printMAUL MALIA; SCAN SASHA. NO, DON’T. Having seen the children down whose miniature trousers TSA goons have been reaching; having witnessed heroic little Mandy Smith’s ordeal (and her father’s reprehensible abdication); being in possession of a keen sense of justice and rights—I could never-ever condone such futile, en masse, state sadism and fascism. Not ever. Not against innocent adults. And most certainly not against children, not even the president’s kids, who seem sweet, and whose only flaw is to have been born to a miserable excuse for a human being.
Make that two.
The First Lady has seemingly not experienced a visceral reaction against what is being done by her husband’s administration (begun under his predecessor) to the American people. She has, at least, failed to give voice to a gut reaction to this mass contagion; this moronity, if indeed one was experienced.
This is the same FLOTUS of the “Fat-Based Initiatives”; the woman who so cares for America’s bloated kids. In this post I asked, “Why no white butterballs?” Even Michael Savage hasn’t dared to ponder what would Michelle say if more kids who looked like hers were being mauled by malevolent state workers.
As a mother—as a human being with a heart—I cannot stand to see kids being subjected to the cruelty of strangers. What a miserable excuse for a mother is this woman, Michelle Obama.
SAVAGING THE SAVAGES:
MORE PUTRID, PUSHOVER PARENTS
UPDATE I (Nov. 22): WHERE ARE THE MEN? This is no country for men, any men. You emasculate them, feminize them, make them over in the image of woman, and they’ll offer up their own children as sacrifice. Liberal men have been “liberated” from the natural instinct to protect their own. You can’t blame them. Women most certainly can’t blame men. This is what modern women have worked for; the state as parent and protector.
UPDATE II: RADIATION REALISM. Every doctor I’ve known has tried to persuade me that his particular brand of diagnostic radiation was just dandy for my health. When quizzed about the cumulative effects from the radiation prescribed by his colleagues to keep me in good shape, the medical man would become less cocksure. A cursory perusal of the literature on the additive effects of any radiation confirms that it is anything but safe. The issue here is that no innocent human being should be made to choose between “the Scylla of the scan and the Charybdis of the ‘enhanced pat down,'” even if the first boosts his health (as if). It’s a matter of choice. I have always chosen skepticism when it comes to invasive modalities when used liberally on healthy people.
Now comes a scholarly study, first reported in the The Daily Mail, according to which “full-body airport scanners are just as likely to kill you as a terrorist’s bomb blowing your plane out of the sky”:
Peter Rez, from Arizona State University, said the probability of dying from radiation from a body scanner and that of being killed in a terror attack are both about one in 30 million.
He said: ‘The thing that worries me the most, is not what happens if the machine works as advertised, but what happens if it doesn’t.
A potential malfunction could increase the radiation dose, he said.
Rez has studied the radiation doses of backscatter scanners using the images produced by the machines. He discovered that the radiation dose was often higher than the manufacturers claimed.
Rez suggested that the statistical coincidence means that there is really no case to be made for deploying any kind of body-scanning machine – the risk is identical.
But he added: ‘They’re both incredibly unlikely events. These are still a factor of 10 lower than the probability of dying in any one year from being struck by lightning in the United States.’
Critics say the low level beam used delivers a small dose of radiation to the body but because the beam concentrates on the skin – one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body – that dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated.
A number of scientists have already written to to the Food and Drug Administration to complain that the safety aspects have not been properly addressed before the nationwide rollout of the scanners.
UPDATE III: TSA THEME SONG, again. I still think that “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” best captures the TSA’s mission, conduct, and the mien of its mindless supporters. Do you disagree?
UPDATE IV: I’ve been remiss, and so have you for not pointing this out to me: even if you choose what to you is a lesser evil, the photons as opposed to the fondle (as Myron puts it), your TSA dominatrix could still pull you over for a once-over. It’s not like your decision between “the Scylla of the scan and the Charybdis of the ‘enhanced pat down'” is honored:
After “electing to go through the airport’s new full-body scanner,” “a bladder cancer survivor from Michigan who wears a urostomy bag that collects his urine,” “was pulled to the side to be patted down by a TSA agent.”
