TSA Complaints

General
1

I know this is a common topic right now so I wanted to share some information from the EFF in regards to the new TSA naked body scan or grouping pat-down options. When you travel this holiday you will have to make a choice between having your kids naked pictures taken or being groped. The EFF has setup a page to help you submit complaints about this process. If you submit a complaint also send it to the EFF. They will be using the FOIA to ensure the complaints are actually there. Especially since the TSA says they have not seen an increase in complaints on the new measures.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/11/stand-against-tsa-invasive-security-procedures

–Craig

2

gate rape.

3

You, sir, win the Internet for that phrase.
(And for the fact that this is pretty much what it is...)

4

hahahahah

Oh and the Pirate party sent out this info
http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1796&Itemid=60

Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas has introduced the American Traveler Dignity Act. You know you have really screwed things up when the Pirate Party is siding with a Republican, and one from Texas none the less.

5

This is a topic I have spent a lot of time on in the past few months. There has been some talk that the wavelength of radiation used by the backscatter machines may cause damage to DNA. Not really a problem unless that person is pregnant or ever plans to have children in the future… I guess my point is that the groping is probably the lesser of the two evils, for this and other reasons.

Yahoo was forced to remove the original article, but plenty of other sites had grabbed a piece of it, so here is one example:
http://www.disinfo.com/2010/01/oops-backscatter-x-ray-machines-tear-apart-dna/

If you do decide to Opt-Out of the scanner, DO NOT REQUEST A PRIVATE SETTING. Do you want the omg-public-indecency groping, or the behind-closed-doors-where-no-one-can-see-what-they-are-doing-to-you groping?

TP

6

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gate+rape

7

While I appreciate that Ron Paul stands by his principles more than
most politicians appear to, and I even agree with some of those
principles, I can't see myself supporting him anytime soon...

But you know, this could be an opportunity since we have "Won't
someone PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?" coming to clash with "Do this,
OR THE TERRORISTS WIN!"
(...which kind of ignores that they basically have won. But whatever.)

8

Nothing will really change until large corporations start seeing it in their profits. To wit:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/krolman1.1.1.html

Also, TIL about ‘gate rape drugs’

9

I’m waiting to hear about the first date that results from the body scanners.

And you would think a business would start up to offer skin-thick radiation blocking suits that people could wear to ‘obscure’ their ‘true’ nudity?

You know, like those big ass XX-L T-Shirts grandmas like to wear with the over-tanned body of a skinny lady in a bikini on it?

Obviously the making-you-look-smaller bit isn’t going to work (like getting a full-body tattoo, but bigger), but who’s really fooled by the T-Shirts? Sure, they’re funny, but really it’s more about vanity, isn’t it? Aren’t we here in America a little hyper-involved with that anyway? Maybe acceptance of these measures (sans cop-a-feel mode) could be the first step toward nude beaches? (lul doubtful)

All joking/devil’s advocate aside …
The bottom line for me is it’s unfortunate that such a transportation monopoly exists. Why is it irrational to think that passengers could & should go on strike? What if all passengers refused to undergo these measures? Certainly that would not yield the results we’re looking for, which is less-intrusive flight/transport.

This gets at what Chris is saying about hitting their pockets. But even if there were other methods of transport available and even if we would sacrifice our plans for legitimate concerns of privacy, it’s not about the method, it’s about the sheer numbers of people traveling and the opportunity that presents to terrorists.

Seems to me the only option is to computerize it. I love discussing these types of societal issues. People wouldn’t trust a computerized system to do a good enough job, but then we get our panties in a bunch when a person is tasked with it.

Maybe it’s just our habit (and convenience) of security-by-obscurity rearing it’s ugly head? I think it tends to creates issues that we have a hard time rationalizing, much less solving. Without profiling, without taking any risks through trust in random screening, etc, how do we stop a guy from molding C4 around his junk? Hell, for that matter, how do we keep him from shoving it up his ass, using it for boob implants, etc? AFAIK, nothing, except maybe dogs and a prying finger (too far? lol). Yet isn’t that just as likely as we thought an underwear bomber would have been, prior to last year?

Maybe one day we’ll all be required to wear black spandex onesies when flying.

sorry for the length :-x

10

Where is the lane for “I’ll take my chances”. Like I do every time I step out of the house. After 9/11 they started to have locked cock pits for the pilot. That was good. That made sense. Everything else is really not worth what we lose. If the underwear bomber were successful he would have blown up a plain (maybe). So what. You could kill the same number on a bus, in the mall at the premier of a Harry Potter movie…where ever.

While I can deal with being groped I don’t want peoples kids, wives, grandmothers to have to go through that just to visit family or go on vacation. If there is some person sitting next to me who didn’t get naked pictures taken or his junk groped then I’m OK with that. If he goes to light is dick on fire I personally volunteer to stomp out the flames. Don’t even get me started on how packages get sent on planes or the lack of checks of the freight companies in an out of airports. Or small airports like Lunken…try to drive around back and walk into one of the hangers… you won’t even be stopped. I know, I used to take certification classes there.

This is really a crime against our 4th amendment right which guards against unreasonable search and seizure. Buying a plane ticket does not remove this right because terrorist exist.

Ah, well that felt therapeutic… thx :slight_smile:

Craig

11

exacctlyy

12

(I may need asbestos underwear for this...)
Many Republicans will rant till they're blue in the face about how the
government needs to stay out of their lives when it comes to issues
like taxation, welfare, regulation, poverty, schools, and drugs. I
find it very curious how many of these folks suddenly change their
tune to "The government is just doing this to protect us! What if a
cross-dresser comes through the line with a prosthetic penis made of
explosives?" when it comes to an issue like this.

13

good point. when you fear everything, no amount of tangible freedom can supersede it.

i think that specific example (and actually, those seemingly-opposing others you mention as well) is a result of putting the FearCart before WitnessHorse: fearing for the result of what you fear for fear of being even more fearful and helpless. (wha?!)

(I can’t remember the psychological term for this, and I need to get back to recovering from data loss lol. But you hit the nail on the head.)

14

I noticed that Menninger tweeted this from the EFF.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/11/common-sense-and-security-body-scanners

Excellent document!!

And if you haven’t seen despair’s TSA shirts yet

http://www.despair.com/tsa.html

:smiley:

15

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/travis2.1.1.html

16

many great points.

“We’ve done nothing to strike at the root. … The problem is government using fear to insert itself in between the parties of a consensual transaction.”

however, with all that in mind, it would seem to me that the problem is the failure of the consensual transaction to actually be … consensual. You know, that part where you agreed to not blow up the plane?

Of course, that’s not to say that the way in which this arbitration was settled is legitimately of blue ribbon quality, but to jump all the way to “it’s them, not 300 million me’s”, is just leading toward a preconceived notion, potentially fraught with fear-based sliding of our societal norms toward something equally as sinister just from a different perspective, doncha think?