I would like to say that I am extremely disappointed in Drudge and Foxnews. They have both been hyping this story in a very unfair way. If W had done this they would not be as up in arms. Some issues require partisanship our security and safety does not. I applaud the Obama administration for having guts on this issue.

Of course it would have to be that the one time NVE has praise for obama it's for something nearly everyone else seems to think is ******ed. I can't believe that NVE is a gimmick, no one is that good of a writer.

How far do you think I can take the "acting like the patdown is a fun sexual experience" thing? I'm definitely down for this, and I think everyone, or at least every guy, should do this, but I don't want to get booted from the airport or arrested. I'd like to say, "Stick it deeper like my uncle used to do," but I don't want any real trouble, and am concerned that saying such things might make an irate TSA agent actually stick it deeper like his uncle used to do.

The "don't touch my junk" guy the last I heard was subject to a 10K fine. I would have to have a whole lot of fun messing with TSA before I would consider a 10K fine as being worth it.

Maybe Jack Links jerky could film some "messing with TSA" bits and give Sasquatch a rest?

The employees of TSA are only following instructions when it comes to the enhanced pat-downs, except for those who exploit it.

The TSA has ballooned into a 67k+ personnel dept. & the bulk of those people would be unemployed, meaning those of employed would be feeding them thru unemployment & other subsidies, if they weren't working for TSA.

What else is a person qualified to do, if he/she is willing to do searches at the front line of airports all day?

Should the TSA be the size it is? Probably not.
Are the enhanced pat-downs increasing our safety? Probably not.
Is it the fault of the employees who do those pat-downs correctly? NO

I'm sympathetic to this point of view just as I am to soldiers who are unwitting instruments of state and corporate terror, but I'm not willing to eliminate individual choice entirely. If someone can get a job as a TSA agent, there are obviously other things they can do, if TSA agent is the bottom of the pecking order there are still hundreds of lateral moves. TSA may pay better or have better benefits, etc., but that comes down to personal choice.

I'm not exonerating the guy sticking his fingers in my anus just because he doesn't want to do it.

The individual is the final judge of right and wrong. More than this, since only individuals act, only individuals can act unjustly. When the government knocks on the door, it is an individual in the form of a postman or tax collector whose hand hits the wood. Before Thoreau’s imprisonment, when a confused taxman had wondered aloud about how to handle his refusal to pay, Thoreau had advised, “Resign.” If a man chose to be an agent of injustice, then Thoreau insisted on confronting him with the fact that he was making a choice. As Thoreau explained,

I seem to remember there being airport security before there was a TSA. And it's not like these people are completely unemployable.

Won't somebody please think of the poor Transportation Safety Officers!?

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40318901/ns/travel-news/

They're just following orders, right?

Personally I am going to continue to opt-out. I've done so twice now, both times I didn't get anything approaching "molestation" but hearing that these guys don't like doing it is good news IMO. If enough people keep making them do **** they don't like doing then maybe they'll put pressure on their employer or just quit.

I do feel bad for most them. Their job sucks. The ones that get off by being able to boss people around all day can diagdf.

It's not like these TSA agents signed up to be doctors and then they got a switcheroo pulled on them and now they're out touching penises for a living. They signed up to harass travelers and paw through their luggage and steal their shaving cream. This is just a continuation of what TSA has always been about.

Which reminds me-

Do you know the difference between an anesthesiologist and a urologist?

A urologist gets paid for playing with other people's peckers all day.

<rim shot>

Took me a while to get this one. It's pretty lame without saying it out loud so you can get the inflection right.

Yeah you have to bold other IMO.

I can't confirm, but I've heard the baggage handlers aren't screened at all when coming to work. Basically the easiest way to plant a bomb on a plane (the cargo) has the least amount of screening.

I guess I'm a consipriatard cuz I think the only reason they want you to go through the scanners is so they can get your biometric data which the TSA has already lied about not storing. It's like a finger print in the fact once they get it they always have it.

This is hilarious, even if it's doomed to failure:

Radiation-proof fig leaf underwear hides your junk from scanners.

The containment thread is closed like 1 hour and already they are leaking out.

Pretty sure you're getting the joke wrong...should have to bold "paid".

Maybe someone should design one giving the scanner/viewer the finger.

I love how shocked the world is why just a small handle of people won't take some BS. People are so indifferent and zombie like most of the time. Keep rattling the cages.

If employees refused to perform these illegal searches, then they wouldn't be done now would they? Just because you're told to do something wrong doesn't let you off the hook when you do it.

what if there was no person looking at the scanner pictures? ie there is some amazing cpu software that can do the job even better. so you walk through it and the cpu checks you out and flags you or passes you. would people object to this? if no then it is only that there is a person on the other side watching.

You should, and I think this smugness about it is unbecoming. pvn has a point that them not liking it is perhaps a good way to start changing it, but viewpoints like this . . .

are ridiculous. That TSA outrage is much more widespread now is kind of a hint that this represents a significant change for most people, such that terming it "just a continuation" is unfair. Does anybody expect them to make a principled stand and lose their job over this? That seems pretty excessive.

As I said in the OOT thread, I think if people are going to take targeted action to actually do something, the best bet is probably to target a single airline to boycott. Getting as big a possible chunk of the protest weight on one fairly large target with actual pull seems like it could do something.

Yes, I don't know why I shouldn't expect this. There are lots of things people should be willing to quit their jobs over. Just because they never do does not mean they should be exempt from the consequences of having no principles.

Yes. If not, they can continue to be harassed. I'd like to see protesters go to the homes of these pieces of trash and call them molesters and the like in front of their families, too. If it doesn't lead to TSA employees quitting, at least it will increase the tension at the airport, where maybe something bigger can happen (TSA agent lashing out at a passenger, or something).


The current crop of Americans has sadly forgotten how to resist the government - they need only to look at the methods of the colonists during the Stamp Act period, to remember, imo.