What happens when you refuse to pose for TSA or be sexually molested to fly.

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Really? I don't remember that being on the ballot.

I am dealing with it by trying to get it to go away - or at least transform into something more palatable that it currently is. That is how I deal with it - I fight it because I think it's wrong. You would propose that I roll over and let Washington do whatever it wants without so much as a peep of opposition. That is how we got into this mess in the first place.

Indirectly, by voting for the people in office. Of course I realize we (nor is any other country that I know of) are not a true democracy.
 
Indirectly, by voting for the people in office. Of course I realize we (nor is any other country that I know of) are not a true democracy.

And I intend to make sure my representatives know of my displeasure. We got rid of one in the last election, the other barely made it back, and a third only won by less than 5%. They have been informed that I am displeased and I will vote for representatives who oppose these current policies.

To be fair to the representatives, they created the TSA and funded it but have no direct say over how they go about their mandate of securing the airports.
 
I have

What do you value more, you supposed "rights", or your Health?


Supposed rights? There is nothing supposed about them. Maybe you need to read up on the United States Bill of Rights.

until we develop Minority Report style reading of the future, this will never be possible.

it can be argued that the fact nobody has been caught stands to say that the system is working well as a deterrent.

that is like saying because people that eat get cancer the cancer must be caused by people eating.

The fact that the US public hasn't been standing up for their Rights and Liberties is the reason you are in this situation.

You elect reactionaries and that is the type of legislation that you get as a result. Now you have to deal with it.


That is what he is trying to do and change.
 
Yeah, no.

I'll write my own letters, and if I want them to go to the White House they will be properly addressed to President Obama and refer to him in that way or as "Mr. President."
 
I'm just going to leave this here.

http://consumerist.com/2010/12/oops-i-made-it-past-the-tsa-screeners-with-a-6-hunting-knife.html

While the TSA is busy rolling out full-body scanners and grope-y pat-down procedures, the agency still hasn't managed to actually stop people from slipping onto airplanes with deadly weapons.
Take for instance the story of Consumerist reader Steve, whose 6-inch hunting knife went unnoticed by all involved:

On my way to Chicago for business this past week the TSA missed the six inch hunting knife in my coat pocket while they busied themselves wanding my crotch and checking my hands for powder residues. The knife was a gift from an outdoorsman friend and I forgot it was in my jacket pocket. In fact, it was the only thing in my pocket. I came across it when I buckled my seat belt!
So let this be a lesson to you all. Since the TSA is apparently remiss in doing its job, you will need to pre-screen yourself before boarding the plane

Bu-.. bu-.. but the terrorists!
 
See, that's the problem with the TSA: they don't look at you, they look at your stuff. When you look at every single person's stuff and never bother to look people in the eye, you're going to miss a lot. When you watch everyone, you watch no one.

That guy manged to board a flight while (accidentally) carrying a hunting knife, yet the flight was totally safe! Why? Because the guy isn't a lunatic. He's one of millions of people flying, just to get from A to B.

You aren't going to find lunatics by looking for stuff. You can only find lunatics by looking for lunatics... and there just aren't that many of them.
 
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From the Journal of Transportation Security:

http://springerlink.com/content/g6620thk08679160/fulltext.pdf

The justification for the safety of these machines rests on two assertions. The first assertion is that the radiation used does not penetrate beyond the skin ...,second, that the effective dose is no more than 0.1...microSv.

As we discuss below, at the kilo voltage(kVp) setting of the units in use, 50kVp
and 125kVp, penetration is a given since these are diagnostic x-ray unit settings,
and diagnosis depends on penetration through a subject.

The paper goes on to discuss how easily backscatter machines are defeated by shapes less than 1cm thick with beveled edges and that the radiation has been shown to penetrate as deep as 20cm into the body. It also states that the numbers regarding exposure are inadequate.

It is late and I'm wiped out, so I will probably print this paper off tomorrow and go over it again if I have time, but I'm in my final exams this week.
 
I find the "It only penetrates to skin level" argument funny, like skin cancer doesn't exist or something.
 
Power and frequency are not the same thing. Blind more or less has the definitions correct. To that, add wavelength.

Frequency: Amount of time between peaks as it passes an observer.
Wavelength: The actual distance between peaks (often but not always the same thing as frequency - see the Doppler Effect and relativity).
Power: How much energy the wave carries - i.e., how big the peaks are..

Frequency is how many peaks happen per unit time, you have it confused with period. Wavelength is not the same thing as frequency, there is a relationship between the two but to say the two are the same is fundamentally wrong. Power is not how much energy is carried, power is energy over time. The amplitude is how many photons there are.

I was under the impression that power and frequency are not the same thing. Power has to do with the height of the wave form while frequency has to do with how close the peaks are together.

I'm going to get clarification on this sometime soon. I know one guy who worked on nuclear subs and knows a hell of a lot about radiation and my uncle, as I mentioned, actually makes radioactive isotopes to interact with the human body.

