DO YOU THINK THIS WOMAN DESERVED A PAT DOWN?

Heh. I love civil disobedience, and would participate myself, but I make it a practice never to fly on the busiest travel days of the year. Those who do travel on the busiest travel days of the year already know what a hassle it is. I'd be pleasantly surprised if this thing has any real impact.

Ditto!

Can't a body buy a fully refundable ticket, go through the line, ponder the full body scan and its alternative for a reasonable length of time, say 'no thanks' and go on home?

I don't know why that fellow is under investigation for leaving a secured area since he was escorted out.

JTT said:
It's not nuts - it's sad - but not especially nuts. You're the one whose always telling us how much the world hates us (Americans) and as you point out, sometimes with good reason.
I just haven't felt so inconvenienced or violated that I'd rather trust in the good will of all my fellow passengers.
And I'm talking about good, old homegrown Americans too - just like everywhere else, some of us are batshit crazy - and very angry people.
And unlike some others, yeah - if I have a choice - I'd rather have a full body scan than have to settle for convincing myself- 'Que sera, sera - if a nutcase feels like blowing me and 200 other people out of the sky today because his brother got fired from Continental Airlines last month - it's all good - I gotta go some way - and at least I didn't give them the satisfaction of scanning my body.'

Mame asked:
I love it. It's endlessly fascinating. It's the most interesting, least boring and most educational and rewarding job I've ever had.
And it's convinced me of the need for security.

You misquoted me, Aidan - I didn't say that first one attributed to me. That was JTT.

Yeah - I edited it and fixed it as soon as I realized my mistake.

Protests grow over full-body scans, invasive searches at airports
Posted: 9:16 am Tue, November 16, 2010
By Associated Press

CHICAGO — An airport traveler who famously resisted a full-body scan and groin check with the words “If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested” has become an Internet sensation, tapping into rising frustration over increasingly invasive searches.

John Tyner’s online account — complete with cell-phone video of the encounter — has helped fuel a campaign urging travelers to decline the body scans next week during the busiest travel day of the year.

It also raised questions about the complaints: Are Americans standing up to government overreach or simply whining about the inconvenience of air travel while insisting on full protection from terrorists?

“I think Americans, in their hearts, still feel airport security is just a big show — form over substance,” said Joseph Schwieterman, a Chicago-based transportation expert. “So they’re impatient with strategies they feel are just there to placate political demands rather the genuine security threats.”

Many of the people who have little tolerance for airport security are the same ones who want the government to work aggressively to prevent terrorist attacks, Schwieterman said.

Long-simmering annoyance among passengers and even plane crews has recently risen to new heights with wider use of full-body scanners, which show a traveler’s physical contours on a computer in a private room removed from security checkpoints. Faces are never shown, and the person’s identity is supposedly not known to the screener reviewing the images.

About 300 of the scanners are in use at 60 U.S. airports. The Transportation Security Administration is on track to deploy approximately 500 units by the end of the year.

The TSA requires people who decline to use the scanners to submit to pat-downs that include checks of the inside of travelers’ thighs and buttocks.

Top federal officials insist the procedures are safe and necessary sacrifices to ward off terror attacks.

“It’s all about security,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. “It’s all about everybody recognizing their role.”

Tyner, 31, a software engineer from Oceanside, Calif., insisted he was not looking for notoriety when he confronted TSA agents last weekend at the San Diego airport.

“I don’t think I did anything heroic,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I stood up for what I thought was right.”

After Tyner declined to go through the full-body scanner, he refused to submit to a groin check as part of a pat-down. He was thrown out of the airport Saturday after being threatened with a fine and lawsuit.

His confrontation spawned online sales of T-shirts, bumper stickers, hats and even underwear emblazoned with the words, “Don’t Touch My Junk!”

Tyner’s one-man protest has inspired other efforts, including an online campaign urging air travelers to refuse body scans in a “National Opt-Out Day” the day before Thanksgiving, one of the year’s busiest travel days.

Site organizer Brian Sodergren, 33, of Ashburn, Va., said he put up the site a week ago. Interest spiked after Tyner’s video went viral.

“This issue has picked up steam more than I ever would have imagined,” said Sodergren, who works in the health care industry. “The outpouring has been huge.”

But it’s not just passengers putting up resistance. Some airline pilots are pushing back, too.

“I would say that pilots are beyond fed up,” said Tom Walsh, a pilot and sometime aviation security consultant. “The TSA is wasting valuable time and money searching the crew, who are not a threat.”

At least one pilots union, the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, has issued new instructions to members to call in sick and not board flights if, after a pat-down, they are too upset to fly.

“If the pilot feels the groping is too much and they are stressed out — they are obliged not to fly,” union spokesman James Ray said. He insisted the new instruction is not meant as a protest, saying it complies with rules that pilots don’t fly if they feel they are not fit.

Despite the concerns about pat-downs, Ray said, the union recommends pilots avoid going through scanners out of concern that cumulative effects of low radiation could be harmful.

But Ray agreed that if enough pilots and travelers opt out of body scans, delays could result, especially if there aren’t enough TSA screeners to conduct the more time-consuming pat-downs.

From now on, Tyner said, his protest of choice will be more straightforward: Whenever he can, he simply won’t fly. He said that should be practical option because most of the friends and relatives he visits are in the California area.

“I would suggest other people also take the train, bus or car instead of a plane,” he said. “Take a trip and enjoy the countryside.”

CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING SOMEONE YOU DON'T KNOW STICK THEIR FINGER IN YOUR CRACK.

DO THEY KNOW WHAT THE LONG RANGE EFFECT WILL BE FOR BABYS AND YOUNG CHILDREN BEING PATTED DOWN? THEY ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW WHY SOMEONE WOULD DO TO THEM SOMETHING THEIR PARENTS WOULD NOT DO. YOU BET YOUR BIPPY THEY ARE UNHAPPY ABOUT IT TOO. THIS IS NOT RIGHT FOR CHILDREN!

What you have seen is the profit making solution, there must be a nonevasive, respectful solution.

That's all well and good to say drive but how the heck do you drive to England? As it is I try to avoid flying into the States as much as possible but sometimes that's the only way you can get to where you're going.

I don't mind the scanners and I'm not worried about any radiation, but I also support the protest. Those body scans sound too invasive for me. I don't like being touched by strangers in the first place, never mind where they're touching you. That is just wrong. Not only that, what will be next? You have to put a stop to this sort of thing in the beginning.

I predict this won't last - it's too over the top.

So bend over Mame. You can close your eyes and think of England. It's easy enough I should imagine. And with "nothing to declare" you can be on your way in a jiffy.

You're so funny. How much beer have you had, buddy?

Not enough. A useless and very noisy band drove me out of the pub tonight. It was dire. If you say "what?" to somebody you get your ear full of spit.

That's a right bugger. Did you have to go home or did you find another pub?

I so wasn't going to eat it...

He refused the FBS and the pat down, as was his right, and they threw him out of the airport. Why would they do something that stupid to a guy that was simply exercising the rights given him by the legislation?

That's exactly what it is, a grand show with no substance.

You must carry a huge bag.

tuna & beans?

Leather back-packy sort of bag.

Small can.

Was this water packed tuna, or oil?

Green beans or navy?

Now, keep in mind that Napolitano is the one who declared "the system worked" after a passenger failed to detonate his underwear. I can not regard her as an authority.