The 61-year-old retired special education teacher said he asked to be examined more discreetly.
Sawyer told WLNS correspondent Jessica Maki that after being taken to a private area, he alerted the TSA agents about his urostomy bag and the danger of its lid being undone, but they didn’t listen.
And when the pat-down began, Sawyer says the agent was so rough, the cap on the urostomy bag came off, spilling urine on him.
“No apology, no recognition – Is that urine? – no nothing, no offer to help me,” Sawyer said. “And I had to face the fact that I had to walk through the airport with urine.”
Do the hos who support this—other than the Fox blond squad, and polls point toward a majority in favor—detect a critical mass in the incidence of abuse travelers have experienced?
[Myron, do not expose Anna to this. Traveling for a wedding is not an emergency. Take a stand.]
Writes Thomas DiLorenzo at LRC.COM: “We’re All German Jews Now.”
When you hear the usual suspects on Fox wax about the land of the free we’re so blessed to live in; switch off. America is a fascistic state by any other name.
UPDATE V: REMOVING A PROSTHETIC BREAST. CBS: “A flight attendant and cancer survivor said she was forced to remove and show her prosthetic breast to a TSA agent during a security pat-down.”
However, what I’ve termed “sectional interests” have piped up again. Instead of arguing for the rights of all customers who purchase an airline ticket constrained by a state-monopolized system—cancer survivors are engaged in special pleading. Ditto airline pilots, flight attendants, etc.
UPDATE VI: As to Myron’s suggestion about special permits; I’ve been trying to make the point that special interests-based rights to pass without pain are bad for everyone and wrong. No one other than the suspicious should be searched. Why do you think Israeli security gives out special permits to those with cancer, the elderly, the pilots, the pretty… They don’t. See “TSA: Home Grown Terrorism (& Cretinism).” They do not molest people as we are doing; they question them politely.
What I used to say to Anna when we flew years ago is that she had to take off her shoes so that they would know that she is not a 6 foot 4 inch bearded Moslem named Osama bin Laden.
Of course, when I saw you and Sean, I expressed my fear of TSA abuse.
Barack Obama is the black Dukakis – absolutely tone deaf to the concerns of Americans. But sadly, too many Americans have been used to the tyranny and go along with the specious logic of TSA groping, yogurt confiscating, shoe sniffing idiots. Michelle – she doesn’t hob nob with the common folk – so she can be like Marie Antoinette!
But then we do have the multiudinous successes of the TSA – not a single airplane has been taken over by small children with leg braces since 9/11!!!
My apologies. I left out “by car” in my previous post, an important omission.
FJB
I stopped flying altogether more than 3 months ago, a decision that caused me to log more than 6,000 miles business miles by car through 13 states and Canada in one 20-day period in August and September.
For me, the decision not to fly was a revolutionary act. I did not spend five years under arms in America’s service to see what was once “the land of the free and the home of the brave” become a perverted caricature of herself.
Make no mistake. This has nothing to do with “security” and everything to do with establishing in the public mind that the state is Master. This is the political establishment’s message to American men that our bodies and the bodies of our wives, daughters, and granddaughters are properties of the State, to grope and fondle as our Masters see fit. They can go straight to blazing Hell and I will be only to happy to help them arrive at that destination of any of them dare to molest members of my family.
The TSA idiots have exacerbated critical security vulnerabilities – the airport lines themselves (plus extra deaths from those who drive instead). “WHERE ARE THE MEN”? – In Afghanistan ludicrously fighting Pushtuns who “endanger our liberty”? (Instead of fighting the TSA which endangers our liberties!). Like Marie Antoinette, the “OUR” in “our liberties” only applies to “our leaders”.
