Posted on 11/23/2010 8:42:02 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The latest controversy over Transportation Security Administration body scans and enhanced body pat-downs leaves no doubt: America truly is a nation of whiners.
A CBS News poll found that 81 percent of Americans support full-body airport scanning. That reasonable view is being drowned out by elements on the left and the right who love nothing better than to proclaim that they are victims.
First exhibit: Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who introduced the "American Traveler Dignity Act" to "protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse." Abuse? Have Americans become such babies that a pat-down designed to prevent another 9/11 causes adults to melt down?
Yes, I've been through body scans. Yes, I've been patted down, not just at airports, but also covering political events. Yes, I've had to contend with the rare overbearing TSA worker who let the power go to his head. Are these searches intrusive? Sure, but they beat crossing the country in a covered wagon.
I won't say that the TSA agents have handled every passenger deftly. A Michigan cancer survivor was humiliated after his urostomy bag leaked during a search. As the 15-seconds.com blog noted, the TSA's most lamentable error was failing to do the simplest thing: "apologize."
Blogger Brian Sodergren has called on airline passengers to participate in a "National Opt Out Day" on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. "We have a right to privacy and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we're guilty until proven innocent," Sodergren wrote.
In protest, he suggests that passengers who are asked to go through a body scanner instead "opt out" -- which means they submit to a body-pat. That's right, the body-pat Paul describes as "abuse." Sodergren even advises passengers to have their privacy-violating pat-down in public.
Sodergren contends "there is no intent or desire to delay passengers," but he must know that if more passengers opt for longer security checks during one of the year's heaviest travel days, delays are inevitable.
Some on the right argue that if the TSA engaged in profiling, agents would not have to bother granny and the kids. Now, I support directing security personnel to consider profiling information -- such as countries visited -- when screening passengers. But I disagree with Ann Coulter, who wrote, "In a lucky stroke, all the terrorists are swarthy, foreign-born Muslim males."
In 1986, a pregnant young Irish woman named Anne Marie Murphy was planning on flying to Israel to meet her fiance's parents. Little did she know the fiance had hidden plastic explosives in her suitcase. Israeli security stopped what would have been a horrific terrorist attack because they did not rely on the profile alone. Female suicide bombers have struck in the Middle East and Moscow. The Taliban have bought children to train them as suicide bombers. Then there's Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
The conservative RedState blog likened TSA searches to "sexual assault, humiliation, and pedophilia." In the wake of the whining, the Obama administration has said it is looking at changing airport security.
Even to prevent another attack like the thwarted Christmas day bombing, nobody wants to appear to be insensitive. Cable TV is ruining this country.
Copyright 2010 Creators.com
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Sexual Assault is a Necessary Security Precaution
Oh! Oh! I can play this type of game too..
Its not free abortions, its Planned Parenthood.
It's not "homosexual", its Gay
It's not Terrorists, its man made disaster
Its not muslims, its all you Americans.
Do I have this about right?
People want to fly safely. They will support this policy until they are presented with a credible alternative.
Berating TSA agents as thugs and perverts is NOT a credible alternative.
The bomb referenced in the article was indeed found through profiling. The fiance was a Palestinian. A little factoid that was left out...
“In 1986, Anne Marie Murphy, a young Irish woman, was planning to take an El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv to meet the parents of her fiance, a Palestinian. Murphy, who was pregnant, had no idea that the man she was planning to marry had hidden plastic explosives and a detonator in one of her suitcases. Israeli profilers interviewing Murphy found out about her boyfriend, got suspicious, and then discovered the bomb before the jumbo jet took off.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/15/60II/main324476.shtml
Uhhm, no, moron! The profile worked perfectly. She was the fiance of a Muslim who packed her luggage for her! Profiling means understanding WHO is boarding the plane... not what color or religion thy are (though that may play a role).
Don’t drink the Beck kool-aid.
But that would really suck for them, huh?
Profiling is a credible alternative. But it can’t be done by bureaucrats since it actually requires someone to look for likely terrorists instead of the book.
Read the following and tell me it doesn't involve thuggery on the part of TSA agents
TSA Tried to Intimidate Man Who Recorded Strip-Search of Child into Deleting Video (Update)
You don't get out much, do you.
The polls are discouraging. I have been through the airport full body X-ray and I thought that the public was insane when Bush TSA treated us all like terrorists too. The more stories on TV the more people will turn against this. It will just take time.
What we really need is a fool proof system that can separate us from the terrorist from Yemen on the 'No Fly Watch' List that Obama and the MSM says looks just like us. How about a voluntary background check and ID card?
But then again any of us could decide to blow up a plane at any time, right? (MSNBC and Obama tell me this)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1866857/posts
“Freedom Fondles?!?!?!”
Next thing you know we will be having: “Freedom Feel-ups” and “Patriotic Panty Raids”
Have people (even on the right) lost their minds??
I haven’t flown in 39 years. I don’t want to fly again,*especially* after this outrage—ever.
No one need wonder any longer "Why did the Jews submit so meekly?" When suddenly presented with unimaginable indignities upon our person and the break down of law BY THE GOVERNMENT, there is a shock factor. the mind cannot grasp it and many people sleepwalk through like sheep. Many fight back - but many defend it - the latter being those that will pull on the Jack Boots, given the chance.
Mustn't berate the poor gov't agents - they're "just doing their job."
HORSE PUCKY
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