One might respond, "It's necessary to keep us safe." That would be a legitimate argument, but there's no reason to think that this stuff is accomplishing anything. While TSA reacts to the last attack (we had to take our shoes off after the shoe bomber, they "touch our junk" after the undie bomber), terrorists are working on other plots.
If we wanted to get serious, we would stop screening little kids, nuns, and people with colostomy bags. We have to admit that the people trying these attacks come from, or have ties to, certain countries. It doesn't have to be "racial profiling." Profile young men with ties to Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, etc. Sure, keep on doing random screening of other people, but let's stop bending over backwards to appear to be truly random by screening people who obviously aren't threats. Of course, this won't happen.
But on a personal note, I'm undecided over whether I should choose X-ray or pat down if I am posed with the choice when I fly at Christmas (if this system survives that long). I like the idea of opting out of the scanners as a form of protest, and thus slowing things down and creating extra work for TSA. But then I have to be patted down. So I'll have to think about it.
Unfortunately, we have to realize that terrorist groups are currently using kids as suicide bombers, we can't just assume that because children are small, and most of us value them, that they won't be used by terrorist groups. Granted, the way we're checking them now is very inappropriate, don't get me wrong, but the people we "don't check" will become the people that they'll use. we've got American traitors that side with terrorists that look just like the rest of us. Anyone can put on a nun costume.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you 100%, Craig. Our country has become SO incredibly concerned with not hurting the feelings of people who wish to (in their own words) "see us die and kill our children", that we are sacrificing our own right to privacy and our own civil liberties.
ReplyDeleteLike everything else currently going on in our nation, the goal is Cloward and Piven. It's not conspiracy theory, it's front page news that the media wishes to sugar coat or ignore-as they focus on "real stories" like the royal wedding.
The Patriot Act was not written in response to 9/11..it was drafted by progressives, with the leading architect, Joe Biden, in 1995! The Fed's and later the TSA has had these machines well before global terrorism was a threat. Now, they are banking on people not wanting to be sexually assaulted, so we will inevitably agree to be scanned. Then, we're supposed to trust the government that these machines are only doing what they are supposed to, and that they will locate terrorists..sure..
Let's face it, with a Progressive Muslim/Palestinian pandering President and gov't, who has denied that Islamic terrorism actually exists, all that matters it that we comply like good little socialist worker bees. After all, all they want to do is keep us safe, right?
I don't think "giving the TSA extra work" would accomplish what you want to accomplish--they probably get paid by the hour, and it would just slow down your fellow passengers.
ReplyDeleteIt probably all depends on what airport you fly out of, because we flew out of Madison the other day and didn't have any problems. I don't know if they even own a scanner. Plus, maybe because of all the negative attention they're getting, the TSA staff were unusually pleasant.
On the macro level, I agree that most of what the TSA does is security theater instead of security. But, as I'm sure you would guess, I don't agree about non-random screenings. (For one thing, I've heard they don't even manage to weed out everybody who's on the no-fly list, so how could they pinpoint everyone with ties to certain Muslim countries?) If you want to talk about "no right to fly," try being yanked out of every security line and given all the extra scans, pat-downs, and rub-downs of all your stuff because because you look kinda Muslim.