Comments on: TSA moves forward with untested, costly whole-body scanner deployment

By: Top 13 reasons I love whole-body scanners

Top 13 reasons I love whole-body scanners — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:11:40 +0000

[...] 5. Taxpayer funded radiation treatments may help national health care. Though testing and studies done by the manufacturers claim that there is no significant radiation harm from the machines. Their experts say the machines dose passengers with nothing more than “cosmic rays” gathered when flying. But we now find that these “studies” have been based on the whole body, inside and out, rather than on only the skin that gets the entire dose of radiation. And no studies have been performed on children. The Government Accountability Office agrees with me. [...]

By: TSA under fire

TSA under fire — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:31:48 +0000

[...] over objections of privacy groups, medical/radiation organizations and government’s own Government Accountability Office (GAO), TSA still only has a smattering of these high-tech, questionable scanners installed across [...]

By: Keith

Keith — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:30:30 +0000

Interesting concept. :P Maybe the security isn’t for the sake of security, but for driving people away from the overcrowded airline system.

By: B.J.

B.J. — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:43:30 +0000

It is sad that the last sentence from HAPGOOD seems to be absolutely TRUE! I am retired from a major airline and can fly free but the inconvenience of tsa makes it unworthy to even try.
I will fly outside the country because from what I have expeienced they still treat passenger with respect. Sadly that is no longer the case here.in country.
As someone who has been in the airline industry almost 30 years it seems to be that he powers that be want the flying public drastically reduced by at least HALF! Why, I don’t know.

By: Hapgood

Hapgood — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:27:57 +0000

“We as citizens are being fleeced and inconvenienced without any evidence that these efforts are effective.”

That has been the TSA’s central operating principle ever since the agency was founded. And thanks to the Bush administration’s masterful use of 9/11 and FEAR as Weapons of Mass Distraction, many people accept and even welcome the fleecing and inconvenience. They see all the checkpoint hassles and intrusion as comforting and reassuring proof that the government is Doing Something to protect us from an unspeakably horrible threat. And they’ll happily submit to an impressive high-technology scanner out of a belief that it represents even greater protection, and defend the agency against anyone who tries to stop it.

The people who are reassured and comforted by the TSA don’t care about evidence that the agency is wasting our time and money with little to show for it. They’ll even ignore the obvious inconsistencies and absurdities that unfold before their eyes at checkpoints. They don’t want to know whether it’s effective or a good use of money. They just want to be reassured and comforted. They just want to maintain their blind faith that everything the TSA does is necessary and effective, even when it clearly makes no sense. They may not understand why they need to follow all the rules about liquids and shoes, or why the “interpretation” of those rules is so different between airports or checkpoints. But they have confidence that someone far wiser than they, in some secret place, understands and is doing it to keep all of us safe and secure.

With so many people just wanting to Believe that the TSA keeps us safe, and with so many government officials wanting to encourage that Belief, I don’t think any of us will make much headway in challenging it with mere facts. I’m reminded of the line in “Man of La Mancha,” where Dr. Carrasco is trying to convince Don Quixote of the “fact” that the latter is deluded. Quixote puts a conclusive end to the discussion by telling Carrasco that “Facts are the enemy of truth.”

The truth here seems to be that too many people find advantage in keeping the TSA exactly as it is. And that includes giving the agency free rein and blank checks to realize their desire to strip-search every passenger, regardless of the lack of proven benefit and the possible health risks. So if you can’t accept that reality, it appears that the only thing to do is to avoid flying. I wish that weren’t the case, but that’s what it looks like to me.