"Air travelers stripped bare with x-ray machine" USA Today, today's

[Nay]

on-line edition.

Ok, folks, they've just done it for me. I will never again step onto a plane in the USA. I will drive to Canada or Mexico to catch a flight anywhere. This is what total fascism looks like, everybody. Do you think they will stop the scanning at just the airports, once they get everyone to go along with this total invasion of privacy? Does ANYONE want to live in a society that allows this?



The agency in charge of the nation's air security expects later this year to begin using a controversial X-ray machine that will show airport screeners a clear picture of what's under passengers' clothes — whether weapons or just bare skin.

Security workers using the machines can see through clothes and peer at whatever may be hidden in undergarments, shirts or pants. The images also paint a revealing picture of a person's nude body.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-05-15-airport-xray-bottomstrip_x.htm

Last year, this disturbing story only made it into the local news--illegal strip searches at Reagan National.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1104/190100.html

If you want more disturbing material, google illegal+strip+searches.

[tanyev]

1. We picked up our tickets today for an Amtrak trip.

Looking forward to it.

[Oldtimeralso]

9. Amtrak trip

Better hurry up and make that trip if the BEE gets its way Amtrak will be shutown Oct 1 or sooner

[truthisfreedom]

2. the only way to use these things is to have people agree to it...

i'd be willing if it meant i didn't have to strip off my belt, empty my pockets, take off my shoes, and then reverse the whole process in public after going through the machines.

i'd much rather have someone beam me with this backscatter machine (as long as i could make the choice) and leave everything on and keep walking.

[Pachamama]

49. I'll strip down completely naked in the airport rather than get "beamed"

with low-radiation x-rays!!!!

I'd strip right there in the airport and say "you want to see me naked and if I have anything?" Okay, here you go....Maybe if enough of us did that, they'd get the message?

Seriously folks - the idea of my body being bombarded by low radiation x-rays is scarier than the idea of the whole airport crowd seeing me naked....

I mean - what are they going to do? Arrest me for demonstrating I'm not a threat? If they are going to see my naked body, why not the real thing?

:shrug:

[iamjoy]

81. Creative Protest Idea

Just strip naked while standing in line to go through the scanner. If they try to charge you with indecent exposure you can always claim that you are just saving time since the machines are going to show everything anyway.

I, however, am a coward lacking the nerve for such a stunt.

[TrogL]

86. I'm not - this sounds like fun

Hmmm, when's my next trip anywhere?

[Pachamama]

89. Hee Hee...leave it to a Canadian to join in this "Protest"!

:hi: I love Canadians! :bounce:

Guess if I see someone else doing this and they have a Maple Leaf on their boxers, I'll know its you, TrogL? :hi:

[Pachamama]

88. I grew up in Europe-I could care less about people seeing me naked!

Hey, growing up as a kid we would all go to the beaches and everyone was stripped down! And when you go in the Sauna's, men and women alike all naked!

The funny thing is, when you start to get used to seeing people naked, it becomes no big deal....and its quite humbling....good incentive too to get in shape and make sure your underwear doesn't have holes in it!

Hee hee...I'd actually have fun with this one....and meanwhile, my little Pachababies love running around naked anyway, so I'd just say "Hey kids, lets strip down!" and then we could all parade through the security area in our undies!

I do think that if enough people did this, that they would "get the message"....

And seriously - these "low radiation x-rays" are very dangerous, don't let the word "low" mislead anyone...

[Pacifist Patriot]

96. I'd do it without a second thought.

If I weren't traveling with my husband. I'm not sure he'd be as comfortable with the idea. But if I were traveling alone...unzip this baby.

[jaysunb]

3. Don't worry

when the fundies find out it will be used on their women folk, they'll put a quick halt to it :evilgrin:

[tanyev]

4. Especially their pregnant women folk.

The Sacred Vessels.

