DESIGN FOR AIRLINE SECURITY

TSA now has scanners that may or may not provide a pretty doggone accurate picture of our naked bodies and may or may not be dangerous to our health - depending on how often a person takes to the skies!

If you "opt out" of the scanning machine experience, TSA intends to conduct a patdown of recalcitrant passengers. The manner in which those pat downs is being conducted is what seems to be riling airline travelers. The TSA screeners are seen by the flying public to be a bunch of people who would otherwise be unemployed due to their lack of real skills. And they have been reported to be fairly offensive when dealing with people who opt out. Maybe some sensitivity training is in order. Whether that is or is not the case, the methodology is fairly offensive. I'd rather be scanned than have some screener sticking her hand in my underwear! And to be perfectly blunt, my fat and sagging 68-year old body will provide nobody on earth with prurient fantasies!

Here we are folks, some 9 years plus a bit past 9/11 and we're chafing at the idea of stringent security being applied at long last to those who are opting to fly. Mind you, the underwear bomber and Richard Reid were both on flights that originated elsewhere and thus would not have been stopped by TSA's precautions. But do we honestly know how many other plots may have been foiled? Do we? We want to be safe but we seem to want that safety at the expense of common sense precautions. I'm not saying this is the ideal solution but it's a start. What say you?

UPDATE: It has now been revealed that airports can "opt out" of having TSA do their security. There are 4 other firms that are approved for this task and some airports (albeit smaller regional facilities) are choosing to go that route. Further, people who feel they have been handled improperly (as in groped unnecessarily or too intimately) can and should call the police and turn in the TSA agent who behaved in a thuggish fashion. Perhaps when there is a personal consequence these people will be less abusive of their tiny little bit of power!