TSA got you down?

[iztok]

If for whatever reason you still opt out of the scanner then you get felt up. Big deal.

How do you feel about stranger seeing your 14 year old daughter naked? Or groping her?

My now 19 year old adoptive daughter has been molested by one of her biological family members. I wouldn't want her to go through what TSA is doing and risk more therapy.

 

[outlawaggie]

So you believe that ... like the TSA guy said ... we give up our rights as US citizens when we purchase an airline ticket?

You're willing to go along with that?

Really?

How about when you purchase a bus ticket? Or tickets to see your favorite sports team? How about when you drive to work in the morning? Driving isn't a Constitutional right either ... so should a cop be able to just randomly pull you over, force you to strip naked, or grope your private parts ... just because?

Would giving up your essentlal liberties ... your dignity as a human being ... somehow make you feel safer?

Not me ... not ever ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I think you missed the point. Flying is not a right. If you can't accept the rules to fly then don't fly.....OR drop $2,000 an hour on a private charter.

Contrary to what our entitlement minded president and Congress think. You do not have a RIGHT to a big house, free food, a great job, welfare, everything your neighbor has or anything else you don't earn. You do have a right to the opportunity to pursue whatever you want in life. Then through hard work earn it.

 

[outlawaggie]

How do you feel about stranger seeing your 14 year old daughter naked? Or groping her?

My now 19 year old adoptive daughter has been molested by one of her biological family members. I wouldn't want her to go through what TSA is doing and risk more therapy.

There is a huge difference in naked and the image produced by the scanners. That's not a valid comparison.

As to your 19 y/o...don't say no to the scanner...problem solved.

 

[irishsquid]

...People that have an issue now, their heads would explode if they had to go thru more screening if they werent even flying.

...I have the un-nerving feeling that the next attack won't be on a plane but in the terminal itself. Then what are they going to do. Search every car, bus, and train going to the airport.

Doubler, at the rate we're going, I think you have just made a propetic statement there.
So when the terrorists start using cars, buses, etc. to put their bombs in/on and settle for lower casualty numbers with a higher quantity of events, I guess we will
have to settle for ineffective and likely intrusive searches and delays to use those modes of conveyance also, all in the name of security, because some people just don't care and are willing to accept the s*** our gov't hands down to us.

 

[dmoore19]

There is a huge difference in naked and the image produced by the scanners. That's not a valid comparison.

As to your 19 y/o...don't say no to the scanner...problem solved.

And you know this how? Those images are not supposed to be saved, in case you didn't hear, they are. I don't care how old my daughter is, I don't want her quasi image saved and I don't want her felt up.

The whole scanner/pat down thing is a joke. It doesn't do a thing for security except make you feel better because it sure doesn't calm my nerves. getting a bomb on a plane could be done by several methods, air freight, checked baggage, planted by some crazy extremist that works for an airline or TSA. A terrorist could set off a bomb the size of a carry on bag in the security line. What can be done about that?

The battle is over, the terrorists have won!

 

[ronbeau]

"Israeli security succeeds by questioning every passenger. What is the purpose of your trip? Who packed your bags? Where will you be staying? The security agents are all army veterans (well, nearly everyone in Israel is), have college degrees, and are fired immediately if they make a mistake. They learn psychological profiles of terrorists as well as how to detect things — like the Irish lady traveling to meet her fiance family without him. That don’t smell right."

Not going get the minimum wage TSA agents to that level of competency...hence the current methods. In addition, Israel has about 1/60th of the air traffic we do...and it will not be feasible to undertake that kind of examination in this country.

I think the TSA is far from a minimum wage job. I doubt the TSA personnel are making $8/hour.

 

[iztok]

There is a huge difference in naked and the image produced by the scanners. That's not a valid comparison.

As to your 19 y/o...don't say no to the scanner...problem solved.

Have you seen the images produced by the scanners? I think you did not.

low resolution of one:

You avoided the question how would you feel about your daughter?

 

[iztok]

I think the TSA is far from a minimum wage job. I doubt the TSA personnel are making $8/hour.

TSA: Pay Scales at TSA (2010)

Starts at $17k a year.

 

[naimis]

While I wouldn't cancel a dive trip because of the new security measures (going on one Saturday in fact), I do think it's a sad state of affairs. Moreso I think it's sad that, even when faced with the facts, so many people are still willing to have their 4th Amendment rights taken away for the illusion of safety.

I'm trying to figure out how this isn't ironic. From my point of view, going through TSA security and flying, whether for work or for pleasure, is throwing away one's 4th (and 5th, perhaps in some sense.. hey, I'm no lawyer) amendment rights.

It seems like a significant portion of the traveling American public has simply gone into BOHICA mode and is merely accepting what they perceive as either being out of control or even a necessary evil (or, stranger still in my eyes, a desirable situation). I chose to refuse to fly because I think it's one of the few things that I can do that has a chance of affecting change in how the TSA does its business.

Since 9/11 we've had 3 major terrorist scares involving the US and airplanes. Richard Reid (shoebomber, flight from France to Miami), Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (underwear bomber, Amsterdam to Detroit), and the recent package scare (Yemen origin via England and Dubai, heading to Chicago).

Not to mention a number of minor ones, including one that was pretty much literally in my back yard. Joe Stack flew his small plane into an IRS building here in Austin, TX. I could see the building from the back of the office where I work. FoxNews.com - Pilot Crashes Into Texas Building in Apparent Anti-IRS Suicide The TSA wouldn't have stopped that either.

Although not flying isn't a choice for me, neither is acting like a sheep ready to give away pieces of who I am and what I believe in -- for any reason, much less an unproven one. So to the original poster I'd still go to Bonaire if I were you, but before you go perhaps you should write a quick note to your congressperson letting them know how you feel?

While I agree that this is a reasonable idea, and I plan on doing so and would suggest anyone else that thinks there should be change do so as well... I still believe that turning it into an economic impact will have the most likelihood of affecting change. So, I'd add "airline executives" to the list of people to write to .

 

[naimis]

A couple more articles today...

Why They Don’t Need To ‘Touch Your Junk’ At Israeli Airports - Big Government (first time I'd heard the term "Hobson's choice")

Passenger Discovers Loaded Ammunition Clip on Phoenix-Bound Flight (I thought this was more testimony to the ineffectiveness of the searches, but in fact it turned out to be an ammo clip that a law enforcement officer had left on the plane, and had been declared on the way in... interesting, nevertheless)