[anitar1]

45. Tanyev, You made me laugh out loud. Sacred Vessels. n/t

[Mizmoon]

54. Vessels or vassals?

just wondering :)

[MountainLaurel]

93. Both

Being a vessel makes them vassals to the superior menfolk.

:evilgrin:

[0007]

95. LOL!! Hilarious

[alfredo]

30. Naw, they will want to watch.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Do you really think they will limit the use of these machines to airports?

We won't be able to avoid this electronic strip search by just not flying; those things will turn up anywhere there is a perceived security threat. We will see them in courthouses, train stations (since there is no security at all on trains or buses, so far), maybe even schools -- anyplace there are metal detectors now.

I hope there is enough outrage to stop this. Figures that fascist pig Chertoff would go for it.

[Nay]

6. No they won't, Ocelot. I specifically mentioned that aspect as well.

This is a total meltdown of any kind of private life. This is THE END.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Right you are! If we, as a society, are willing to tolerate something

this grotesquely invasive, we deserve whatever we wind up with -- and I hate to imagine what that might be. Franklin said something to the effect of, those who would give up essential liberty for security, deserve either liberty nor security.

This would obviously, in the short term, deter people from flying, which would destroy the already-struggling airline industry, putting several hundred thousand people out of work. But the people who didn't want to get naked in order to fly soon wouldn't be able to take the train or the bus, either. So finally hardly anybody travels at all because gas prices are too high for many to drive long distances. Another huge kick in the pants to the economy as well as our freedom.

Join the ACLU if you haven't already. They need as much support and help as they can get.

[havocmom]

8. Makes it easier for them to recruit the sort of slime they need to bully

people too. Sign up now to throw your weight around, make life hell for liberals and see live nude girls!

Wonderful. Just fucking wonderful.

[PennyLane]

42. All this and the National ID card, too?

Ahhh, can't you just feel the freedom???:wtf:

[despairing optimist]

91. Wait till you see the photo they require for it

[Daphne08]

43. So do I

and I won't be flying anymore!

Where does this stop? At what point?

[foreigncorrespondent]

79. As much as it pains me to say...

...but I really don't want Sapphocrat flying out to visit me in Australia anymore either. I am really very uncomfortable with the idea of some unwelcome people getting a birds eye view of everything under her clothes.

Maybe we will need to talk about her flying out of Canada rather than leaving from SFO or LAX.

I really don't blame you for not wanting to fly either. If I was in your position I certainly wouldn't be flying anymore either.

[napi21]

7. Oh damn. If they really want to see a 61 year old broad naked,

I sure don't care! I have nothing to hide, and if that really turns 'em on, knock your self out!

[Nay]

14. It's not a matter of whether you have anything to hide, though.

It's a matter of privacy, of decency, of Constitutional rights being thrown out the window. It's a serious matter, and I wonder if you would mind if the cops busted down your door and went all through your private papers and closets, drawers, and computer files, just to keep the neighborhood 'safe."

I'm afraid I can find no humor anywhere in this whole debacle. If our own bodies are not private, than nothing is.

[napi21]

16. Well, I think you're getting your shorts in a wad over ...not too much

as Jon Stewart would say. Nobody is breaking down your door. I actually feel sorry for the people who have to monitor these machines. Just think about all the (yuck) bodies they have to look at! And yes, there was a bit of humor in what I said, but a lot of truth too!

[Occulus]

29. What if this can see through walls as well?

Suppose a system like this were developed for police departments to use "while looking for suspects". SCOTUS ruled in the recent past that police can't use infrared detectors from outside the home to locate marijuana grow operations. Does that ruling cover a portable X-ray system, derived from the one this airline is using?

For persons who fly often, what are the long-term effects of repeated, regular exposure to X-rays? And again- were police to develop a portable version of this, how would exposure to it affect your possessions, such as computers and other digital devices?

