PhoneBoy Says

The government, though, might be engaging in a little myth-making of its own by insisting that the new airport imaging machines that use X-rays are unequivocally safe for all passengers and airport personnel passing through dozens or even hundreds of times a year. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the new device, known as a backscatter X-ray machine, meets the standard of a "general use" X-ray machine, meaning that a person would have to have 1,000 scans a year before approaching the maximum allowable radiation dose for the general public.

But some researchers who study radiation's health effects beg to differ. Last April, four imaging experts from the University of California, San Francisco sent a letter of concern to President Obama's science and technology advisor, John Holdren, questioning, "the extent to which the safety of this scanning device has been adequately demonstrated," they wrote. They added that it might deliver a concentrated dose of radiation to the skin—necessary to penetrate clothes—that could be "dangerously high," possibly increasing the risk of skin cancer and other cancers in susceptible individuals. They called for an independent panel of experts to review all the risk data including whether the scanners pose a higher risk to certain folks like pregnant women, seniors, children, and teens.

via health.usnews.com

The fact is, we don't know what we're getting ourselves into with these scanners. Even if the scanners were safe, I don't feel comfortable with the idea that someone somewhere whom isn't my wife can look at me naked. I don't completely trust that the TSA is doing everything they say they are doing either (namely disabling the save/print/network functions), so even if they were safe, I wouldn't want to walk through the machines anyway.

At least with a patdown--even the "enhanced" ones--I know what I'm getting (molested) and how safe it is.

"There has to be some sacrifice…when it comes to security," [said a reporter whose toddler daughter was subject to a patdown at an airport recently.] True. "Sacrifice" was what we endured before 9/11 — long lines, metal detectors, emptying your pockets. The current situation is more reminiscent of The Onion's fictional Franz Kafka International Airport, where the average delay is 32.2 hours, the security questionnaire asks, "Is it not true that you are whoever we say you are?" and agents write "LIAR" on the hands of passengers they don't trust.

via fullcomment.nationalpost.com

What scares me is that, even in the face of widespread opposition to the new TSA screening mandates, head of the Transportation Security Administration John Pistole testified before congress yesterday that he intends to continue the use of these unsafe, naked body scanners and the enhanced patdowns which even he admitted were invasive.

Hey Mr. Pistole, how about you take a trip to Israel and see how they do it. They are just as thorough but don't require you to take off your shoes, walk through a potentially unsafe scanner, or have your "junk" molested. And it's a lot cheaper than the scanners, too.

Last week, one of my flying partners (Captain with Skywest) was going through security at DEN with his 18 year daughter. As his daughter approached the detector, the TSO working the NoS said on his headset, "heads up, got a cutie for you." He then confronted the TSA clerk with what he said and that neither of us are going through the NoS. The TSA clerk said you must have misunderstood me.

He said pat-down was pretty evasive, and his daughter felt uncomfortable.

He is taking it up with Skywest, with this behavior. Normally, crews there go through a different screening area, but since he was with his daughter, he got to see the TSA clerks at their finest in Denver.

Its stoiries like this, is why I will not go through the NoS (radiation/health issues) and even refuse the the pat-down thus (if it happens while on duty) canceling the flight due to a hostile work environment.

via flyertalk.com

Read the rest of the responses on this posting. Flight attendants and pilots are refusing the patdowns and the nudeoscope scanners. This results in flight delays and cancellations.

The TSA is there to remind us that the State is all-powerful, and that even to question any act is to commit a crime. (For those who don't know it, openly questioning these procedures at an airport is to commit the crime of "Interfering with the Duties of a Federal Officer," and the maximum penalty is 20 years in prison. Look it up yourself.)

[…]

If government is to give us Utopia, then government must have a free hand. To the Left, since government should control everything, then government also controls your body (except if you want to have an abortion, but government still should pay for it). So, to those who believe we need even more state control, what is happening in airports is a good thing, for it reminds us that we are and should be subservient to the State.

via lewrockwell.com

I thought the woman describing her molestation experience at the hands of the TSA was sick. This all but outright says that sexual molestation is ok if the government does it.

I have an incident to share that occurred late Friday afternoon, November 12, 2010, around 5:15 in the Dayton International Airport.

I realize the publishing this publically on the internet puts me into a delicate situation, given that I am a high profile blogger and author. This is a difficult incident to share, but it needs to be said…Because I will not be a silent victim. I will share the facts of the incident in as a matter of fact manner as I can.

via ourlittlechatterboxes.com

You simply must read this woman's account of her pat-down experience. She was touched in her private parts--without warning, no less! If this isn't a clear indication that TSA's "enhanced patdown" procedures are misguided and wrong, I don't know what is.

We are writing to call your attention to serious concerns about the potential health risk of the recently adopted whole body backscatter X-ray airport security scanners. This is an urgent situation as these X-ray scanners are rapidly being implemented as a primary screening step for all air travel passengers.

Our overriding concern is the extent to which the safety of this scanning device has been adequately demonstrated. This can only be determined by a meeting of an impartial panel of experts that would include medical physicists and radiation biologists at which all of the available relevant data is reviewed.

An important consideration is that a large fraction of the population will be subject to the new X-ray scanners and be at potential risk, as discussed below. This raises a number of ‘red flags'. Can we have an urgent second independent evaluation?

via scribd.com

The most alarming sentence? "It appears that real independent safety data do(es) not exist." And yet these things are being installed in every major US airport and every passenger is being asked to go through these machines. In the name of safety.

Privacy issues aside, does anyone else see the irony of walking through a potentially unsafe device in the name of safety? Given the number of domestic flights that have had "terrorist" issues since September 11, 2001 (zero) versus the number of domestic flights since then (millions), I fail to see how a potentially unsafe and definitely privacy invasive scanner is substantially preventing terrorists from having their way with an airplane.

Please rise and sing along!

A plain white van moving through traffic on a busy thoroughfare looks like a delivery vehicle, making a run to a local business.

It could be any plain white van in any American city.

But there are two men sitting in the back of the van operating X-ray machines. As their panel van moves in and out of traffic, the men use the X-ray machines to scan passing vehicles, peering behind the walls of the adjoining trucks to discover if the targets are carrying weapons, drugs or illegal immigrants.

This scenario isn't from a spy movie, it's happening every day in the United States.

via wnd.com

As if the naked body scanners in the airports weren't bad enough. One cannot even opt-out of these X-ray devices.

The [American Pilots Association] and UCSF scientists join a growing chorus of critics of backscatter devices. Last week, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Department of Homeland Security's TSA of unilaterally mandating the use of the machines as the primary security screening technique. By requiring government contractors to capture images of travelers' naked bodies, the policy violates a raft of federal laws, as well as Constitutional protections prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure, EPIC argued.

via theregister.co.uk

You know what I realized the other day: where is the ACLU on this? How come in all these stories I've come across decrying the use of these naked body scanners, not a single one of them mentions the ACLU? The ACLU is clearly against this invasive technology but not a single story I've seen mentions that.

Maybe the ACLU isn't being active enough on this. Or maybe they are and the media is just ignoring them because the press is trying to marginalize the ACLU.

Meanwhile, I will continue to opt-out.The TSA can feel my resistance.

Here's a clip from an old Drive In that suggests we should eliminate Daylight Saving Time:

Of course, Drive Ins are against Daylight Saving Time for one reason: it forces them to start their movies that much later in the summer.

That said, I am for the abolition of Daylight Saving Time. In a modern society, it serves no function.