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Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

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Re: Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

#51

Post by jamii »

mootothemax wrote: post #46
jamii wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to keep making a point of this, but it has happened in the past and the solution wasn't pretty. Wikipedia says: The Troubles' impact on the ordinary people of Northern Ireland produced such psychological trauma that the city of Belfast had been compared to London during the Blitz. [104] The stress resulting from bomb attacks, street disturbances, security checkpoints, and the constant military presence had the…

Al Qaeda are incompetent morons. PIRA were fucking scary. I kinda-sorta agree: suicide bombing's a pretty stupid way to go about things, as it means you wipe out all your capable terrorists after only one go. The IRA didn't have that problem - well, intentionally at least.

Al Qaeda also seem to keep throwing themselves after hard targets. PIRA (and the UVF, UDA etc) left bombs on trains, dropped them in shopping centre bins, posted them through letter-boxes. The really terrifying thing was that nowhere was safe.

One of my earliest memories is helping to check under the car for bombs before driving to school.

Re: Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

#52

Post by pchristensen »

jasongullickson wrote: post #43

To me this is just another reason (of many) that travelers should consider general aviation (charter, etc.) as an alternative to commercial airline travel. The straight financial cost may be higher but avoiding all of this sort of nonsense has its rewards, and remember that most GA operators are locally-owned smallish businesses that appreciate your support and treat their passengers like customers and not like priso…

I echo tocomment - for someone who has only ever flown commercial, how would one go about finding and hiring a GA operator? What's kind of premium would you expect pay for a regional (eg Chicago to Detroit) flight or a longer flight (eg Chicago to LA)?

Re: Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

#53

Post by yardie »

shasta wrote: post #17
yardie wrote: post #4

Just got through the airport lastweek and didn't have to deal with this silliness. But I can't wait to go back to the US so I can opt-out. I'm not a perv, but can't wait to see the look on the screener's face while s/he's forced to touch my johnson. "That's not a roll of quarters my friend" :-)

"I was going to guess nickels."

Maybe if enough protests come about in this fashion then the screeners will force their bosses to drop this stupid policy. Like, "I didn't take this job to be touching 500 penises a day. And everyone's got snarky comments!"

Re: Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

#55

Post by tomjen3 »

jamii wrote: post #38
ceejayoz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been baffled by the lack of those sorts of attacks. One can imagine the economic damage if everyone was terrified to go to malls, grocery stores, schools, etc. Amazon.com would be about the only company to come out okay.

I hate to keep making a point of this, but it has happened in the past and the solution wasn't pretty. Wikipedia says: The Troubles' impact on the ordinary people of Northern Ireland produced such psychological trauma that the city of Belfast had been compared to London during the Blitz. [104] The stress resulting from bomb attacks, street disturbances, security checkpoints, and the constant military presence had the…

Thats the part I never got either - I remember after 11/9 that I had wished America was British, because you guys reacted so sensible and wouldn't have gone so crazy. A country that can survive the Blitz isn't going to care about a couple of buildings.

Re: Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

#56

Post by yardie »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #22
jonnathanson wrote: post #19

I went through O'Hare recently, where they've installed a battery of these devices. The way they had it set up, it was used as the secondary screener for people who got called out for random searches. Guess who got called for "random" searches in the machine? Pretty much every hot chick in line. Now, this observation was purely anecdotal, so take it for what it is. But the coincidence was not lost on me, or on anyone…

I thought only women operated the machinery where women were scanned and only men, where the men are scanned?

Considering that TSA screeners have been known to change policy, at will, whenever its convenient for them I doubt this policy is consistently enforced.

Re: Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

#57

Post by yread »

daten wrote: post #16
teilo wrote: post #7

I am seriously tempted to find some metal tape for the next time I have to fly, "mark up" my t-shirt with a suggestion as to where the TSA can shove their body-scan machine, and walk through side-ways.

Your idea reminds me of this story from 2006. Milwaukee resident Ryan Bird wrote "Kip Hawley is an Idiot" on a plastic bag given to passengers by airport security. As a result he claims he was detained and told that the First Amendment did not apply to security checkpoints. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security/606142... Kip Hawley was the head of TSA at the time.

Hey thats not that bad - 25 minutes is well worth the fun.

Re: Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

#58

Post by tomjen3 »

It seems that the best way to get around this would be to make life unbearable for the TSA agents. The politicians can't be reached.

While physically assaulting them would be very satisfying, simply freezing them out socially would properly be a better tactic, since it is impossible to arrest people for.

Re: Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself

#60

Post by chadgeidel »

jasongullickson wrote: post #43

To me this is just another reason (of many) that travelers should consider general aviation (charter, etc.) as an alternative to commercial airline travel. The straight financial cost may be higher but avoiding all of this sort of nonsense has its rewards, and remember that most GA operators are locally-owned smallish businesses that appreciate your support and treat their passengers like customers and not like priso…

I never thought of that, but wouldn't the TSA have authority over GA as well?
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