This is exactly one step over the line, and they can pull it off because... (drumroll please) corporations are considered persons under the law. It's their property and their system; they can implement it however the hell they want. In this case, there's another leg to the argument that adds a whole other layer of complexity several orders of magnitude more vague and obscure by including 'homeland security', the FAA, and via those conduits the federal government itself into the overall mix of interests involved. The 'personhood' of the business entities involved allows them to 'legally' pull it off; the business has a 'right' to R&D such a product, and a 'right' to sell it. The airlines have a 'right' to put it into use, and DHS and the FAA have a 'security interest'.

There is nothing at all good about this. In fact, that it exists and will be used in a common location like this scared me milky white. Acclimating people to it: when SWAT teams get one, the public will shrug and say "eh", because it's been in airports for a long time now, and 'nothing bad has happened'.

"We have to get drugs out of the American workplace." Drug tests.

"We need to keep drugs out of our schools." Locker searches, drug dogs, and armed officers. They looked like assault weapons. All the kids were black.

"We need to get drugs out of our neighborhoods." And so, smelling pot burning is grounds for a search. If the dogs happen to come to your door at the same time, and insistently stay there, congratulations! You've just been found to have grounds for a search to be conducted on your premises or at the least face a severe and traumatic disruption to your day-to-day life, regardless of your actual innocence or guilt.

How did things get to that point in the Some Drug War? Inflicted complacency; that is, getting the People to "go along to get along". Ho-hum. It's only in that one instance. It doesn't affect me. It seems to work, when applied that way. I haven't done anything wrong, and have nothing to hide.

I wonder if you'd feel that way were you to be restrained in your own home without warning, without knowing what's coming. They assume you do know when they bust in your door, so they won't tell you.

Something like 80% of US currency has drug residue of some sort on it. Yet if your car gets damaged by a drug dog that jumps up on it and badly scratches the paint because of the drug scent on an errant dollar bill lying in sight on the console, you may not have any legal recourse. You were, if vicariously, in 'possession' of drugs.

And if you think that's amusing, wait, it gets better. You can also get busted for 'possession' if you only have a few seeds, perhaps in an ashtray or maybe on the floor. Those dogs are traned real good, dontcha know? /snark

All because of complacency, because we didn't stand up and say HELL no when employers started actively testing and firing people for drug use. Now, they should never, never, never be allowed in or on the employee while at the workplace, but the employer should not be able to tell the employee what they may and may not do during off hours- period. They got away with that one thanks in part to their personhood (gee, there it is again), i.e. their 'right' to do business the way they see fit.

Sorry for the long post, but this is how it happens, and it's clear with the way our drug laws have been created and enforced that if our privacy does get completely demolished- by police even getting their hands on these- it will happen and get more and more extreme because of the same sort of complacency that allows the Some Drug War to continue, and even to flourish.

The airlines should not even be able to consider implementing these devices, because (just like with mandatory/random employee drug testing and the harsher and yet harsher drug laws that followed since) it very simply won't end there.

ed.: slight clarification in par. 1.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

32. How soon before the security staff start taking pictures of the screens...

...and posting them to the Internet? Have you given any thought along those lines? How much "humor" will be involved then?

[napi21]

33. Sorry, you didn't make your point with me.

I still think it's crazy to be so afriad of this xray stuff. BTW, I also think they're grabbing at straws here. I could tell you quite a number of ways I coult take ligit "weapons" on a plane. Things that people and the Gov;t don't view as weapons.

The whole plan is to try to convince the public that they are safer ofter all their efforts. It's not true, but most people think they are.

[MADem]

75. One day they may come for you....

...and there will be no one left to speak up. You truly don't see the encroachment on civil liberties???

“First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.”

Pastor Martin Niemoller, National Jewish Monthly, May 1941

[Mist]

100. That was what I was thinking - just think of what you see at the beach

SERIOUSLY, this is a gross invasion of privacy, and surely must fall under the Constitutional protection against unreasonable search. Can people lawyer up over that, or even over the exposure to x-rays?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. No, this is too far, and I do not believe it will. pardon the pun,

fly.