Power is how much work (energy) that is being done per unit time. The frequency is how many waves occur per unit time. With EMF, the energy is carried in packets which we call photons. The amount of energy in each photon is dependent on the frequency and only the frequency of the wave length. The higher the frequency (or the shorter the wave length), the more energy each photon carries. To increase the energy of the power of a wave, you have to emit more photons, as you will increase the total amount of energy.
 
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7848683

Man boards plane at IAH with loaded gun in carry-on


HOUSTON (KTRK) -- TSA checkpoints at airports are at the front lines of preventing terrorism. When you go through security, you expect to be scanned and searched. And you expect TSA to prevent contraband from getting on planes, but as we've learned, that doesn't always happen.

Houston businessman Farid Seif says it was a startling discovery. He didn't intend to bring a loaded gun on a flight out of Houston and can't understand how TSA screeners didn't catch it.

Nearing the height of last year's Christmas travel season, TSA screeners at Bush Intercontinental Airport somehow missed a loaded pistol, one that was tucked away inside a carry-on computer bag.

"I mean, this is not a small gun," Seif said. "It's a .40 caliber gun."

Seif says it was an accident which he didn't realize until he arrived at his destination. He says he carries the glock for protection but forgot to remove it from his bag. He reported the incident as soon as he landed, shocked at the security lapse.

"There's nothing else in there. How can you miss it? You cannot miss it," Seif said.

Authorities tell ABC News the incident is not uncommon, but how often it occurs is a closely guarded government secret. Experts say every year since the September 11 attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert tests of airport security.

A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA's new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports.

"It's very concerning. I'm very scared. First of al, I can't even believe it could happen," traveler Joy Mansfield said.

"It makes you wonder what exactly all the security hoopla is all about if a loaded gun can go through," traveler Leeza Erfesoglou said.

KTRK's Aviation Security Expert Jim Conway says screeners have a demanding job and are susceptible to fatigue, staring for hours at monitors while looking for prohibited items.

"Look, this is simply human error," Conway said. "When something like this happens, it's human error. I mean, these folks are doing the best job they can."

Seif and others say that's not good enough, not when lives are on the line.

A representative for the Houston Airport System would not comment on the security breach at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

A TSA spokesperson says the agency has conducted an investigation, saying remedial training was provided to the security officers involved in the incident. Advanced imaging technology and more stringent pat downs have also since been implemented.


Insert your favorite facepalm pic here.
 
But I'm sure someone who is actually trying to beat the system will get caught... right?
 
Remember that video of the boy being disrobed by TSA? TSA claimed that the Autistic boy alarmed the metal detector, which was disputed by witnesses. Well, it turns out that TSA is full of shit and flat out lied to try to make themselves look good.

It appears Rep. Jason Chaffetz is already enjoying his new-found authority with regard to the Transportation Security Administration. The Utah Republican, who soon will take charge of the House subcommittee overseeing the agency, says he forced the TSA to come clean on an incident in which a young boy was given a pat down at Salt Lake City International Airport, prompting the child?s frustrated father to remove the boy?s shirt to allay any concerns.


TSA?s initial statement on the incident said the boy set off the alarm on the metal detector, a point disputed by a man who taped the screening and posted it online. Chaffetz says the airport?s top TSA official admitted the boy didn?t trigger the alarm and the congressman went to bat to get the agency to correct its statement.


?I said, ?You guys knew that at the beginning. You lied at the beginning,?? Chaffetz said Friday.


The TSA?s blog now says that the boy was given a pat down because of bulky clothing and not because metal was detected.


?New information was brought to light that indicated the initial report was incorrect,? the TSA said.
 
http://judgejamesgray.blogspot.com/2010/12/are-tsa-procedures-really-making-us.html

Are TSA procedures really making us safer? - by Judge Jim Gray


Last year, thousands and thousands of Americans at the airport lost at least 30 minutes of their lifetimes by standing in longer lines and complying with all of the TSA's increasingly laborious, invasive and time-consuming restrictions.

Has anyone ever done a cost-benefit analysis on these security checkpoint programs? TSA has about 60,000 employees, and today there are about 350 full-body scanners in operation in about 70 of our nation's airports, with about 1,000 expected to be operational by the end of 2011 All of this costs more that $10 per passenger per screening. That also means that those of us who pose no danger will be forced into enhanced scannings at the airports that have them, but the terrorists will simply choose to begin their flights at airports that do not yet have those procedures, like ours here in Orange County.

How much safer are we because of the loss of time and added costs? If anyone really knows, they aren't telling. Why is that? For that answer, one must understand governmental bureaucracies, which are driven by politics.

First, it doesn't matter how much time and money are spent or wasted, or how many millions of passengers are inconvenienced, forced to be humiliated or unnecessarily exposed to radiation, if even one person is injured or loses his life to a terrorist, the TSA will be in political trouble. Thus, the TSA has every incentive to avoid every conceivable risk ? regardless of the probabilities, privacy intrusions or expenses involved.

