I travel every week. I feel more violated when I have to pee in the Philadelphia airport. the entire bathroom is covered in mirrors that start just above my junk so basically anyone that walks in can see four of me. Don't understand why southwest won't put up privacy walls in any of their teminals either. You walk in a bathroom there and it's like your looking at a funhouse mirror of neverending cocks.

So some anonymous TSA person looking doesn't bother me. It was a bit strange when a TSA employee smiled at me afterward. I spent the next five minutes trying to figure out what that meant. That's really the only thing that bothers me about it. There's alot of people working for the TSA that don't r eally take their jobs seriously and look like they could use a good use a good internet joke at the expense of someone else to brighten their lives.

It appears, that once again, apathy has won the day.

Reports from SeaTac airport in Seattle on Opt-Out Wednesday- More reporters than protesters. 4, that's right 4, protesters showed up to hand out pamphlets.

One chip at a time, our rights, our dignity and our freedom are slowly going away. As disturbing as that is, and as disturbing as the ever growing correlation between our loss and politicians gains is, it's the incredible degree of apathy that disturbs me most. Do people really have to be in chains before they realize somethings wrong???

Fuckin' amazing.

Don't worry, it's just another viral issue. Ya know, like racism, sexism, poverty, war, etc.

This too shall pass. Ignore the state of your panties. Continue drinking your latte.

...

4 protesters? Hmm, would you say that's about on par with those that turn out to vote?

Apathy has nothing to do with this. This procedure is not government overstepping its bounds for the sake of governmental control. Its about keeping keeping us safe in an area that is currently the #1 prime target of terrorists. Whether or not this procedure is effective, worth the cost, or would be better left in the hands of a private company (with some amount of oversight from the government) is debatable. But I need to get from here to there, air travel is the only way to do it and this is an effort at making sure my plane is blown up on the way. Not one single one of my individual liberties is threatened here. Its hysteria to suggest it is.

That this procedure has been put in place and hasn't affected my travel time wise or delay wise, I'm happy with. Some fuckin group of protesters start doing that....I"m going to have an issue and my generally relaxed temper will be tested.

I have heard that there is some consideration to exempting muslim women from this new procedure. That bothers me.

---------- Post added at 04:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:15 AM ----------

an afterthought, i'll feel my individual liberties are being threated when TSA employee toothless sally with a note pad starts asking me for pictures of my family, what I had for breakfast yesterday, or anything that has nothing to do with why I'm travelling.

As it is, this screening is nothing more than a moment in time whose purpose is clearly security driven.

I think we should all strive to sport wood before getting fondled.

Opt out day was an idiotic idea at best.
Disrupting the herd is never good.
The only truly effective way would be to boycott air travel entirely.
Once the airlines bottom line starts being affected, the TSA will change their tune because suddenly their jobs and government funding would be at risk not to mention any sweetheart deals between the government and whoever makes those mightily expensive scanners.
This is Amerika. Protesting does no good. Cutting into profits works every time.

Sheah, okay.

Nobody will boycott air travel. It's too fast and too cheap.

I'm going to Chicago and Hawaii for less than a $1000 and a day of travel.

I can't beat that with a car or a train or a boat or the freakin' space shuttle.

Hah! Says who? And unless they're CIA or Department of State, they're probably (more) wrong.

The Bad Guys did a great job disrupting our way of life initially. Now we're just furthering it.

Get a grip fotzzie. America is spelled with a "c", and you are part of the herd.

Never said a boycott was doable, just that it would be the only way to get the airlines attention.
Getting all uppity about something is great on the web but once the sheeple have to actually sacrifice something...another story altogether..

And there we have it.

So, does anybody want to take a stab in the dark and try and figure out the timeline of foreign and domestic policy decisions that led to this state that we are in? And it started well before 2001...

I bet Glenn Beck would come up with a very different path from me.

There were plenty of people prepared to opt-out, they just never got a chance because it seems TSA turned a lot of the scanners off: Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide

To anyone paying attention, this is a tacit admission that it is all security theatre and doesn't make us substantially safer. To the majority of the public, it's a great way to manipulate the headlines to make it seem like people aren't that upset after all.

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...8/original.jpg

I really couldn't disagree any more with this. What made 9/11 so successful was the totally unprecedented nature of the attacks. They've changed the way we think about war and security primarily because before they occurred we wouldn't have been able to imagine what went down as a possibility.