Radiation dose is already a problem from CT scans in the US population, this is insane and not warrented from a medical standpoint.

Nope, sorry guys.

[mitchtv]

12. oops ,I guess I'll need a fluffer

I hope those terminals are warm

[confludemocrat]

55. The Today Show had a "preview" of this a few years ago

A man had volunteered to be the subject. It was a live feed we were watching on DirectTV, receiving the network channels from New York. You could see when the man stepped into the thing why he had volunteered, he was I guess proud of having a huge dick, which could be clearly seen. Katy Couric kind of paused and changed the subject, clearly shocked and the segment ended maybe prematurely. Very wierd. Now its BAAACK!

[bvar22]

13. I guess they landed the Homeland Security contract.

[Catherine Vincent]

15. Remember that scene from the movie "Total Recall"?

Arnold was going thru an airport and when he walked thru this huge walkway that does x-rays. You could see his skeleton. It was a futuristic movie but we're not far from that now.

[Occulus]

31. Where do you think they got the idea?

It wouldn't surprise me one little bit if this were actually conceived of in a marketable form by a guy or gal who saw that movie way back when. Science fiction (well, the really good ideas in it, anyway) often precedes science fact.

[trogdor]

65. How about the Simpsons' takeoff on it?

Two suck-urity guards minding the x-ray machine, calling out, "pacemaker" "plate in head" "knife" "uzi" "grenade launcher" "holy cow, what's that?"

Turned out to be Homer, whose skeletal infrastructure resembled that of a gorilla.

[ckramer]

17. And the designer of this machine forgets about the

human nature therefore defeats its purpose.

Who the hell wants to pay attention to the hidden weapons when all you can see is those beautiful T&As.

Man, I'll do that job without pay for three months.

[enigmatic]

18. Take Amtrak if you can

If you've never taken a passenger train it's a beautiful way to travel in the US...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

22. Yes, the ride through Montana is wonderful.

Unfortunately they've cut Amtrak's funding, so who knows how much longer there will be any passenger trains? And anyhow, if Amtrak survives, they'll get the naked-X-ray machines eventually, too.

[high density]

19. What a great country we live in!

Four more years!!!

[Ilsa]

20. We need to make sure alot of "important" people get tagged

for scanning. That's the only way I know of to get this stopped, if it will.

[liveoaktx]

21. Low-Level radiation... frequent flyers beware

[Catrina]

23. One more thing

to diminish the expectation of privacy and the dignity of people in this country. It's one more step towards 'going along' with every move toward diminishing freedom, and conditioning people to accept it.

I will never fly on a plane again either ~ but I guess if they get away with this, they will take it a step further, and another until no one in this country feels they have any rights at all, because we are 'protecting our freedoms'.

These are the same people who thought up the torture technigues Americans should have been horrified by, as was the rest of the world, but we are already sheep, and they know it. I think it's time to leave this country before it's too late, if it isn't already.

Oh, and since we have open borders that Bush isn't worried about this makes no sense at all. If I wanted to get into this country to do harm, I would not come on a plane. As far as terrorists, I'm more worried about the huge crime rate in this country, the murder, rape, and as we read every day in the paper, torture and killing of children etc. More than 90,000 children disappear each year, and no one even cares. We are in more danger every day from our own people, than we are taking a trip on an airplane.

This whole thing is nothing but fear-mongering and will do nothing to stop a determined person from doing what they intend to do anyway. And it's about big business, and we, if we allow it, are merely guinea pigs.

[podnoi]

41. What scares me is people giving up their freedom to fly?????

I am watching as our entire country is moving "inward". From jobs that don't pay enough or have enough vacation to people too stressed out to want to see the world can't folks see what is happening to us? The fewer of us that travel the more under control they have us. The less experience we have with other cultures the more they can manipulate us into "them vs us" mentalities.

Please.. KEEP FLYING!!! Don't let them stop you from seeing other cultures and ways of life.

