Monday, November 15, 2010

Security Junk

While there's no doubt some hyperbole, exaggeration and press foaming is in play with all these stories about security (this is the same press that reported a missile launch off the coast of California without verification), the TSA response to the "don't touch my junk" guy and various other opt-outers seems to reveal a secondary problem--a dysfunctional public relations department.

Really, is throwing Janet Napolitano out to explain how a digital strip search is for our own good (and must be done to thwart foreign underwear bombers entering from abroad) really smart PR or as Maguire says, shall we be looking for the clown car? Maybe Joe Biden will come out soon and say it's our patriotic duty.

Then there's this bit:
Images from the scans cannot be saved or printed, according to the agency. Facial features are blurred. And agents who directly interact with passengers do not see the scans.
Yet somehow images of these scans made Drudge . In other words, as improbable as it sounds that nothing can be saved or exported what's to stop an agent--sitting in a dark little secure booth--from simply using their own cell phone camera or digital camera to take pictures of something interesting they see on the screen? Oh well, onward we rush into the enlightened 21st century.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I’m prepared to sympathize with the TSA employee screening a flight of individuals who had to pay for an extra seat.

A.C. McCloud said...

The world is full of fetishes, Mustang. Don't assume.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I can see you're right, AC. I've learned something tonight; I also have a migraine. Thanks.

A.C. McCloud said...

Hey, I'm up for getting some headache relief myself. Maybe Rangel would let some of us taxpayers visit his ranch down in the Dominican and settle back on that cot.

Right Truth said...

I think them main point here is that the public has reached a tipping point, as they do on most things. They were willing, after 9/11, to do many things. Actually anything they were asked to do, they gladly trudged through long lines, removed their shoes, coats, sweaters, emptied purses, pockets, allowed TSA to trifle through their underwear, inspect their medications and toiletries, and even as I did, admit to being pulled out of line, wanded, and touched just because we happen to be the tenth person in line behind 4 Muslim men who were not checked ....

But the many stories of groin, buttock and breast touching scattered across the country are just too much, going too far. Making little girls scream "don't touch me" when our schools drill into their heads not to let strangers touch them, ... too much.

Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

A.C. McCloud said...

Very well put, Debbie. Sums it up.