More TSA Follies

In which linky-no thinky does the job...

Travelers are beginning to be *helpful* to the TSA in new and different ways, disrobing or arriving in dishabille.

Man arrives at TSA Gate in Speedo's

Not surprisingly, travelers are ALSO expressing their dismay with TSA staff using less than generous language - WELL DONE, TRAVELERS!! "Just following orders" isn't a valid shield from intense criticism, ridicule, and downright hostility - unless you honorably resign from your position with the TSA, you have *volunteered* to simply sit there and take it every time you strip-search a child, grope a teen, or go on a fishing expedition for criminal evidence during what's supposed to be a strict security check. Eat it up, or get out of the frying pan, kids.

When grandmothers have to explain to their granddaughters why a strange man is touching their "special girl spots", it's probably a hint that things have gone too far. For some reason, said grandmothers refer to such procedures as molestation. With even ABC producers describing the new TSA Gate Rape patdown as more intrusive than a gynecological exam, perhaps it's time to reign in our wannabe lords and masters a few notches.

Meanwhile, it becomes a reasonable bet (in my opinion, YMMV - draw your own conclusions) that a big reason for this new sort of involuntary radiation therapy bolstered with the threat of Gate Rape is the infusion over millions of dollars of lobbying money by the Porn Scan machine makers. That the CEO of Rapiscan (the largest backscatter x-ray machine maker) (unfortunate name, that) tags along to India with Obama only raises the eyebrow a bit further, given common Chicago political practice.

Just to keep things from getting boring, it's also now coming out that the TSA Gate Rapes & Porn Scans are turning from obnoxious (and possibly unconstitutional) irritants into warrantless fishing expeditions looking for any little irregularities, with seizure of property and persons at whim - a fairly clear violation of Fourth Amendment protections, and equally clearly, unconstitutional.

And...to add icing to the obscenity, we now have a list of Special Ones (pilots, congress critters, federal officials, TSA managers, etc...) *exempt* from the PornScan/GateRape adventure...