[liveoaktx]

56. I don't agree. I have never traveled overseas and I don't have an us vs th

mentality. Travelling via airplane to experience another culture isn't a requisite for tolerance.

[baby_bear]

26. Yes, what about the radiation itself?

Who is talking about this risk? Anyone?

b_b

[daleo]

24. And yet not all baggage is screened anyway.

My understanding is that most baggage is not screened if it is not carry on baggage. So, a suicide bomber could just put a bomb in a suitcase and get on. It is amazing that this doesn't seem to ever actually happen - it makes you wonder.

[AzDar]

28. Or the cargo hold...People must JUST STOP FLYING!! We are

headed off to San Diego this weekend..would be cheaper and faster to fly. But the last time I flew (without Hubby), I was pulled aside and GROSSLY felt up by security personnel...If this had happened and my husband were present,he would have lost his mind...and rightfully so, I suppose. So we've decided to drive. Until people begin DEMANDING their Rights (boycott!!), they won't be acknowledged.

[merwin]

34. No, all passenger bags are screened or opened. It's cargo that isn't

looked at.

[LiberallyInclined]

36. that's not what i've heard...

do you have a source for that- regarding screening of passenger bags?
as far as i know- it's still mostly random.

[tanyev]

58. DFW recently got the machines that will allow them

to screen all checked luggage. You have to take it from the ticket counter to that machine and then wait while they have a look-see. There are probably a lot of airports that still don't have those machines, though.

[merwin]

71. Yeah, every time i fly i get a little card in my bag saying that they are

required to search all checked luggage.

[daleo]

38. So, stuff that doesn't even belong to passengers isn't screened?

I take it that is what is meant by cargo hold, as opposed to passenger bags. That sounds even more dangerous - a bomber wouldn't even have to be a suicide bomber.

[merwin]

72. Exactly

[truthisfreedom]

25. as long as bush walks in front of one for all of us to see every time he

appears in public wearing one of his ear devices.

[Paranoid_Portlander]

27. Looking for drugs?

These machines can also be used to look for drugs on the person. What's to stop employers from searching employees? What's to stop teachers from searching students? Traffic stop X-rays? This is the latest tool in the War on Drugs.

[ngGale]

35. Just a bunch of pervert's looking for...

a cheap thrill. Total invasion of privacy, of course why would that matter. We could catch Osama, naked.

[Psephos]

37. Cool - I'm applying for a TSA job tomorrow.

That's a joke, kids.

Peace.

[Valerie5555]

39. OMG I wonder who would want to even think of traveling with young children

especially with the perverts who may pass for airport security agents.

[parasim]

40. What about people who have artificial hip replacements and such?

I can see it now, dingbat TSA employee: "He's got a gun!"

[anitar1]

47. What about tampax ? n/t

[FormerOstrich]

44. This is so disgusting...

I agree with one of the above posters....this isn't about being more secure..it's about making people to believe they are more secure..

Why is it we can x-ray passengers and random drug test employees but we believe it too expensive and unnecessary to test every cow for Mad Cow disease?

Want flights to be safer. Restrict all carry on to one per passenger and no larger than a briefcase. Bet you won't hear that come up. That's because the people that will allow being x-rayed would go ballistic if you told them no carry-on luggage.

:wtf:

If this is the cost for the privilege to board a plane...I'm not paying.

[this_side_up]

46. One of the new laws after Sept 11th

that * signed...gives all companies manufacturing and
using these screeners complete immunity for any
damage caused by the machines.

I think all of the pharmas were also given
immunity for any vaccines they make?

When I have time, I think I will e-mail
all airlines and say Bye bye.

[Shallah Kali]

48. Couldn't they just use sniffer dogs?

They already use them at airports looking for not just drugs but large amounts of cash and illegally imported pants. Why not use explosive sniffer dogs so all we have to worry about is a cold canine nose in the tush instead of turning airport security into a voyeurs paradise? Also would it not be cheaper to use dogs instead of vastly expensive equipment?

