Is it just me or is this kinda creepily intrusive? The photos seem obscene and yet this is your body at the airport.
Remember long ago when no one even cared if your name on your paper ticket matched anything? No I.D. was necessary, nope, all anyone cared about was you being on time for your flight. Then it became necessary to show some sort of I.D. Later well, please if you don’t mind and it is entirely optional, remove your shoes then removing shoes, belts, jewelry, barrettes, watches… became mandatory. And since I have always looked like a terrorist, I was always shuffled off for the once over while Andrew sailed on through because frisking a middle aged white gal was keeping this world safe!
Never mind plain old middle aged women, what about this scary woman!
And don’t you even think about complaining because if you say or do anything that ticks the TSA off you will end up in the frisking line for sure and could end up in jail for life.
So now we get to be stripped naked before some very qualified agent. But not to worry the agents will all be guffawing and gawking off in a private room. Yes, that is supposed to bring you some comfort; they won’t be staring at your naked body right in front of you, they will be staring at you in the privacy of their little room. Happy thought that. And don’t even believe they destroy the photos as promised; ’cause I’m wondering, if they destroy all the photos immediately, why the heck-o is it so easy to pull a few off the world wide web?? “The Transportation Security Administration has promised not to store or transmit nude images of airline passengers made by whole-body scanners, but when it asked manufacturers to submit bids for such machines, it required that the scanners have exactly those capabilities, according to agency documents obtained in a lawsuit.
So… to visit my new grandson, I have to mentally gear up for this kind of treatment for the privilege of getting on a plane. Andrew has been listening to me for a full week ranting on about this country being soooo stupid that we have let this sort of thing happen.
And our response? Well, if it keeps us safe. Like sheep to the slaughter. Baaaa.
Thanks for this! We keep having our rights and privacies slowly stripped away from us, and no one is batting an eye. What’s next… body cavity checks?
Literally ‘stripped away!’
I at first wasn’t too concerned about the use of this type of tech. I wouldn’t mind too much if it was used on me for instance. However, I then realized that while I wouldn’t mind if I was getting scanned, I would not want my sisters, mother, or any of my girl friends to be scanned. I guess I’m a prude.
As to whether it would even work. I’ve heard that this device would not have caught the underwear bomber.
And because it is soooo politically incorrect to actually profile who might be a threat, grandma, an elementary age girl and the nun get the same treatment as say, someone named Mohamed Atta, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
My husband had just been reading about how Israel has not had a terrorist attack on any of their airplanes since 1967. They have a very effective method. It’s called profiling.
I totally agree with you about the invasiveness of the TSA. And they know it won’t keep you safe. It’s just another way for them to turn the kettle up on the almost boiling frog.
And why in the world use the most effective method to ensure safe travel when the TSA can instead cause every passenger to feel like a terrorist?