Make the TSA "meet the resistance"

> Obviously, everybody has their own perspective about their personal screening,” TSA official John Pistole told CNN. “The question is, how do we best address those issues … while providing the best possible security? The essential flaw in the TSA’s logic here is that these new screening procedures “provide the best possible security.” They don’t help provide security at all, but rather the false illusion of security. And after many years of comedians, trained-security professionals, and other smart folks poking holes in the logic, the illusion is finally wearing off.

I’m glad this guy, and many others are standing up. There have been a number of stories floating around the web about this just over the last few days.

I’ve been shouting about the ludicrous procedures of the TSA since 9/11. I think the rest of the country is finally getting tired of it, too. Let’s hope so.

Seriously, is there anyone left who doesn’t get that the whole airport security thing is lining the pockets of equipment manufacturers who lobby our congressmen for this nonsense? They certainly don’t spend the money on personnel.

Like most security measures, the X-ray scanners only inconvenience and invade the privacy of the innocent, while not stopping the real criminals at all. You don’t react to every threat by treating every passenger as someone who is likely to repeat the same method as the last guy.

One guy puts one bomb in his shoe, we all take our shoes off forever. One guy puts a bomb in his underwear, we all get virtually strip-searched.

What happens when the next guy puts the bomb up his ass? Are you all prepared for that one? Because it’s coming.

Good security starts with trained professionals who seek out suspicious behavior and concentrate resources on the true threat. If you can’t tell the good guys from the bad, you don’t just assume that everyone is bad. You hire and train people to be experts in determining the good people from the bad. Does that sound like the TSA to you? Have you taken a good look at the average TSA employee lately? No offense, but I don’t get a James Bond vibe from any of them.

Meanwhile, doctors are not convinced that the scanners are as “harmless” as we’re led to believe. (There’s a reason why your dentist makes you wear a led bib when taking X-rays.) So we’re all getting zapped with radiation while some fat cat pockets millions in scanner contracts.

Until the TSA can demonstrate how the X-ray scanners are of any help to actually preventing terrorism, I will be opting out. Believe me, no one is more uncomfortable with being touched by a stranger than I am. But I’m going to make the agent grope me, I don’t care. Might as well make both of us uncomfortable.

And while we’re at it, can we all stop taking our shoes off and subjecting ourselves to a massive germ infestation for no reason? Seriously, I’d rather take the 0.0000000001% chance that someone on the plane has a bomb than the 100% chance that I’m going to get some sort of foot fungus from that disgusting floor.