[MADem]

50. Why, for that matter, can't they use sniffer machines?

The ones they were supposedly developing that puff the air around the passenger and analyze it? You get explosives, and cash, and whatever, and if you are iffy, you are pulled aside for a closer search...not a good idea to gas up your car on the way to the airport, in that case, but better than being part of a chorus line, I would imagine.

Back to the Xrays--I would think the Muslim community, that doesn't even like the idea of graven images on drivers' licenses for their wimmenfolk, would get irritated at this. Guess the girls will have to stay home!

[w4rma]

51. X-Ray radiation is very very dangerous.

Notice when you have X-Rays done at the doctor, the doctor shields the area that isn't needed to be looked at? The reason is that the doctor tries to limit exposure to x-rays as much as possible.

[Boomer]

62. And who keeps the machines properly calibrated?

An improperly calibrated machine could bombard people with more than low dosages. Just how many qualified technicians are going to be trained and ready for deployment of these new security machines. How often will they be maintained?

Given the low-paid, poorly trained staffing of all too many security stations, the potential for wide-spread health disasters is uncomfortably high.

[rfkrfk]

63. anybody the operator doesn't like, gets Chernobyled n/t

[symbolman]

52. I'm Ready to boycott

the airlines over this.

It's got to stop somewhere.. maybe a petition signed by two million people refusing to fly if ANY of these machines are used in ANY airport.

Time to hit them in the wallet.

[lostnfound]

99. The airlines do NOT want this.

TSA.

[symbolman]

53. As long as Cheney

has to sit in one of these Xray Fridges EVERY time he boards a plane I'd have no problem with the machines.

[Ezlivin]

57. What are you liberals worried about?

After all, aren't all of you flying on luxurious private jets, eating caviar?

[LisaL]

59. A much cheaper way would be to just make

everybody to strip naked while passing through. They already make you to take off your shoes. Why even spend money on the stupid machine anyway?
I always hated flying, but now they keep giving you more and more reasons to hate it even more.

[noamnety]

60. Joy

All the fun of a papsmear - but without that pesky year-long wait.

I don't think of myself as formally boycotting the airlines exactly ... but I just don't fly anymore. Kind of like I'm not formally boycotting brussel sprouts.

[FlaGranny]

61. I'd feel a LOT better

if I knew that airline employees (and all cargo) were x-rayed every day before being allowed in to work.

Not really - too much exposure, both of body and from x-rays, but there is the real security risk.

[mainer]

64. Where's the Christian right on this? They should be howling.

At Bob Jones University, they don't allow coeds to wear short skirts. Shouldn't they be protesting this attack on feminine modesty?

[Lerkfish]

69. if the govt. rapes you, its ok with right-wing Jesus.

from the right wing zealot's point of view. sick bastards.

[Fifth of Five]

66. Forget the tin-foil hat!

Where do I get my tin-foil underwear?:7

[Kolesar]

68. Lead cod-pieces at the airport gift shop...eom

[B3Nut]

74. Just wrap a cucumber in tinfoil...

...it worked for Derek Smalls. :D

(sorry, post gave me a Spinal Tap flashback hehehe)

Todd in Beerbratistan, turning it up to 11

[Roland99]

77. "armadillos in our trousers"

[Kolesar]

82. I liked the sound the wand made when the guard was waving it near his unit

It got louder and higher pitched. Kind of like a Theramin.

[kentuck]

67. They will not stop until....

everyone is on their knees, with their asses stuck in the air, and searched with a flashlight.

[KansDem]

70. This all based on a lie and a fraud...

What irks me the most is ALL of this "security" came about from 9/11, which is fast becoming suspiciously M/LIHOP.

And that idiotic "9/11 Commission," which granted lying privileges to Bush, and its "recommendations" that are costing this country billions of dollars in order to continue the Bush facade.

