Here’s what those busy folks at TSA did during the period between January 16th and 22nd, 2012:
- 4Â artfully concealed prohibited items found at checkpoints
- 26Â firearms found at checkpoints
- 1Â passenger was arrested after investigation of suspicious behavior or fraudulent travel documents
James Fallows at the Atlantic is an instrument-rated private pilot and sometimes writes about TSA, especially this week, after Senator Rand Paul’s experience in the Nashville airport. He also wrote about airports generally here, found a bit of good news here, then back to Rand Paul and some reader comments here, and promises to taper off on the subject after this summary of the kinds of responses he got.
One of his readers sent this explanation of why he prefers to opt out of the full-body scan in favor of a pat-down by a TSA agent.
[B]ecause the indignity is the same in principle, but slightly safer and delivered by a human being who can look me in the eye. Then I realized how inured I’d become to such indignity. And that is why I hate the TSA: it is insidious in its constant escalation of human debasement.
It is all about control, and one of the best ways of control is to have a subservient populace. After all, it’s all for your own good, Yea man.