Second, politicians thrive when they are seen as fighting against enemies of the state. So now it is the "terrorists" who furnish the excuse for our government to deprive us of our liberties, take more of our money, and, along the way, keep the very politicians behind this "movement" firmly in power. Over time other groups have also been used to justify such actions, such as Muslims, communists, Jews, atheists and more. Of course, many dictators in other countries around the world have clung to power in a similar fashion by citing the United States as their common enemy.

Thus we need to have some responsible party intercede in the process, do a cost-benefit analysis, and give us recommendations about how to go forward. But in this we also must be realistic and understand that there is no way that our safety can actually be guaranteed in today's world. As a practical matter, all a suicide bomber has to do to terrorize our country would be to detonate a bomb in the line of people at airports waiting to be screened, or do the same thing at any theater, train station, athletic stadium or highway bridge or tunnel in our country. How could we possibly protect all of those places? Furthermore, terrorists don't even have to be successful, because simply attempting their various plots seems to be keeping us terrorized enough.

So how can we defeat the terrorists? Simply by taking reasonable and logical precautions, relying upon the most effective counter-terrorism device we can use, which is good and timely intelligence, and then simply refusing to be terrorized. That will render the terrorists ineffective.

In the meantime, we passengers are now faced with the choice of going through a full-body X-ray scanner, being subjected to a highly intrusive full-body pat down, or simply choosing not to fly on airplanes. The body-scanner X-ray machines are euphemistically called "naked scanners" because they provide graphic images of our bodies, including genitalia, breasts and other personal effects like urine bags, sanitary napkins and padded clothing. And regardless of their training, it is irresistible for TSA employees, just like any other human beings, to gawk at what they are seeing. In fact, so far several reports have cited situations in which the scanners have been used by TSA employees to humiliate some of their fellow workers who were going through the procedure.

The government says that the amount of radiation put out by the scanners is not dangerous. But, unlike the X-ray machines in your doctors' offices, once they are in operation, the airport scanners are mostly not required to be calibrated any further, so no one really knows how much radiation they are emitting. And even with limited exposure, the radiation is directed at the passenger's entire body, and no one knows the effect it will have upon the corneas of the eyes, which are the most sensitive areas for radiation damage.

The government also says that no visual records are kept of the screenings, but there is much information to the contrary. That information says that individual screenings can be maintained and even transferred to prosecutors, if necessary, for evidentiary purposes. If that is true, then the TSA has the largest library of child pornography in the world.

If passengers "opt out" of the full-body X-ray scanners, they will be subjected to an enhanced, genital-groping body pat-down, which would be classified as a sexual assault in any other context. In fact, newspapers have been full of truly concerning stories about these pat-downs. My own wife tells of having been completely "felt up," as she was recently going through the screening process at LAX. In some respects, I'm glad I wasn't there, because I would probably have had difficulty controlling my anger!

What would be a better approach? The answer is to privatize security screening and allow each airline to choose the most appropriate procedure. The private sector is much better equipped to adopt a cost-benefit analysis that will balance the issues of safety, intrusion and cost. Then probably most airlines would adopt the approach that is used by Israel's El-Al Airlines, which is simply to take people aside and talk to them.

Analyzing people's behavior through observations, conversation and the use of databases, plus focusing upon those "red flag passengers" who paid in cash, are only traveling one-way or don't have much luggage will go a long way in exposing realistic criminal threats. We spend much too much time, energy and money in the name of political correctness searching harmless travelers, and too little focusing upon legitimate potential threats. That must change.

Gee, where have I seen that stuff in bold before? Sounds a lot like what I've posted in here - and was sharply criticized for by some.
 
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http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...oids-prison-after-stealing-travelers-laptops/

TSA Worker Avoids Prison After Stealing Travelers? Laptops



A 37-year-old former Transportation Security Administration officer has been sentenced to three years? probation for stealing laptop computers from passengers? luggage at Philadelphia International Airport. Federal prosecutor Arlene Fisk says defendant Troy Davis, upset about a demotion and lost pay, admitted stealing five laptops and a Sony Playstation.

Fisk says Davis actually used the surveillance equipment for his own greedy purpose.

?He put the luggage through special machines to see whether there was any explosives or anything of concern in the luggage,? she told KYW Newsradio. ?When he saw that there was something of value in the luggage, he took out the computers or the games.?

Judge C. Darnell Jones says he considered the defendant?s military service ? the US Navy veteran served in Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, and in Somalia. And Davis is still recovering from injuries from a near-fatal car wreck a year ago.

?Quite frankly,? Judge Jones told the defendant, ?that is what kept you out of jail, because I was determined to put you there. As I indicated before, if you violate this court?s probation, I can assure you this will not keep you out.?

Davis is married with six children.

No jail time for this scumbag? :mad:
 
"Look, this is simply human error," Conway said. "When something like this happens, it's human error. I mean, these folks are doing the best job they can."
Must I repeat it?

When you watch everyone, you watch no one
- Cory Doctorow (may be quoting someone else, not sure)

Remember that video of the boy being disrobed by TSA? TSA claimed that the Autistic boy alarmed the metal detector, which was disputed by witnesses. Well, it turns out that TSA is full of shit and flat out lied to try to make themselves look good.
I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
 
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