November 9, 2010
The TSA and Full Body Image Scanners
I dont’ know why it has taken me so long to blog about this, because I had meant to do it last week, but the week got away from me. It feels like every week gets away from me. But, that’s what happens when you live the life of a rock star, I suppose.
Anyway, I was down in Florida last week for work. Tampa to be exact. I tried to hang out with Stacy McCain, but as I was only in town one night and he was on the other side of the state…well, we decided we would meet back up sometime when we were both around the DC area.
Although, as I stepped into the security line at the airport and saw that a full body image scanner was in my immediate future a sense of panic overtook me and I thought, “Why didn’t I make Stacy pick me up and embark on a wild road trip up the east coast? Yes, I would probably fund the rest of the trip. I might die in a car accident. Hell, he might head the wrong way down a one way road (he has done this with me in the car before). The trip back might end up taking three days instead of three hours! But, all of that just might be better than having random federal TSA employees looking at scanned images of my naked body in some backroom where I don’t know who they are or what they are doing with those images!”
It didn’t help that just that morning I had read an article about a TSA worker pulling pranks on unsuspecting passengers by putting a cocaine-like substance in their bag and then pretending to bust them for cocaine possession. Hahahaha! That’s so funny! And, these are the same people I’m supposed to trust to violate me in the most personal way the government has yet to think up to violate me? And, all because some Muslim terrorist decided to sew explosives into his underwear? You’ve got to be kidding me! Effin terrorists! Always ruining it for everyone else!
At this point I’m overwhelmingly enraged, which happens at times because I have serious rage issues coupled with violent tendencies. Immediately, I knew, I would not be walking through that scanner. So, I had two options. I could walk behind the security guy who checks my ID and go to the lane to the left with no body image scanner. I could walk through the line I was in and hope they sent me through the normal metal detector instead of the full body scanner and if that failed I could openly and loudly refuse, while pointing out the violation of my privacy and civil liberties and force them to do a thorough pat-down (which would consist of some seriously uncomfortable groping), which I had decided would be more preferable than the idea of TSA perverts sitting in a back room looking and doing who knows what else to virtual images of my naked body.
As luck would have it, they told me to go through the normal metal detector. Now, me being me, I was kind of disappointed. At that point in my day I was sober (so, unlikely to be arrested for public drunkness or disorderly conduct) and I would have loved to have made a scene and maybe inspired everyone else to revolt against, and refuse to participate in, this gross violation of our privacy and freedom.
I hate to break it to the TSA but I’m clearly not a terrorist. I know the sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, Catholic religion and round trip tickets might scare them, as well as my lack of knowledge in the area of explosives and my lack of desire to be “rewarded in heaven with 72 virgins,” but I’m not a threat to any airliner or the United States of America.
As I got to the other side and the three people who had just been violated by our government stood there waiting to hear back their results and find out if the TSA worker was going to have to get know them better, the last girl who went through the machine asked what had just happened. “What did that machine do?” she inquired.
At which point my blood boiled to a point I almost exploded causing the biggest terrorism scare ever: “Non-Muslim female explodes at airport after being bypassed for full body image screening machine! Suspect may have held explosives internally. TSA announces full body cavity searches for all passengers starting immediately!”
I turned to the idiot uninformed citizen and said, “They just scanned your entire body and a virtual image of your naked body is being viewed by some TSA worker in some backroom. How could you stand for that and not even know it?” To which, the TSA worker flashed me a frowny face, “:-(!”
As the look of shock and horror took over her face, I knew that she had no clue. Frantically, she looked to the TSA worker who had ushered her through, “Is this true?”
And, sadly, she was told that it was true. But, her humiliation and violation weren’t over yet. It turns out the machine had discovered something (that turned out to be the under-wire in her bra) and she was then publicly patted and groped by the TSA worker who had first ushered her through without explaining what all of the fluorescent green pictures on the signs meant and then confirmed to her what most women don’t want to hear: there are some “workers” sitting in a backroom viewing her virtual naked body on a computer screen.
This whole situation bothers me because I can’t just hold “the government” and the TSA responsible. People should be following the news and know what’s going on. How could you just walk through this machine without asking questions first? I know, it’s a matter of intimidation and trust in an authority figure. Plus, since September 11, 2001 we have given up one liberty after another for the privilege to fly on planes so that our government can continue the fallacy that it is not young Islamic men trying to get on our planes and harm us.
It amazes me that our government can get away with this. How scared are we? Or is it just ignorance? How do average Americans think that this is OK, constitutional or will even work? Terrorists don’t care if they get killed in the attack. In fact, that’s usually their goal. How long before one tries to hide explosives where even these machines can’t see? And, after that, are Americans going to allow the government to tell them they have to arrive at the airport four hours early and submit to full body cavity searches before they can get on a flight?
The terrorists seem to be keeping one step ahead of our security and intelligence agencies. The Christmas Day Crotch Bomber didn’t fail because our government succeded. It was by the grace of God. Every terror or attempted terror incident we have heard about in recent times has not be a story of success for our government, but a failure on the parts of the terrorists.
I will continue to fly until the searches become more intense than inmates experience at a maximum security prison, but I will openly and loudly refuse to have images of my body displayed and stored on government computers. Where is the outrage over this? Where are the women’s groups who talk about keeping the government off our bodies? I just don’t get it. Do we have to wait for some perverted TSA workers to be caught with images that weren’t supposed to be saved or able to be copied and reproduced? Yeah, because that’s only a matter of time. But, what does it say about the majority of Americans if that’s what it is going to take?
2 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
What it says is that americans are too gutless and stupid for democracy.
Comment by Uzza — November 10, 2010 @ 4:31 pm
Agreed–the silence from these various groups is deafening. Haven’t flown in years because of the increasing b.s. the TSA is doing. Last 2 trips to FL to see my dad have behind the wheel of my car. Avoids the hassle and I get to see more of the country that way.
Comment by wxwzrd — November 11, 2010 @ 9:08 am