Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Yet another blog post about the TSA group grope

After a few more days of outrage, the agency will dial back the searches somewhat. They'll offer a token concession: no gloves inside the clothing, or some such meaningless distinction.

It will not be a victory for the resistance against a government agency that has abandoned decency and common sense, that puts you through the wringer because they can.

Sovereign Man spells it out well. I don't like his site much — he's a rich jet setter without a trace of patriotism who constantly bops from one country to another to write about where other rich people can find a haven outside the United States. His tone of smug superiority rubs me the wrong way, even though I think it's smart to consider what you would do in a worst-case scenario in the U.S., and have contingency plans that might include financial and legal bases in other countries.

But I agree with this:
Passengers who show up to an airport in the United States are now given two options: (a) go through the radiation bath [don't worry, the government says it's safe...] and let the TSA see you naked, or (b) let the TSA thugs grope you and fondle your children’s genitals.

This is not enhanced security protocol, this is a systematic desensitization to government intrusion. The idea is to get people used to new procedures, then continue to add more layers of government control.
I'm afraid so. No one can be so stupid as to imagine that the present security burlesque is going to make passengers safer. There has to be an ulterior motive — not necessarily within the TSA itself, but within the power centers that issue the policies that TSA managers must implement.
To be clear, some of the tactics are designed to be scaled back as concessions. It’s like turning up the volume from 0 to 10… everyone starts screaming that it’s too loud, so the government turns it down to 8. People think, “ah, that’s not as bad…” and eventually become accustomed to the noise.

In time, the government turns it up from 8 to 20. People pour into the streets again, protesting until the government turns it down from 20 to 15. People once again become accustomed to the noise as the new normal. This cycle escalates until no one can remember the sound of silence any longer.
I believe Sovereign Man is mistaken about this, though:
The fact is that body scanners are as ineffective at threat detection as metal detectors. Furthermore, the government has ruled out the idea of scanning air or seaborne cargo… because, clearly, cargo would never be a target. The little old lady with the prosthetic hip? Definitely. Cargo? No chance.
Neither body scanners nor metal detectors are necessarily ineffective. We haven't had any hijackers waving guns around in airliner cabins since the advent of metal detectors. The body scanners probably "work" in the sense of adding another, and different, kind of detection — although it would be foolish to imagine they are infallible. The lunacy is using them on every passenger, but that's what you get when your front-line employees are largely drawn from the underclass and don't have what it takes to use professional discernment: all you can expect from them is to follow a single ironclad procedure.

Where does he get the idea that "the government has ruled out the idea of scanning air or seaborne cargo"? I have never heard or read of any such refusal. Cargo scanning is probably far less efficient than it should be, and doubtless some baggage goes unscanned, but that's not a policy decision. It's likely that the massive manpower needed for grotesque passenger searches wastes resources that could better be used on cargo. (Frankly, I'd rather board a plane knowing every single checked bag has been X-rayed and otherwise tested than that every passenger has.)

Anyway, Sovereign Man adds:
These tactics are not about security… they’re about submission, obedience, and cultivating the slave mentality– that people should be afraid of their government and happily yield to authority without question or hesitation. 
I wish I could say he's wrong about that. I can only hope he is.

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4 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Now is the appropriate occasion to remember how the word "submission" is spelled in a certain Middle-eastern language.

Hint: it's etimologically related to the word "peace" in that same language.

Maria said...

They violate us in this revolting personal manner and it's fully constitutional. Ask for papers from an illegal immigrant in Arizona--jeez, it's the worse thing under the sun. It's Nazi-time!

Liberals are psycho.

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