At best, Bush is incompetent; at worse a conniving mass murderer. And the rest of us suffer for his actions...

I feel like I'm in a terminal flatulence ward with no ventilation.

[HockeyMom]

73. Strip searched upon landing in Frankfurt in 1970s

My husband and I flew there back in the 70s on vacation. I don't know why, but customs singled out several people on the flight (American airliner) to be strip searched. Drugs? Who knows? But I was one of them (not my husband).

I had to go into a small room and strip down to my underwear and put on a hospital type gown. A big, older German woman came in and told me to take off the gown and stand up. Ever see those old movies of the German matrons at the concentration camps? You get the picture. I had to stand, bend over while she patted me down. Terrifying and humiliating experience.

[Roland99]

76. Time to start wearing a lead suit

[BooScout]

78. When we move to the UK...

...this fall it will be the last time for a long time that we have to go through American Airport Security. Thank God!

[nine30]

83. I flew in from London Heathrow yesterday..

..I was selected for some additional security checks at the gate (Terminal 4 Heathrow, BA). Had to perform all sorts of gymnastics with my arms up and sideways, and legs positioned in different directions..while the X-ray scanned my entire body.

So its not just here..

[Logansquare]

92. Yes, it's being used at Heathrow terminal 4 already n/t

[LisaL]

103. Sounds like fun.

I noticed how they always pick some old lady, a pregnant woman or a mother with young children to do those things on. While the men go right trough. Idiocy in it's best.

[lse7581011]

80. Sounds Like the Perfect Job for a sex offender n/t

[Az_lefty]

84. It's only a matter of time...

before the X-Ray images of minors end up on internet porn sites. Who's going to answer for this? In the chimps america, no one.

[lse7581011]

85. Perhaps

Jeff Gannon?

[Paranoid_Portlander]

87. Please vote this thread for the Greatest Page.

There is a strict time limit on votes. My vote was accepted, but I didn't see the counter move above zero. Maybe its my webtv unit malfunctioning again.

[mtnester]

90. So, if it reads organic material, and I paint the words EAT SHIT

really big across my breasts and tummy in blood...

Or would it be better to paint it across my ass?


Oh, and "endless debate over privacy"??? WTF...I guess if you trivialize it, it will make it easier to do away with?

These f***ers are devious in their wording, simply devious.

[Gormy Cuss]

94. What's a little privacy invasion in the name of security?

This is just ramping up the TSA 'proof' that we have security by invading the privacy of passengers. With each step we lose a little more dignity. Travelling on short turnaround business trips taught me how to dress and how to pack. I arrive at the airport with the recommended lead time. I don't set off metal detectors. I also don't take off my shoes because IT IS NOT REQUIRED and it slows up the lines without improving security.

I'm not afraid of the X-rays. I'm appalled. This will be sold to us less-intrusive than pat-downs, and I'm convinced that it was planned that way. The loss of privacy and freedom of movement will not increase our security.

Please, whenever you have a choice, SAY NO. The uproar over pat-downs caused a scaling back of this procedure. Passenger objections to the lng and bizarre list of 'weapons' after 9/11 resulted in a more clearly defined and sensible list.

I would like to reserve a special treatment for the "I have nothing to hide, and neither should you" people. They deserve to have their full body scans posted on the monitor in the airport terminal along with all of the magnetic strip info on their REAL IDs.

[Rambis]

97. There goes my bic lighter hiding place damn!

I am all for safety but wtf?

[LifeDuringWartime]

98. could this be used as an alternative to the strip search?

and ONLY when a strip search is normally warranted? of course, im sure the rules about strip searching would change so they could make everybody go through it.

[NewWaveChick1981]

101. Damn, why didn't they just buy some X-Ray Specs from the back of a comic

book? They're just as effective... :P Seriously, though, this is a HUGE invasion of privacy.

[fedsron2us]

102. The air traveler stripped bare

Sounds like a lost work by Marcel Duchamp.