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TSA Pats Down 3-Year-Old
3-year-old Mandy Simon started crying when her teddy bear had to go through the X-ray machine at airport security in Chattanooga, Tenn. She was so upset that she refused to go calmly through the metal detector, setting it off twice. Agents then informed her parents that she "must be hand-searched." The subsequent TSA employee pat down of the screaming child was captured by her father, who happens to be a reporter, on his cell phone. The video have left some questioning why better procedures for children aren't in place. I, for one, feel much safer knowing the TSA is protecting us from impressionable minds warped by too much Dora the Explorer.
What would happen if there was a suicide bomber that was caught with a child, and the child was the one with the bomb... Would we willingly subject our children to being searched after an incident like this?
I have worse karma than M$.
Obligatory link to My First Cavity Search: A Children's Guide to Understanding Why He May Be a Threat to National Security.
http://gizmodo.com/5688087/the-tsas-sense-of-humor-makes-me-nervous
(But seriously, TSA? Child molestation is cool now?)
...report being creeped out by these new procedures.
And lots more buxom younger women are apparently being subjected to thorough full body searches than guys.
MEK
Credo quia impossibilis -- Tertullian
The policy has recently shifted from "mild frisking" to more invasive frisking for those that opt not to succumb to AIT (Advanced Imaging Technologies).
Genitals and breasts are vigorously groped instead of the older method of using the backs of the hands only.
Even the TSA has stated that the recent methods are likely to be uncomfortable for many, especially those who have been victimized by molestation.
Is this because somebody, somewhere thought these frisking methods would be more effective, or is it a means of discouraging people from "opting out" of AIT?
I don't know, but I suspect the latter.
"Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"
I just read on Ars that the head of the TSA testified to Congress that children under 12 were not subject to enhanced pat-downs. I'm shocked, shocked to find that he may have been lying!
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/11/tsa-boss-our-patdowns-turn-up-artfully-concealed-objects.ars
Honestly I hope that happens. I really, truly hope that full cavity searches will be required to fly.
It's my last hope that the people in this country will have any sense and stand up to this kind of asinine "security."
If the American people accept cavity searches every time they fly, and they just shrug and say "Well, what are you going to do?" Well, then this country has lost everything that made it special.
This will happen as long as people let it happen. By shrugged their shoulders and going along with it, they're letting the government and the TSA know that we will give them absolute free reign in this. It doesn't matter how many angry articles there are decrying the new procedures -- if people continue to fly, then the procedures will stay. And eventually they'll get worse. Again.
And there is something wrong with the whole security theatre to begin with...
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-security-little-bother
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
I hope the TSA people don't have dosimter. The perverts shouldn't breed.
No Agenda Show actually. They exposed (as the first scanners were going in) that the former chief of Homeland Security (Chertoff) is the one responsible for bringing them in. Nevermind his security consulting group has a client that manufactures the machines. No Agenda has been consistently months ahead of both the news and public reaction on a number of similar issues. http://noagendashow.com/
#!/Jerald
Not surprised.
Censorship is the last resort of the Tyrant (or Oligarchs) to cover-up his deeds.
A bullet is the last resort of the Patriot, in order to end the censorship.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Yes, exactly.
There is no new threat. This whole new procedure it to force people thru the new scanners and to shut people up about the visual invasion of privacy.
Goon squad tactics at best.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Seriously, all this security theatre stuff is basically giving in to the terrorists.
The only way to win against terrorists is to *ignore* them and go about your life as before. I do like your ideas about supporting those affected. It might not be a bad idea to look at the root causes of terrorism as well.
>>>Given the money they are spending
The guy who owns the company installing these Naked Body scanners is also the guy who used to work for Bush and ordered their installation nationwide in 2006. Can you say? Bias?
Or maybe corruption.
Eventually I expect to see them pulled from the airports, either due to public outrage or health concerns (damage passengers' skin), and then that will be another ~1 billion in Stimulus money wasted.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
It still makes me wonder how this is not a violation of the warrant-less search and seizure clause.
I mean, innocent until proven guilty, probably cause does not exist (does it?) so searching someone in an airport would (IMO) be a warrant-less search unless there's a judge standing at the gates and the TSA agent is asked to swear by oath that the person that just walked through the door has committed a crime.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
It still makes me wonder how this is not a violation of the warrant-less search and seizure clause.
