Dear TSA: WTF?

walterh September 4, 2012
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This is frustrating…  People – including me – have gone off about the TSA and their ‘porno scanners’; what an invasion of privacy they are, how unsafe they are, and the like.  A judge ordered that the TSA was supposed to hold public comments, so that we could hear from people and experts.  You know, like the fact that the backscatter machines can cause up to 100 cases of cancer per year (and that’s when they’re working properly!)

So finally, the TSA has set up – 19 months later than it was ordered to – a public comment period, scheduled for February 2013.  Get ready, folks!  Unless you like having your ‘nads subjected to radiation or photographed every time you go to the airport.

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More on the TSA porno body scanners

walterh June 26, 2012
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Anybody remember the video from last March about getting things through the TSA body scanners?  Well the original guy is at it again, and has video of his incident via a “freedom of information” act.

Here it is.  Support this guy!

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Why I Love the State of Alaska

walterh February 22, 2012
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Last year there was an Alaska State lawmaker that got “randomly selected” to be porno-groped while going through security.  And when I say porno-grope, I mean it.  I’ve gotten farther with TSA agents than with some dates I’ve had.

But I digress.

Representative Sharon Cissna of Anchorage has sponsored at least 4 bills with the TSA in her sights.  One of them is radiation warnings (because we know that the backscatter radiation – by the TSA’s own admission – causes about a dozen cases of cancer per year), but the biggest one is one that will criminalize any invasive patdown done in the name of the TSA.  Cissna, a breast cancer survivor, knows what it’s like to have her life choices taken out of her hands – and the TSA does that on a regular basis.

My favorite quote of hers is:

“Those aren’t pat-downs,” Cissna said of TSA procedures. “It was a feel-up. I did not experience a pat-down”

And this is after 2 pat-downs in a few months.  Personally I have to go through them twice a week in order to bypass the cancer causing porno machines.  And I totally support her fight to get Alaskan airports to give the TSA requirements the boot!

Go get ’em, Sharon!

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Developing: Sen. Rand Paul Detained at BNA

walterh January 23, 2012
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Okay, so there’s a developing story out of Nashville that Senator Rand Paul has been detained because he refused to go through the full porno-patdown.  From my research, it appears that Nashville has the full body scanners, though I don’t know if they are the backscatter radiation kind or the milliwave radiowave kind (though both give naked porno images of every person that goes through them).

If it turns out that Senator Paul is able to get through the Nashville airport without going through either a body scanner machine or getting a full body patdown, I AM GOING TO RAISE HELL!

UPDATE: So it appears that Rand Paul went through the body scanner and set something off.  He refused the patdown, and wasn’t let into the secure area of the airport.  He got another ticket and went through the body scanner again, and this time didn’t set it off.  For someone that is a libertarian, Rand Paul sure as hell shouldn’t be in support of the body scanners.  I protest their existence by opting out of their use and forcing the TSA to do a search of my person.  Still unconstitutional (Hello 4th amendment and all your talk of unreasonable search and seizure!), but it’s my own little form of protest.

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Add PDX to the Porno Scanner List

walterh November 28, 2011
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I flew out of Portland International yesterday, and was really unhappy to see that the porno scanners have been installed, at least at the ABC checkpoint.  A couple of things.

  1. Like I posted before, the technology these machines use has not been proven to be safe for commercial use.
  2. There are only 3 scanners for the busiest security checkpoint for the airport (the ABC gates clear passengers for nearly 65% of all PDX departures, with the top 3 airlines – Southwest, Alaska, and Horizon accounting for more than 50% themselves).

This is crap.  The machines aren’t safe, for the traveling public, nor for the TSA agents that are forced to stand next to them for hours at a time.

I think I’ll print out a few dozen copies of the Mashable article and leave them around the airport.  That, and obstruct their use at every chance.

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Backscatter Machine Information

walterh November 19, 2011
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This is pretty incredible.  Mashable.com took on “The Science Behind Airport Body Scanners” and did a pretty good job at explaining them.  It’s a pretty damned good article, and you should read it.  But if you only read one sentence, it’s this:

No conclusive studies have been conducted that confirm that backscatter X-ray security scanners are safe for commercial use.

That right there is reason enough for the traveling public to demand that these dangerous machines be shut down and removed from use.  Never mind the privacy concerns.  Never mind anything else.  These X-ray backscatter systems have not been proven to be safe for the traveling public, and put us all at risk!  The group EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) has sued the TSA to stop these machines from being used.  Maybe we should all get behind them – forcefully!

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