TSA's Obscene Security Procedures (Part 2)

"It's important to remember that TSA screens nearly 2 million passengers daily and that very few passengers are required to receive a pat-down," according to a post on the TSA Blog.


Right - so it's also important to remember that the United States has nearly 300 million people living in it and very few of them are victims of sex crimes outside airports. Does that make it ok?  NO.


What are we going to do when the next terrorist puts some explosives in his rectum? Mandatory cavity searches?  And how much explosives does it take to do some damage? And can a terrorist use something other than explosives to do something spectacular with an airplane that we won't like? Prosthetic limbs? Drugs? There will always be a weakness. It's impossible to have perfect security. Can we prevent a pilot from becoming radicalized? Can we prevent an unknown radical from becoming a pilot? No. 


But there are a lot of common-sense security measures we CAN take that don't require violating the personal privacy of all airline passengers. And many counter-measures can be implemented outside airports to improve the overall security of the country.


Why the big focus on airplanes? Did we get scared on 11 Sep 2001? Nearly 3,000 people died from that attack. But tens of thousands of people die from car accidents every year, and we're not doing body cavity searches for all the drivers on the road to make sure they're paying attention and not under the influence of any drugs. And there are terrorists on the roads, too, because that's how they get to the airport security station! Are we going to strip-search and grope drivers on the roads? No. 


I'm very sorry for the victims of that attack and for their families. I still remember the surrealism and then the anger I felt when I saw the news that morning. If someone in my family had been in that building, I still wouldn't be advocating for what the TSA is doing now. I'd be advocating for real security measures and real foreign policy changes that can actually improve our national well-being. 


When the terrorists used weapons to take over the plane, the TSA tightened the screening for weapons going as far as confiscating nail clippers from people. Then a terrorist tried to use explosives stuffed in his underwear, and now the TSA is buying expensive imaging machines and groping people to make sure there's nothing in their underwear. What will the TSA do when the next terrorist manages to sneak something dangerous on board the airplane by stowing it in his rectum?  Their procedure is sure to cause more delays in security, right? How many people wait in that security line in major airports? A lot, right? So if we make it impossible to sneak anything dangerous onto the airplane, the next step will be for a terrorist to wear a full-fledged modern suicide vest and blow up everyone at the security line! And all the nude scanning and groping will have been for nothing. 


I'm not at all willing to be groped for "security reasons" when I travel. Maybe if the government allowed a segregation so people can choose whether they want to fly with a groping airline or a non-groping airline, and people had a choice, then I would be willing to accept that other people choose to be groped in exchange for their security while I and other like-minded Americans fly on the grope-free airline. But since the choice is to fly and be groped or not fly at all, I'm going to exercise what liberty I have left and choose not to fly until the airports become civilized again.