The FAA (before TSA) has been looking into this technology since 1996 (e.g. long before Mohammed Atta and the unsuccessful shoe/bottle/underwear Moslems). It was supposed to be simple for the public to walk through without lines, pen/coin removals, etc. It was supposed to be a voluntary ALTERNATIVE to the remove shoes/coins/yogurt/pens idiocy for those who wish to pass through effortlessly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CX9Agzeh-c
and, with image blurring, it could have just highlighted hidden weapons:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/21/AR2010112104456.html
However, security and technology in the hands of idiots can only be as good as the idiots. And, of course, the constitution refers to REASONABLE searches which means exercising REASON as the Israelis do.
As for handicapped or elderly or artificial-breasts/limbs or children, they could always be pre-screened and pre-approved Israeli fashion without these horrors – but that only works if the system is not manned by goonish brainless automatons.
[See comment on post.]
I agree that only those who legitimately arouse reasonable suspicion should be subject to detailed search. My point, badly expressed, about the handicapped is that if someone’s artificial leg or Igor’s hump (from Young Frankenstein!) or whatever is always going to set off the alarm bells, it would be prudent to have that person certified in advance by a trusted authority about the medical condition as an alternative to prying his/her leg/arm/colostomy-bag/breast apart every time.
Those without humps/lumps/metal/tubes inside them probably just answer normal routine questions – my name is John Smith and I am going to Chicago to visit my mom in Evanston… – like they might ask in Israel.
I stopped flying altogether more than 3 months ago, a decision that caused me to log more than 6,000 miles business miles by car through 13 states and Canada in one 20-day period in August and September. For me, the decision not to fly was a revolutionary act. I did not spend five years under arms in America’s service to see what was once “the land of the free and the home of the brave” become a perverted caricature of herself.
This has nothing to do with “security” and everything to do with establishing in the public mind that the state is Master. This is the political establishment’s message to American men; that our bodies and the bodies of our wives, daughters, and granddaughters are properties of the State, to grope and fondle as our Masters see fit. They can go straight to blazing Hell and I will be only too happy to help them arrive at that destination of any of them dare to molest members of my family.
With the over-the-top anti-public tactics being employed by the government minions it appears they are trying to steer us into the scanners. Just who is selling those machines to the government.
As the years have gone by since 9/11 travel by air had become more and more a burden. First the long lines, take out your laptop(s) (I usually have two), take off your shoes, take off your belt, empty your pockets (I’ve been doing this one for years simpler than multiple trips throught the metal detector), finally the body scan, and a pre Nov 1st pat down of my “man boobs”.
Enough is enough. When the TSA started its much more intrusive (sexually abusive, if you will) pat downs they finally crossed the line. Unfortunately I have family members who have endured different forms of sexual abuse (multiple generations). My wife read an article (I’m sorry that I don’t have the reference) that claimed the back-scatter X-Ray images can tell whether a man is circumcised or not. Maybe I’m naive but I didn’t know that was germain to the problem.
Ilana your advice to Myron was good. These enhanced search techniques must be stopped and replaced with the more intelligent, less intrusive, more effective, and probably much lower cost method the Israelis use.
I have been through their system several times and there were times when I had to answer a lot of questions but it was reasonable and understandable. At the time I had much more dark hair, darker skin (summer tan), and a beard. I have also been told I have intense eyes. Ok, I looked middle eastern.
This can not be overstated the Israelis look for terrorists not potential instruments of terror. At one point I was asked by an Israeli TSA equivalent if I had any knives or weapons. I said no but, that I did have a small Swiss Army Knife which I produced. Because he had interviewed me and had a sense of who I was he smiled at my small knife and let me continue through the process.
I could tell by the answers that I gave to the questions they asked me that they had a protocol to their questioning. Certain answers led to more questions. They are not only trying to stop terrorists but, they are trying to keep people from “lifting” their military technology. It is clearly a more complete approach to multiple potential problems.