completely unenforceable. I pack the way I alway have. Nobody has ever even questioned me.
I personally don’t have a problem getting a body scan, but I agree with Hambone. There are alot of very modest people, and it is absurd to put our elderly and young children through this. That is the outrage. Here is my bottom line. It is 16-35 Muslim males causing all the problems. Assuming they can convince a US WASP to want to commit terror against their own country, it will be a 16-35 year old who signs up. Why not start with them?
For heavens sake we put pilot’s through this procedure. The same pilot that can fly the plane into the ground if we want to. The Israeli’s don’t do any of this crap, they are hated more than we can ever dream of being hated, and they don’t have planes being blown out of the sky. My wife just returned from Israel. While she was there she went to the West Bank, and she had less of a problem crossing the border back into Israel than she did flying from Orlando to Columbus last weekend.
9Exactly Jeff! How may planes have had an attempt to bring them down by a 9 year old from Topeka or an 88 year old grandmaw from Des Moines! Lets quit dancing around the facts here. Muslims did it, middle eastern men did it. Like Jeff said, if by chance it is a non middle easterner that trys, they will still fit the age profile. It wont be Aunt Mable from Minneapolis!
10Has your mother ever been to the doctor? Gotten a breast x-ray? Pretty soon we’ll all be in nursing homes getting our butts wiped by some highschool graduate nursing aide, then where will our modesty be.
Man up America.
11Sam enough with the man up talk already. We have security, we don’t need groping.
12Damn this is unusual..but wtf….I am in actual agreement with Sam….100% of the public will never be happy, but damn, the sacrifice is minimal, and Jeff, I fly a lot too, and yes I agree with you, the security measures are impossible to enforce, but I think is the perception that our governemnt wants to give the impression we are safe to travel…this latest event with scanning and pat downs seems poorly administered, sort of…we ll here you go, try it you will like it….hmmmm…well Obama is in charge, sure has his signature, damn Sam, cannot help it…but everyone..This is Obama’s fault !!!
13I’m not sure I get it, Squid. Are you saying you fly a lot?
14Sam, if you want to suggest that all scanning requires medical personnel, and that the TSA personnel are subject to HIPAA violations, fines, and imprisonment, then we are in agreement.
15OK, let me try another angle. If you object to going thru the scanner then you forfiet your right to ever go to a public beach or pool in a swimming suit, or wear hip hugger jeans, or clothes too tight, or low cut tops.
As if your private parts all bunched and scrunched up in your clothes is some big deal to be seen by some TSA person………..What’s next all our women have to wear burka’s?
16Sam you are the master of unrelated comparisons. Listening to your comparisons make as much sense as watching paint dry.
17Sam, I have to agree with TM on this one. This argument started by saying some people….quite a few, are quite modest, would not be comfortable with these scans or pat downs. I am pretty sure people who wear suggestive clothing do not fit into that category. For example, the bikini car wash girls in the picture you sent me probably go to the airport daily hoping to get scanned. That is not the point.
It is an invasion of privacy to do this. If this actually made us safer, I might argue that some loss of civil liberty is worth it because if a plane goes down a whole bunch of people lose their civil liberties in a much bigger way. However, very few people get scanned. If we are going to do this, then do it to everybody, or use intelligence as to who to scan. If you did that, there would be no risk of scanning modest, 70 year old grannies. 25 year old Muslim guys who show up to the airport sweatng might be another story. That is the point.
18Jeff that’s exactly my point. What we have been doing for 9 years, apparently has worked! Nothing has happened from flights originating domestically. Why don’t we do this. We will accept the “enhanced” security, as long as other countries will do the same thing. For those countries that will not do these things, we will profile their citizens, with extensive searches both upon arrival and departure. Seems fair to me. Push out to other countries our security, since they are causing our problems.
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