This is definitely a case of the government overstepping its bounds not only for the sake of implementing control but as an attempt to cover up its glaringly obvious inadequacies: it is simply too slow to action and incapable of thinking as creatively as those who have a stake in blowing shit up.

Calling this nonsense out for what it is isn't hysteria - it's what you're supposed to do.

i'd be all over this.


but i don't plan on crossing the line any time soon...........


i'll stay here and let my wife fondle my balls.

It would be awesome if we could get this same sort of widespread, concerted reaction about other important stuff. Like starting wars.

I am neither apathetic or acquiescent. I just find it kind of pathetic that the issue that makes the country go wild with outrage is the prospect of some 'former pizza delivery guy' giggling at their small penis or ogling their boobies. The whole thing, including comparing pat downs to molestations, smacks of the same old reactionary nonsense that sparked the outrage about Janet Jackson's superbowl tit flash.

I understand completely concerns about illegal searches and being misled into thinking that this makes us more secure. Much like illegal wiretapping and infiltrating activist groups and 'free speech zones.' Starting unjust wars. But you don't get the same amount of public outcry about these things. Why is that?

this is indicative of traditional and patriotic american apathy. people tend to not really care about things unless it impacts them or affects them directly. war against another nation doesn't affect a person directly, wiretapping doesn't affect a person directly, but the possibility of naked pictures or being felt up does indeed affect a person directly. It's a shame that most people have this apathetic outlook, but there it is.

Every day people have their habits, opinions, and desires observed, recorded, and tracked. It's become normal, and much of it happens automatically and below the surface, invisibly via data collection.

Most people seem cool with that.

But in a post-9/11 world—where terrorist activity rears its ugly head every so often—people are now having their bodies investigated for items that may pose threats to those embarking on air travel.

And that's equated with sexual deviancy and an invasion of privacy beyond what is acceptable and decent.

It seems like some kind of American neopuritanism to me.

right. this tends to be my thinking, too. it's less about trampled rights and more about fondled nuts, aka 'the ick factor' involved in this issue.
which is why I refuse to get all 'woot, woot' with people on it.
once the issue has lost it's 'sexual' attraction (double entendre there), it will become the much-ignored ACLU's battle and people will go back to business as usual as if it never happened.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I've been offended by the actions of our government for as long as I can remember. The corruption, nepotism and lying having become 'business as usual' long before I was born.

I get the impression from some of you that we should just except all of this and more. I simply don't understand this line of thinking. Were we not founded as a nation because our forefathers were fed up with this kind of Idiocracy? Didn't they take on the most powerful nation on earth to guarantee us freedom from these things? Why is it okay to accept these things today, because it's more convenient? Really?

Why is it okay to stand up for the rights of others but not your own?

Why is it acceptable for an organization to exist within our government that has no oversight and requires no 'due process'?

Why is anyone who points these things out called a radical, reactionary, a neopuritan or conspiracy theorist?

Why is it okay for a former government official to profit from an exaggerated threat?

Why is okay for public servants to receive a pension equal to their salaries for life, from our tax dollars, while looking at the largest deficit in history?

Why is okay when the media reports on celebrities newest drunken debacle while ignoring real news?

Why is it okay for a comedian to have higher news ratings than an actual news agency?

Why is okay for oil companies to report record earning while claiming a shortage and pushing fuel to $4 a gallon?

Why is it okay for corporations to report record earnings during what the 'President' has called the worst depression since the 1920's and unemployment is in the double digits?

Why is it okay for the government to bail out corporations with our tax dollars after years of profiteering and poor business practices?

Why is it okay for the government to pass a law that hasn't been read by those voting one it?

Really, how long of a list do you want? We've let all of these things happen, said and done nothing to stop it. And this is all okay?

The most charismatic leaders through out history have always been the most destructive to their own nations and others (this is not a jab at Obama in particular), all operated under the guise that 'it's good for you'. The populous bought into the story through the controlled media and saw nothing but rainbows and unicorns, until the blood shed obscured their vision.

Why is any of this okay?

Why is it okay to spend billions on ineffective machines and initiate violating 'pat downs' when the current equipment and a few Dogs would be more effective and less expensive?

Why do you just accept what you're told and not find the facts for yourself?

/rant


...
..

I'm with ya, brother.

