Boy, oh boy a lot of people sure are in an uproar over the mere thought of what are called full body scanners popping up in airports these days. Me? Well, I don’t get that excited about them. What should be a nonissue however is an issue for people because of the status of American liberties these days and an overreaching government.
A lot of people that I talk to are upset at the pictures that are taken by these machines which are basically black and white nuddie shots with certain unmentionable regions supposedly blurred out by software algorithms. It is an invasion of their privacy they claim. Not that I dismiss that as a wholly frivolous charge considering that the government is the one charge of airport security.
Hold on a second while I thumb through my pocket Constitution here courtesy of the Heritage Foundation. Ok, Article I … hmmm Article II ahhhh … flip flip flip … nope nothing that I can find here for government to be doing these things. Oh, I know the government’s excuse for putting themselves in charge of airport security and that is national security but let’s think about this for a minute shall we?
Yes, the government has a role in national security. But don’t the airlines also have a fairly significant and hugely self preservative desire to maintain high security as well? Yes, I know that we had a horde of little jihadi maniacs who got on planes and flew them into buildings in the past but has the federal government been much better? How many times have groups of little jihadi wanna-bes gotten on board flights, disrupted them by acting like the 9/11 terrorists did and after having skirted through government security? What about the Christmas Day underwear bomber? Or how about the Times Square nutball who actually got on a plane headed out of the country BEFORE getting turned around at the last minute? Too many times the government sponsored security has failed if you ask me! That also does not count the vast numbers of times people in charge of testing the system have been able to get items listed as dangerous through the checkpoints. Yeah, so much for that crack TSA government security staff!
I remain a lot more incensed that the federal government is in charge of the security at all more than what that security actually entails. Because, to be honest, if the security was handled by the airlines and the airports, who as I have stated have a major interest in making sure that the planes they handle day in and day out do not go boom, I would not be all that upset by the full body scanners. You know, since it is not like I have a right to fly or anything silly like that.
It’s a privilege and nothing more. When I choose to fly I choose to take what flying happens to entail. But like I said that does not make me any less upset that our federal government is sticking it’s yoo-hoo in places it does not belong and controlling airport security.
Personally I would rather see the airlines adopt an El Al type approach to security – an approach that has a much better track record at stopping terrorists from getting on flights than our current government controlled system does. Yeah, I know, that approach will undoubtedly upset certain groups and suspicious individuals that actually want to blow up airplanes. But ask me if I care that much.
And as far as some weirdo getting a gig at one of these full body scanners and taking a gander at my manhood? Hey, there are far worse things that I can imagine being subjected to. And we can solve this problem with a simple law that says if you are that weirdo and doing things untoward with that data, everyone that you violate gets one free swing at your head with a baseball bat either themselves or by someone that they can name as their, “designated hitter.”
I don’t think we’ll have many problems with a punishment like that. Do you?
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