First, let me just say that I think both the scanners and the pat-downs are invasive and unnecessary - people will always find new and exciting ways to kill other people, regardless of the technology that tries to stop them. We've got to do our best to stop that, but we can't sacrifice what we are to do it. OK, disclaimer over. Obviously, the issue has had a lot of play, both in the news and online. And you only have to look as far as Ron Paul to know that what plays well in the news and on the internet doesn't necessarily reflect the views of the public at large. Really, just how widespread is the outrage? I'm getting the impression that for a seriously large percentage of the country, it's a non-issue. The reasons are varied, and range from "gotta stop those terrorists!", to trusting in the anonymity and good intentions the TSA promises of their policies and procedures, to downright apathy. We're living in a nation that could barely crack a 50% voter turnout in an election that was virtually a boxing match between Republicans and Democrats, and I don't think I need to bring up that it was an election that spoke to a lot of people. If we can barely get 50% of people to care about who is running the country, do you think that even 50% really care about backscatter scanners and invasive pat-downs? The Opt-Out day passed with nary a whimper, as even those primed to make an issue out of it encountered relatively few delays and had a negligible impact on the operation of airport security. Depending on who polls the nation, you either get 2/3rds agreeing with the new procedures or 2/3rds disagreeing with it, which doesn't really help either side of the debate. So, again, the question is this: is this really an issue for the majority of Americans, or is it a non-issue largely spurred by the media and vocal online groups? For me, at least, I think it's somewhere in the middle. But, then, I always think that, don't I?
If the invasive patdowns continue, I think it is a procedure that will bother people as more people are exposed to it. The scanners that are used, are not very good at identifying items that are placed in the body cavity. Unless the person looking at the scan is very good, items in the body cavity will be missed. The people being scanned are being exposed to high levels of radiation. I do not think it is justified to be doing that especially given the reality that most of the people looking at the scan are not skilled enough to identify explosive devices. TSA's current process does not plan for the future and what would be terrorists might do. Since the governments current policy is to react and create procedures solely off of what has been done so far, can the traveling public expect to have body cavity searches next if a terrorist is able to sneak explosives onto a plane in their body cavity when missed by the scanners or the agent reviewing the scans?
How many are really going to choose the pat-down though? I know that, even though I find both to be invasive, I'd rather have a machine producing a creepy CG flesh doll that nobody will want to look at of me than having someone feeling up my junk. C'mon man, that's just the slippery slope argument.
Simple - upwards of 60% of the population hasn't flown in a year or more. A sizeable portion of that hasn't flown probably in five years. Lower income folks - the sort who don't make enough to pay income taxes - say under $30K a year really can't afford to fly unless they just HAVE to. I myself haven't been on an airplane since 1983. Most of the people i know personally have never flown, and those who have usually it was because they are in the Guard. Under those conditions, it's obvious most folks are not paying attention.
According to CNN yesterday, TSA has gotten about 2,000 official complaints out of an estimated 2,000,000 passengers since the patdowns & scanners started. one tenth of one percent. We only fly once a year, so we won't get our dose of X-rays until the spring.
Someone should almost bring a Geiger counter to see just how much radiation one of those scanners is putting out. Even without the whole seeing people naked through their closes aspect to it, exposing people to radiation like that just isn't right.
I do not think many will choose it. But, people are going to be forced to endure it as we've heard about already. The people that for some reason set off the system. People with prosthetic limbs, woman with prosthetic breasts and those types of things. The most pathetic part of this is that if any of us including police were to do these same pat downs, they would be accused of and charged with sexual assault. How is it a slippery slope? I think it is a slippery slope that is being employed by the TSA and the government. They feel that if they want to do something no matter how invasive, it can be justified as providing safety and security to the traveling public and that makes it okay and justified to do. Have the policies being put into place by TSA become more invasive since 2001?
Flight crews are the only people who have a legitimate beef about radiation with these things, since they are hit with more ionizing radiation than just about any other occupation, IIRC. Pretty sure you're going to get hit with more ionizing radiation by merely flying than from walking through one of these gates.
That is correct. You do get hit with more ionizing radiation merely from flying than from walking through one of the scanners. But, radiation is cumulative. Why add more radiation than is needed. These scan's are not needed for the majority of travelers and will more than likely not catch someone who is interested in getting explosives on board a plane.
