santa cruz wharf

17 October 2007

wading in on wednesday

I was gonna post a really lovely picture of one of my paperweights….oh well…so it goes.

This morning I got to thinking that it is just about time for Barry Steinhardt and the American Civil Liberties Union to start protecting MY rights. Now I admit I have a pretty wonderful life. I have experienced discrimination on a couple occasions….nothing I’d need a million-something march for…but the concept is not unknown to me.

Here's the deal...

I WANT some TSA employee in some other part of the airport viewing my body with ex-ray vision.
I want them viewing your body too...
and all the stuff you carry on…
and what ever it is you check into the belly of my plane.

I want the TSA to use the latest and greatest technology to insure some militant lunatic or martyr isn’t gonna try and use the plane to kill American citizens.

If there are one or two deviants who took the TSA job because seeing the shapely outline of my womanly features through millimeter-wave passenger imaging technology gives them a thrill…then so be it. They are down the hall and around the corner…not winking at me across the console. They can’t print the image and take it home.

As long as they are also spotting any potential exploding shoe, high density polyethylene blade, Ruger Redhawk, or C-4 stuffed where it shouldn’t be….Let them look. If that means the next guy in line gets seen with his colostomy bag…too bad. He can hitch a ride with John Madden or take the train if this invasion of his privacy is too upsetting.

The ACLU needs to allow me and mine to walk through this security machine with the state-of-art body scanning technology rather than mandating fellow passengers enjoy the floor show of a TSA employee rubbing my body with the big wand that looks like a cricket bat…or worse yet, pat me down wearing those creepy white gloves. Which job do you think the pervert who snuck onto the TSA payroll is gonna prefer?

In his statement Mr. Steinhardt of the ACLU called the screening an "assault on the essential dignity of passengers that citizens in a free nation should not have to tolerate."

What about the peace of mind while traveling for citizens in a free nation?

10 comments:

Ian said...

Ah, but when as the ACLU ever cared about anything except self-serving aggrandizement? :)

Ian

Travis Cody said...

I don't mind the scans of my person, of your person, of my luggage, of your luggage. I don't travel much, and when I do have to fly I get to the airport early and follow the rules.

It's really not that difficult to follow the rules. If people would just follow the rules, then it's not a hardship.

Jeff B said...

Oh how we love the
A nti
C hristian
L iberalist
U nion

So much litigation, so little time.

I wonder how Mr Steinhardt would view his statement if his plane were going down in a ball of fire because some nut job decided to blow off a wing.

Mel said...

*sigh*

Why can't people just get along, yaknow?

It'd be a mute point if we'd JUST get along.

*sigh*
I'm such a dreamer sometimes.....

Odat said...

If the TSA and the airlines and whoever else is involved did their jobs right the first time, we wouldn't need these scans.
Peace

Schmoop said...

I got fired by the TSA for being too thorough and "hands-on". Cheers!!

robkroese said...

I don't get the thinking of becoming an airport screener so that you can look at people's naughty bits. I mean, first of all, last time I checked somewhere around half of people are MALE. And somewhere around 86% of people are FAT and UGLY. If only there was a way to view only the good looking people, in the privacy of one's own home. I'm sure someone will come up with something eventually.

Desert Songbird said...

All the more reason to travel by car.

But seriously, I agree, peace of mind is worth so much more than the so-called infringement of my dignity.

As Trav said, how difficult is it to follow the rules?

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

Great posting. I've been a member of the ACLU for some time. I am a firm follower of that old Benjamin Franklin quote: "He who sacrifices his freedom for security deserves neither."

From an old cancer survivor...peace.

JAM said...

I agree whole-heartedly with what you say here.

This isn't a case of giving up any freedom or essential liberty, AND it protects folks from what is known to be a favorite avenue for islamofascists to kill as many people as they can.

We have always had xray machines and metal detectors and wands; they are just more diligent with them now.