I mean, innocent until proven guilty, probably cause does not exist (does it?) so searching someone in an airport would (IMO) be a warrant-less search unless there's a judge standing at the gates and the TSA agent is asked to swear by oath that the person that just walked through the door has committed a crime.
Because it is a place of business, and in order to gain access to that place of business you must follow their rules or leave. Of course this is a government sponsored security restriction, but that is their logic to how they can validate this type of treatment.
Oh, and I believe the TSA made these two options or else policy is to force people to use the expensive scanners because they found that people did not want to use them.
The risk of dying in a plane crash is tiny to start with -- about 1 in 11 million -- and the risk of being the victim of a terrorist attack is smaller still
Consider the following situation: Henry is a traveller in the United States, who is about to go on a flight to New York. Is it more likely that he would die from a plane crash, or die from a plane crash caused by a terrorist action.
The quirky thing about how humans think is that if you set up a question like this, many people will pick the second option, even though it is more specific.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
They're banking on the idea that by opting to fly you've "consented" to search before boarding the aircraft. Check the fine print next time you buy a ticket. It's bullshit, but they're claiming you've consented.
Back in the real world most people don't have the luxury of quiting over any change they disagree with and idealistic grandstanding that they somehow should anyway will not solve the problem.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
It uses two electrically balanced AC coils that become unbalanced if a conductive substance nearby is inducted by its field (likely because it is closer to one of the two coils than the other).
You might be able to unbalance them manually simply by touching one of them.
So yeah, after checking Wikipedia, this seems to make some sense, although I'm not sure why you can't insulate them. It's not as if a bare wire is required for induction to occur.
That wouldn't work. The business of taking over the cockpit was solved on 9/12: Just lock the damn door and don't open it. Oh and since the pilot has 2 of his best friends (Smith and Wesson) with him, any attempt would be rather short lived...
"Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
I'm a USAmerican and while I'll admit to sucking at math, I think it's a stretch to say I suck "so badly." I'm not exactly sure what The Problem with America Today is, but if I had to guess I'd say a lot of it has to do with extremely large organizations motivated solely by profit (AKA news media) manipulating the international discourse in ways that are profitable, which has nothing to do with a sane representation of reality. It's probably not even that satisfyingly conspiratory, unfortunately, but I do know that I've never seen anyone ram together a few legitimate data points like I have in this blog post (which I'm reproducing in entirety here to save everyone the effort of having to click through to a foreign environment):
In the style of Harper's Index, if with so much less elegance...
Number of deaths in the USA due to fundamentalist Islamic terrorists in 9/2001: 2,996
Estimated number of those that were US citizens: 2,669
Number of deaths in the USA due to traffic accidents in the same month: 3,303
Number of deaths in the USA due to fundamentalist Islamic terrorists between 9/12/2001 and 12/31/2008: 0
Number of deaths in the USA due to traffic accidents in approximately the same period: 303,841
Total approved, as of 12/2009, for the three military operations initiated to combat terrorism in response to 9/11 (excluding funds for CIA, FBI, TSA, Homeland Security, etc.): $1,086,000,000,000
Estimated budget for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over the same period: $6,520,000,000
The NHTSAs budget, expressed as a percent of the amount allocated for these military operations: 00.
Estimate, in 2008, for the final total cost of the Iraq war alone: $3,000,000,000,000
Amount allocated to the military per terrorism related US citizen death in the USA since 9/11/2001: $406,893,967.78
Amount allocated to the NHTSA per traffic related death: $21,458.59
Amount allocated to the military per terrorism related US citizen death in the USA since 9/12/2001: Undefined
Percentage of causes of death in the USA that kill more people than terrorism: 100
Percentage of causes of death in the USA that receive more public money for prevention than terrorism: 0
Percent change in gross federal debt between 2001 and 2010: 232.97
Percentage of gross federal debt in 2001 that would have been eliminated by 1.086 trillion dollars: 18.8
Amount each US household would receive given 1.086 trillion dollars evenly distributed: $9443.48
Rank of defense, excluding expenditure on active military operations, among all categories of federal spending: 1
Percentage of federal spending in 2009 that went to defense: 23
Percentage of federal income in the same year that came from individual income tax: 43
Percentage that came from social security/social insurance tax: 42
Percentage that came from corporate income tax: 7
Sources: http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_September_11_attacks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHTSA Global Terrorism Database, with specific query used The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11, by the Congressional Research Service (pdf) The three trillion dollar war
the most powerful intellect is that unbounded by indubitable preconception