This is what the end of empire looks like.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lc...8ifto1_500.jpg
A TSA agent displays a laminated card printed with the text of what agents are
required to say to any passengers who opt out of full-body scan security procedures,
on Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2010, at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle.
-- (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

- - -

personal note: (I'd add my own two cents to this hovering argument, but it's nothing new. These procedures have been building up for the past few years, and the full-body "naked" scanners have been progressively popping up in N. America since late 2004. Nothing new. Oh... well, these "enhanced" screenings, though, where were they six weeks ago when I last traveled back within the states? It's seems to only be coinciding with the holiday rush, if only to a casual observer like myself.)

So according to current reports, TSA has shut down the Pornotrons to facilitate faster processing to the gates.

Isn't this considered a 'peak' time for attack, when the airports are most crowded and planes full? Why then, would they turn off these machines and forgo pat-downs if they are so effective?

Does anyone else see the contradiction here? Or is this just another way to 'keep us safe'?



..
...

---------- Post added at 11:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 AM ----------


I see this as one of the great misconceptions in the world today. The American people do not want to be an 'Empire'. Our government wants to be Imperialist, they do not now, nor have they for some time, speak for he people. They may operate under the guise of a Democracy or a Republic, but in fact, that system failed long ago and only the structure remains; Leading most Americans and the majority of the world to believe it's still intact.

So go populate the Northern Territories already would ya. :)





..

does the TSA actually have a demonstration on what the pat down consists of? has anyone seen what sort of patdown the TSA is giving?

i think people could make a better decision if they had that sort of information.

im all for making flights more secure. i just dont want to be groped in the process or have someone see my junk on a scanner.

I spent a semester watching people get processed at a jail. The "pat down" they had there was enough to make you want a cigarette afterward.

"Karate chop and a firm swipe" was a term used for the groin search. Something tells me TSA is half-assing this search and people are still whining.

Three things.

opinion: (on the nose)

“The whole Homeland Security policy has been delusional from the day after 9/11. It has been predicated on the idea that everybody is a potential terrorist, therefore everybody needs to be screened. And yet, repeatedly, every terrorist attempt since 9/11 has been, predictably, the work of readily identifiable terrorist cells. The provocative advance of full-body screening, for example, was accelerated not by an intelligent prediction of the nature of the next attack but by a familiar knee-jerk reaction to the last one, the underpants bomber. But, hey, he wouldn’t have been picked up trying to board an airplane here—he had found weak points elsewhere (Nigeria, the Netherlands) to exploit.”

[source.]
- - -

political commentary: (i.e., cartoons)

The Airport Security Cartoons and Comics - from the Cartoonist Group
The New Yorker's airport security cartoons from 1938-2009 - Boing Boing

(the thing is, since the last thread about the TSA popped up a year or two ago, I've been searching for this ONE particular Playboy cartoon off-and-on since then; it's possibly circa 2002-04, it was published in the magazine, and if I'm anywhere close, I'm guessing it was illustrated by Doug Sneyd, but I have not yet found it. Frustrating, I tell you.)

- - -

trinkets:

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lc...pwi0o1_500.jpg
To unlock your badge, all you need to do is check in at any airport and include something like “TSA,”
“grope” or — my personal favorite — “Don’t touch my junk, bro!” in your shout. Safe Travels.

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lc...8ifto1_500.jpg
Activist Lori Lamb distributes stickers to travelers to protest against TSA’s new
security procedures at Los Angeles International Airport, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2010.
Holiday travelers dismayed by airport body scans planned protests at bustling airports
Wednesday, while the head of the nation’s transport security agency urged passengers
to comply with searches to reduce the possibility of delays on one of the busiest travel
days of the year. --(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lc...vr49o1_400.jpg
by Evan Roth

the old statement that those who give up liberty for security deserve neither is becoming much more relevant lately- freedom is not free, and neither is it safe- anyone who wants to live in a nice safe cocoon can join the rest of the sheep, as for me, fuck the screenings, they are security theater at best, and serve the terrorists goals in any event.... they dont have to blow a damn thing up to make us less than we were, we are going to do it to ourselves.....

if they were to put out the real news.........we'd all know that we're getting fucked in the ass then.


they have to side track us with the drunken debacles and reality bullshit.


media mind control............they give you what they want you to see...........another reason i'm glad i don't watch TV.

Yeah, I get why they do it. :thumbsup:

I'm just wondering why it's okay with the masses that they do it.

Maybe I'm just an off balance optimist, but I refuse to believe that people actually believe all the garbage they see on the news and are completely unaware of the real world.


