"Homeland Security: We Get To Touch Your Junk"
(H/T: Boing Boing)
I’ve been a long term frequent flier – over the years, I’ve racked up close to 500,000 miles in the air. No, not as much as some, but WAY more than the vast majority of the folks that ever squeeze into that thin metal tube now called a flying cattle car. I can remember when flying was still a bit elegant and when even Coach got a hot meal with real silverware.
To be honest, I still miss going somewhere else on an occasional basis but given the outcry of the last few days over the "enhanced" security, I’ll stay planted on terra firma for as long as I can. I’m QUITE sure that good old Ben was right:
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security
I remember what it was like, right after 9/11, to watch the crowd getting on the plane, the eyes staring at me as I got on the plane, and where my eyeballs were as everyone else was getting on. And I still do. Racial Profiling may well be the accusation hurled at me for doing so, but I had a reason – like most everyone else, they wanted to be able to go home and hug their families. Still do.
I’ve endured a number of pre-board searches – certainly have had to go "oops, …
…sorry, forgot to take this out of my pocket" and go through the metal detectors several times. Don’t much like the "no shoes" bit – given poor circulation in my legs from a congenital condition, my feet get real cold real quick if I have to wait in line for a while. I do, however, get a kick when my "rolling office" / laptop bag goes through the X-Ray machine just as a newbie TSA office is just sitting down at the controls – I truly believe that "traveling light" is for wimps and I’m generally loaded up not only with the electronics for the biz trip but also for blogging. They look at that bag and invariably call for backup after about 10 seconds. And yes, the penance for my "wrench throwing" has been the occasional wanding and winning the "TSA Lottery" – the bag wipe and close examination of the bag’s contents.
Perhaps I ought not to hang around with our ‘Grok Rational Libertarian, Tim, so often – I do believe his more Libertarian outlook is starting to migrate a tad (given this story, I opted not to use "rub off" in that sentence). With the number of stories concerning the Naked Strip Search Machines (the back scatter X-ray machines that are replacing the metal detectors all over the country), it seems that the traveling public has decided that being actually treated like cattle is now a step too far. Frankly, I’m not all that thrilled to appear virtually in the buff – I do have a shape, and it’s not as large a one as it used to be, but it’s still not something with which to be participating in the "B-day Suit Parade" in front of some unknown TSA official (Really true – it’s not above their pay grade to watch nudies all day long?).
The problem is that the alternative is not unlike most governmental budget debates: "Oh yeah! You wanna cut my department’s budget or my favorite program?" with the now expected behavior. Tell government that you are going to cut their budgets and they lower the boom. Except in this case, instead of doing the Washington Monument Gambit (take something away that the public actually likes vs the much lower priority stuff in the back office), they wish to "raise the boom" and we get rewarded for our impertinence with the Nasty Napolitano Genital Grope. In other words, government workers get to "touch your junk" with hundreds (if not thousands) of newly minted BFFs.
The worst part of this (almost)? The reports of really small kids that have to go through this invasion of privacy, with the TSA officials having an attitude because the poor parents, who have told their kids over and over again "privates are PRIVATE" and this stranger wants to override that. Yes folks, "they" get to do what would earn me eternal damnation as a sex offender – esPECIALLY if it was a three year old because I’m not in a designated building, don’t have a blue or white shirt with an H.S. badge pinned to it.
Yeah, thanks for putting me into this Hobbesian choice that makes me want to fully trust and like Govt more and more. Look, I understand security, and often, we will not hear of the foiled attempts. However, we DO hear of test runs (both official and unofficial) that failed through Secretary Janet’s fabled multi-layered defense systems – which includes the ordinary passengers that actually stopped the last two attempts in mid-air. In both cases, these new machines would not have caught the problem – and they know it. And in the latest one involving the cargo jets, well, it speaks for itself: how does me baring it all for sake of security stop someone from packing bombs in the cargo hold? You’re right – it doesn’t.
So what is it?
All good intentions aside, what we are seeing now is not the beginning of just a push back on TSA procedures. What we ARE seeing is our Government continuing to ratchet up THEIR idea that its citizens are to be blamed before being shown to be innocent. I’m no lawyer (Ok Tim, there’s your cue) but given the Fourth Amendment and the word "reasonable", while it may be legal, I’m not too keen at trying to prove it ok on a political basis.
November 2nd and the election results, I feel, was the American citizenry saying "Enough" concerning an ever encroaching government into their lives – and screaming "STOP!" Even at that, many believed it to be true but still in a more theoretical way than a personal one. This, however, brings it absolutely as personal as it can get – and people are furious because the results are (gulp) plain to see for all – in amazing detail.
Given the current political climate, this is only going to add to the gas keeping that pot boiling. After all, similar to our public servants already violating the sanctity of public databases (remember the IL state workers sacked over accessing Joe the Plumber’s files after Obama made his gaffe about "spreading the wealth"?), who wants to be the first one on the ‘Net in an X-Ray "Kodak" moment?
Once again, government at work – with Unintended Consequences. You know, I JUST CAN’T WAIT to see how Obama (since he is ultimately responsible) would explain this away when it comes out that some sex offender is outed that the TSA’s screening process failed to find. Or would Secretary Janet be the next one to join the "Obama under the Bus Club"? The irony…
