It's good to see the growing backlash against the TSA, an out-of-control organization of 50,000 whose main purpose is to condition the public that being treated as a prisoner is the new normal. In what bizarre fairytale must one live for it to be acceptable for unelected bureaucrats to radiate us with back scatter X-rays, grope our wives and naked scan our children in violation of child pornography laws without any reasonable cause?
The letter to John Holdren, Obama’s Science Czar, signed by PhD’s from the University of California, San Francisco frames the potential health risks well.
Airports and warzones are the proving grounds for surveillance state technologies deployed on the homeland. A case in point - the backscatter x-ray vans, once used in Afghanistan and Iraq are coming to a city near you. It isn’t hard to imagine the chorus of voices claiming that this technology will increase the effectiveness of drug checkpoints in the US as they scan each vehicle with ease.
Search points, such as the TSA Visible Inter-mobile Prevention and Response (VIPER) operation at a truckstop on I-20 outside of Atlanta are becoming more common. VIPER has now moved into bus stations.
You know this dance. It’s always the Orwellian mantra of terror, drugs and safety. If travelers go along with the airport “nakedizers” without a fuss, expect to see them appear at the entrance of state buildings, schools and stadiums.
Turning larger economic interests against TSA practices will be more effective than in-line heroics. For now, yes you can opt out for a grope, but what happens when you can’t? The only way the TSA gets checked is if big spender travelers make it clear to the world’s largest airlines, hotel chains and tourist destinations that the TSA is a barrier between them and their money.
“Dear Disney/Hilton/Marriott/Southwest/American/Continental/City Chamber of Commerce etc. I was planning a trip this year, but will not expose my family to the TSA’s potentially hazardous and tyrannical practices and will instead be content to spend my money locally...”
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