Covered that. The reason it passed without incident is because the TSA suspended backscatter and patdowns, very likely for the very purpose of minimizing the national protest's impact. They stopped what people were going to protest so that there was nothing for anyone to protest and, therefore, no protest. The fact that doing this had a negligible impact on airport security only supports the notion of how absolutely useless those measures are.
The cosmic rays you are exposed to flying affect your entire body. The low-energy xrays strike only your skin, concentrating their ionizing effects.
Has this been proven beyond some mutterings on Twitter yet? Gizmodo, while generally a pretty good site for tech news, isn't beyond digging for headlines - they knowingly purchased property from someone other than its owner with the iPhone 4 fiasco, after all. It seems like a really bad idea, to me, to simply issue a "turn off the scanners" order to kneecap the protest when it had that much media attention. Possible, sure, the government ain't known for an abundance of intelligence, but it seems like a pretty shaky basis for a conspiracy.
You mean beyond dozens of first-hand reports? Since Gizmodo was the reporting organization, rather than the source, this is irrelevant. Conspiracy? Please. It's no more a "conspiracy" than was turning the damn things on in the first place. Christ. When McDonald's brought back the McRib, did you call that a "conspiracy" too? Here's a clue for ya: Intra-organizational communication is a reality. Doesn't take a tinfoil hat to acknowledge that fact, but it does take a good dose of stupid to pretend it doesn't exist.
But wouldn't that be like other numbers? Y'know, 1 letter = 10-100 folks? Many folks WON'T complain for fear of being singled out, and put under a microscope. And to the other issue - I haven't flown since the very early 90's. And as it is now, the only time I would fly is if I ever get enough $$$ together to visit Hawaii again.
A Performer I like, Voltaire, says that he flies 4 times a week and has to pass through the scanners Each Time. He said that by the time hat they "discover" that the scanners cause cancer, it'll be too late for him. Me? I'm not flying anymore. I'll train or bus it. Oh, and like the airline industry Needs another reason to not fly. .
Have any of you saying "take a bus" ever actually taken a bus in America lately, especially in The South/East Coast? Just sayin' I'll take my chances with getting too much scanner radiation/Mohammed Shalifkazirijan going crazy!
Seriously. I'd rather a semi-trained kinda-professional be feeling me up in full view of cameras in an airport than an unwashed man-woman with festering sores feeling me up in a Greyhound bus that smells like vomit because three toddlers, each only nine months apart, and all with different fathers, all threw up and their mom has had far too much heroin to do anything about it. The train wasn't too bad, but it seemed to be hideously expensive given that it's only about as fast as a car (at least on the route to Seattle), but less convenient.
And that's on a good day! And don't forget the folks traveling cross-country who haven't had a hygiene break yet! On my son's first (and hopefully last) recent bus trip, he encountered a stabbing in the parking lot during a layover, and a bus driver falling asleep behind the wheel, among other things. On my first long-distantce bus trip I encountered a psychotic Mexican threatening the driver, a blizzard (with accompanying 12 hour layover) and a drunk pissing himself and stinking up the bus until he got tossed off.
Still better than giving even tacit approval to tyranny. And let's not understate it, that's what we're dealing with. Tyranny. You can now be barred from conducting a legal transaction for merely insisting on the observance of your personal privacy absent having committed any criminal offense.
meh-try a cross country bus sometime. Three days without sleep and smoke breaks every three hours :/ I'd rather hitchhike.
That's another favorite line from "Why I Hate Saturn" (paraphrased): "The only thing worse than the kind of people who ride Greyhound are the kind of people who ride Greyhound to San Francisco."
You know, since the majority of the fuckers trying to blow up U.S. flights originate from outside the motherfucking country?! Give Skin the arab, any fucking time. Until there are TSA backscanners and gropesters in fuckin' Amsterdam, which is where the underwear bomber got on a U.S.-bound flight, TSA is nothing but tyranny pretending to have justification.
Point of order: Amsterdam apparently has backscatter-type scanners in their airport, according to my mother who flew back to the US from Prague via Amsterdam.
It seems like a lifetime ago now, but I once rode Greyhound from Akron, OH to my hometown in BFE, AL. It took twenty...six...hours. When I stepped off that last bus, I made a promise. Never. Again. I'll fuckin' walk.
