Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The proper reaction

John Tyner finds out that once you pass into the scanner area of a US airport, you in effect consent to a genital search, or failing that, a $10 000 fine and a civil suit. And CBC quotes another individual who decided there ought to be a National Opt-out Day.
Yeah, because today's politicians are all about listening to their electors. Not. I might gently suggest that the proper reaction is to refuse pat-downs, body-scans, and other assorted security theatrics until those lawmakers seriously set about building a world where we don't need to fear that some person whose country just got bombed or house reposessed might take out an airliner.

It is a bit of mindfuck to think that because 25 years ago the US decided it absolutely had to fight the Russians through Afghan bodies, people now travelling through airports can have their genitals publicly fondled by some uniformed stranger or pay 10K.

The state's assumed right to fuck around with other state's business has a direct relationship with the state's assumed right to play in yours. It's time we corrected that assumption.

1 comment:

Beijing York said...

In the meantime, has anyone published the list of 16 Canadian airports that have these x-ray scanners? I have avoided traveling to and through the excited states during the past decade (except for one conference). I would also like to avoid those 16 Canadian airports.

Like you said Boris, it's not like the lawmakers give a wit about public opinion. But I do think that airports and airlines will definitely start giving said lawmakers a hard time if they see a significant drop in their business.