TSA Sees London, France, Etc.

A nation-wide chorus of dissent over the TSA's exciting pornographic screening procedures has been building for a while, but this week, it seems to have reached a tipping point. That's largely thanks to this blog entry and accompanying video, which nicely illustrate the ridiculous catch-22 the TSA has created for anyone who wants to get on a plane without exposing themselves or having their genitals caressed (although, to be fair, how often do you get to do either of those things legally, in public?).

The blogger Kenneth the Page, positioning himself as the Rosa Parks of this particular civil rights crusade, opted out of the "Airplane"-inspired boob scanner and found himself subject to an even more invasive patdown that would include some touching of "his junk." When he attempted to refuse both procedures and simply leave the airport, he was threatened with a $10,000 fine and "civil suit," although this was probably just a bluff by an especially stereotypical airport security person. maybe not just a bluff.

My initial response to this controversy was to mock people overly concerned with it. You have to admit, there is an element of narcissism in fearing that a TSA worker who sees thousands of greyed-out faceless naked people on his computer screen every day would get it up for YOUR PRECIOUS BODY. I was swayed, however, by the blogger's tale of misery and by findings linking the penis detectors not just to embarassment, but to cancer.

Luckily, I'm not alone. Hatred for the new TSA procedures seems to be one of those rare causes that can still unite liberals and conservatives, with anti-scanner headlines dominating both the Drudge Report and my leftist friends' facebook feeds for most of the week.

All of this has culminated in the scheduling of a national "opt-out" day for the day before Thanksgiving. Travellers are encouraged to opt-out of the scans in favor of the patdowns, which are time-consuming and will likely create costly backups at major airports on the year's busiest travel day. Travellers are also encouraged to slyly wink at their TSA agent as he approaches the aforementioned "junk," just for kicks. Whether these delays will cause more frustration for the TSA or average Americans who don't care about this issue remains to be seen. But for now, I'm in favor--if only because America could really use a win on a nonpartisan civil rights issue right now, no matter how small (no pun intended).

UPDATE: We seem to be in agreement that no one likes the scanners. Also, they don't save money or time. On top of that, they don't see through skin or detect metal, so it's debatable that they are any more effective than older systems. Why, then, is the TSA so gung ho about keeping them? Oh that's right, lobbying.