Defeated

I don't enjoy traveling. I travel way too much to relax while traveling, It is a necessary evil to get me to point a to point b. The quickest way is the best way, it's like ripping off a band-aid, get it done quickly and painlessly as possible. Spending 4 days driving or riding a train from New York to LA isn't appealing to me, nor is it cost effective.

I've riding The Northeast Corridor more times than I can count. I don't like driving that route, so I take that train, but it isn't cost effective at all. It isn't pleasant. The train is delayed more than on time, once total delay time was over 5 hours. Not a relaxing good time.

When I was a kid I rode a train from New York to Florida, it was terrible. We slept in the seats, just like 90% of the passengers, because that's what was affordable. Real relaxing.

If you are a regular traveler, you aren't going to want to do any of those things. I travel regularly, I don't want to leave a day early, I'm on a tight schedule. Traveling isn't vacation.

Anyway. Better to go now, than to wait for them to take your passports away.

Sadly, it is only available for citizens of the U.S., Mexico and the Netherlands. Canadians can use the NEXUS program, which gives the same benefits. (See http://www.globalentry.gov/faq.html#a2.)

So this only helps a tiny fraction of people frequently flying to the U.S.

First, we know they don't work, because they only work up to the epidermis, and sometimes not even that well, as lots of dangerous things have gotten through them. If you wanted to get something on a plane, put it up your butt or somehow else in your body and it will work 100% of the time. Just don't carry a gun strapped to your body. (Though that has worked too)

In addition, even when I go through the scanners (because I am a very obedient citizen) I still get a ball-hugging pat-down after going through the scanner, because they weren't sure what they were looking at. When Germany tested the millimeter wave scanners they reported around 50% false positives that required additional pat-downs.

Second, invasion of privacy. They're taking pictures of your naked body. And gross people have been caught ogling the pictures. Besides just being creepy, there are people who have been sexually assaulted and this amounts to an additional assault, and can be emotionally damaging. Not even considering how kids and their rights factor in here.

Third, we don't know how safe they are. Nobody even bothered to do a study to find out, or even do basic safety checks, before they installed them. The backscatter machines are banned completely in the EU and several prominent doctors have been urging more studies for a variety of people who may be more susceptible to the damage X-rays do to your cells. The president of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements says there should be an effort to verify millimeter wave scanners are safe for frequent use [that has still not been done].

I was going to make a fourth point about Michael Chertoff (and others) making money off selling the scanners to the government, but i'll let an old guy in Congress rant instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drm9fz48mM4#t=4m1s (turns out to be a mountain out of a molehill, but the lobbying implications are there and the money is too) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/fear_pays_chertoff_...