Re: TSA, security technology, and opting out
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/TSA-security-technology-and-opting-out-tp5759060p5759386.html
Once again, you are *my hero* and that is saying a bit!
I've suggested many times, that from now on, I should enter TSA security wearing absolutely nothing but a Speedo... It would be an act of what I call *white whale watching* for the other sad passengers who had to witness this. Maybe we could start a fad, a performance art practice, street theater of sorts if you will!
After recently objecting to a body search in Toronto and being as sarcastic as legally possible some passengers suggested that I was frightening them by objecting to the intrusion. That was interesting; the fear quotient was high enough that members of “The Group” were willing to attack each other in the absence of a clearly identifiable enemy. My threatening action was simply to question the security guard as to whether stripping naked in the line up would make him feel better, very loudly!. I then asked the crowd if they would feel safer after seeing me publicly naked.
That did not amuse anyone, and sensing my over eagerness to strip my aging carcass in public was deemed very offensive while a probe up my nether regions was perfectly acceptable?
The other thought I've had is each time I come to the airport, to bring a large bag filled with the leftover spices and other foodstuffs in my kitchen which are no longer interesting, viable or useful... and the same for those of you with overflowing medicine cabinets... just take them out of the bag one by one... "this? this 2 oz of crusty peanut butter from a 16 oz jar... I can't take *that* on? Ok, so here, just put it in the bin then! " "And this near empty bottle of virgin olive oil with a crust of hardened oil on the outside, faded label, I can't take that on either? OK! here right into the bin!" "Now, what else do we have here... oh! The scary tabasco... yes... definitely *right* into the bin!" 15 mins later, your cupboard is empty, their bin is full!
For the really adventurous, I think we have a new plan for disposing of unwanted cans of paint, near empty bottles of motor oil, etc.! "Oh my! you mean I can't take this on the plane?". Having just trimmed hundreds of square inches of corrugated steel off my roof as I layed it down, I have fascinating scraps that *all* look much more deadly than a box-cutter. "What? I was taking this to my grand-daughter as a toy... how do you mean I can't take this on the plane? Ok... YOU take it then! Maybe you should be wearing gloves, you know.. sharp edges and all!"
I highly recommend the following from an early cover of "Steampunk Magazine"... I'm *still* rolling in hilarity over this!
And yes! We are not *inciting* fear, we are helping to release the fear that the bastards (of all genders) have chosen to instill in us at any price. Why? I'm not sure, though my conspiratorial alternate personality believes it is to *control* us... other personalities suspect it is just because "they can"... odd, trivial power trips with no real goal in mind... a good reason to hire the undereducated, the bored, the chronically frightened, the disenfranchised. They naturally gravitate to the very same abuses they have suffered themselves in their everyday lives... "We do *that* which we have had done to us!" The cycle of abuse...
My brother, who had to endure my theatrics, later suggested that if Alcohol was not recommended for anyone required to think or operate machinery, then we should have found ways to prohibit the incitement of fear as even more threatening to public safety. Yet we still protest that being in a state of fear excuses all our inconsiderate actions. Personally no one should ever make decisions of any significance if their minds are obscured by phantom fears. Traveling is not as much fun as it used to be.
This is not new, we do it over and over again... but I get your point, it is new relative to relatively recent history (in this country).
We live in a new society where it is normal to dehumanize everybody.
too true, too true.We talk about human rights all the time but in fact those few rights are about all that we have left to distinguish us from inanimate things. We now have fewer rights than at any time in the history of mankind. Perhaps that is why we try so hard to guarantee the few that remain to us in Legal Proceedings.
All men are assumed to be guilty and attempting to prove otherwise makes us appear even guiltier. This is exactly as life under a totalitarian regime has been described.
Our invocation of a "resuscitate and rescue at all costs" medical system is hugely questionable re: Personal Dignity. I know this may be threatening to some of our constituents here, perhaps sometimes, eventually myself included... but we've put avoiding death so high on our list that we will accept any indignity to avoid it. I suspect the TSA phenomenon is obliquely related...
In some respects this excess of caution is an experiment to determine if humanity has any remaining vestiges of personal dignity. It appears that we have none by accepting willingly being treated like objects and being happy complying with authorities, we deserve no better.
And in my case downright *scary*, something tells me from your tone, yours would be equally terrifying to the unsuspecting masses standing in line! Perhaps we should coordinate some travel.. you take the far left lane, I'll take the far right and we'll start drifting toward the center, wreaking havoc!If we do not object then we deserve what we get. Now I understand how the Jews walked into the death camps without protest. That always struck me as out of character. Now our entire society is incapable of protest. The psychology of human degradation is very intriguing.
Once upon a time people stripped naked and chained themselves to railings in Trafalgar square protesting Nuclear weapons deployment in Britain. Public nakedness has been a widely accepted form of public protest.
I was stripped of my proud new (to me) didgeridoo when I flew back from New Zealand even before 9/11. Imagine they believed it could be used as a fearsome weapon for hijackery! And they hadn't even heard me play it yet!Nothing will change until a bus load of retirees strips naked for a junket to Las Vegas.
I will lead the charge of the bare-assed geezers. Is it still acceptable if I keep my cane? I’d feel naked without it.
Carry on!
- Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Victoria Hughes
Sent: November 20, 2010 4:20 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group; [hidden email]
Subject: [FRIAM] TSA, security technology, and opting out
From Bruce Schneier
link to great blog post, comprehensive with lots of links, useful for all who travel by air-
first few paragraphs-
"TSA Backscatter X-ray Backlash
Things are happening so fast that I don't know if I should bother. But here are some links and observations.
The head of the Allied Pilots Association is telling its members to avoid both the full body scanners and the patdowns.
This first-hand report, from a man who refused to fly rather than subject himself to a full-body scan or an enhanced patdown, has been making the rounds. (The TSA is now investigating him.) It reminds me of Penn Jillette's story from 2002.
A woman has a horrific story of opting-out of the full body scanners. More stories: this one about the TSA patting down a screaming toddler. And here's Dave Barry's encounter (also this NPR interview)......
Yesterday, the TSA administrator John Pistole was grilled by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on full-body scanners. Rep. Ron Paul introduced a bill to ban them. (His floor speech is here.) I'm one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit to ban them.
Book for kids: My First Cavity Search. Cover seen at at TSA checkpoint.
Michael Chertoff, former Department of Homeland Security secretary, has been touting the full-body scanners, while at the same time maintaining a financial interest in the company that makes them."
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