..

I really don't have the time to flesh this out entirely but I want to add that there is no real world, no sheeple, no lemmings or lambs being led to the slaughter or any of that condescending bullshit. We're all immersed in the illusion and while some of us may have more defensible reasons for being so immersed, none of us have been gifted with anything close to clarity. Life isn't Fight Club or The Matrix - there is no one to awaken and doing away with this kind of nonsense is absolutely imperative to changing the world with your ideas.

I've recently seen some really interesting and self-critical things come from the very same media machine which seems to love painting extreme cases and the ideas that follow from them as the whole of public opinion. Jon Stewart's recent rally most easily comes to mind.

Ultimately, such an argument falls into the same trap it argues against. Regressive.

- -

I mean, how easily could you go about your day if every single time you removed a dollar from your wallet you were forced to come to terms with the death, slavery, misery and sadness underlying it? It's quantifiable. When your entire way of life is bound by a series of illusions how does this kind of stuff not make sense?

I'd bet none of this makes sense outside of my head.

More like Cogent_Skafe.

Thanks Skafe... well said.

Thanks from me, as well. You've tapped into a mainspring of truth there, skafe.

I'm not really sure what to say to that, but it does explain a lot.

---------- Post added at 09:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 PM ----------

Oh and would you please ask your illusion to stop fondling peoples gentiles.

A friend of mine had a good idea.

Go for the 'aggressive pat down' and while they are doing your crotch you moan and start getting into it. Telling them to press harder.
Optional: Take a friend and have them yell "I've got some singles!" once the moaning starts.

edit: Not sure if anyone posted this before (yeah I'm too lazy to read the whole thread...)

In my early twenties I worked as an airport security screeners. Long before 911. It was ridiculous. My training consisted of a 3 hour training watching a video, taking a test with 20 other people, all of us failing, rewatching the video then having the tester telling us what answers to circle! I started the next day, scared to death! The machines showed nothing clear. And worse, depending on which type of machine, you could lay something down or stand it up and it would show or not show something. We hand patted people too but we were so scared it was stupid. We barely touched them. We were kids! And our focus was distracted by the damn men around us. Cops, pilots, controllers, maintenance, etc. Even the travelers! Every one wanted to have sex with us! I couldnt believe how predatory the airport was! What an education it gave this country girl! We had guns, rifles, ammo and even a bomb leake thru our gates. Nothing happened to us. They couldnt tell which screener let it pass so we didnt get in trouble. And really, no one was much too worried. Security wasnt a big issue back then. At least no one seemed to think so where I was standing.
Now, I am all for security measures because I stood behind those machines. Look at my nakidness. And I dont say that because I am bawdry. I say that because I dont want problems for me or anyone else. Handle me if you need to. Open my luggage. take off my shoes. Hell, take me in a room and disrobe me. Do it ethically and with proper guidelines but hell yeah. And as for kids..."modified measures"? I remember how they used kids in vietnam. I also want to protect children too. I dont know what to do here. I hope someone figures that out.
Security at airports has been a joke in this country. We are going to bumble our way thru stupid ways until we figure out the right ways...

The problem, tasineah, (or at least one of the problems) is that there's no reason to bumble our way through stupid ways until we figure out the right ways. Plenty of other countries have gone through this, and plenty of people in the US have also made serious suggestions regarding things that would actually make us safer, as opposed to making us feel safer.

For one thing, 9/11 was a failure of intelligence, not airport security. Yet we still haven't fully implemented the recommended changes to close that hole. Furthermore, the underwear bomber that is being used as an excuse for these machines? He still wouldn't have been caught because he went through a security hole in a different country.

If we're relying on airport security - people who are recruited off the top of pizza boxes with promises of "x-ray vision" - to stop a terrorist attack... we're all fucked, no matter what advanced technology they're using to invade our privacy without probable cause.

I totally agree about how security people are recruited and trained! I had NO training to speak of and I doubt its any better. I did get minumum wage. No benefits. What do you expect for that? People took the job to land the pilot or the controller...not for the pay. Girls quit once they got the apartment paid for and the credit card from the man with the wings..

I'd also like to note, as I mentioned to my sister-in-law last night when we had a discussion on this topic, that I visited London after the London Underground bombing. I still didn't have to go through metal detectors, let alone virtual strip searches or full body pat-downs. We can be secure without all that shit - in fact, the only effective way to be secure is to catch plots before those points.