Flist, can we talk about this?
Or rant about it, as the case may be.
The "it" in question are the new security rules at U.S. airports, just in time for holiday travel funtimes! These new rules are the double-whammy of new security machines (specifically the 'backscatter' machines) and, if you don't want to get a safety-unproven dose of radiation on your trip (with a side order of naked pictures), then you can have the new super-aggressive patdowns with bonus genital touching.
WOO. LET ME PAY $400-800 FOR A ROUND-TRIP TICKET SO I CAN GET IT TWICE.
I have also seen reports that if you opt out of the scanners AND the enhanced pat-down, you are denied flight (which makes sense, given the rules) AND fined $10,000. WHAT.
Dear TSA,
Fuck off.
No love,
SDW
AHH and I actually looked up the possibility of a train trip for our regular San Diego visits instead of flying. Sadly it takes two full days of travel, so that's four days of just travel on an already short trip. We also briefly considered driving, but right now Puplet is a big down arrow on that one. So flying, at least for this holiday season, it is. But in the future, we're going to actively try to avoid it if we can.
As people have said, this is basically security theater. I don't honestly believe that this is going to make flying any safer. It will make some people FEEL like it's safer, but what I care about is the gratuitous ripping away of my personal space to serve no actual purpose. And for people who, heaven forbid, may have actual triggery reactions to the patdowns, they have no choice but to go through the scanners. I do see that there are two types - MMW and the backscatter kind, and the MMW are safer. What I wonder is why couldn't they ALL have been the MMW kind?
Anyway, here are many of the links I've been reading about this lately:
http://www.dontscan.us/scans.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35498347/UCSF-letter-to-Holdren-concerning-health-risks-of-full-body-scanner-TSA-screenings-4-6-2010
http://pncminnesota.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/rape-survivor-devasted-by-tsa-enhanced-pat-down/
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/01/delta-ceo/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray#Health_effects
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security/1138014-complete-list-airports-whole-body-imaging-advanced-imaging-technology-scanner.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/08/04/2010-08-04_feds_admit_they_stored_body_scanner_images_despite_tsa_claim_the_images_cannot_b.html
http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/
In kind of related news, we finished Jericho! Heh. I loved the broadcast ending AND the unaired ending included on the DVDs and want to hug Hawkins FOREVER because he is the AWESOMEST. (So is Major Beck. Actually, Jake is pretty much my least favorite character on the show. Hee.) What's interesting to me about the show is the way it really kind of feels old-school Republican in nature (not the new, shouty Tea Party Republican). Although Gray specifically snarks that "this government can do whatever it wants in the name of security," which is a statement I see from the Democratic side (at least in terms of Bush-era gov). Plus there's the Don't Tread On Me flag, which the Tea Party has co-oped. So, interesting to watch the show given the current political climate, but I never felt uncomfortable watching it (though AHH and I would frequently note in season 1 how we felt the community should have gone way more socialist with it's handling of food/water/supplies and how everyone still fighting over what was "their"s was ridiculous in light of the nuclear holocaust, heh).
Did I mention I love Hawkins? Just double-checking. Not sure what our next show is going to be. I think we're going to give Avatar: the Last Airbender another try, or possibly The Dresden Files (we watched the first five minutes via Netflix and were intrigued). But I'm so glad we watched Jericho. I loved it!
This entry was cross-posted at my Dreamwidth account. Please comment here or there. (
comments at DW)
The "it" in question are the new security rules at U.S. airports, just in time for holiday travel funtimes! These new rules are the double-whammy of new security machines (specifically the 'backscatter' machines) and, if you don't want to get a safety-unproven dose of radiation on your trip (with a side order of naked pictures), then you can have the new super-aggressive patdowns with bonus genital touching.
WOO. LET ME PAY $400-800 FOR A ROUND-TRIP TICKET SO I CAN GET IT TWICE.
I have also seen reports that if you opt out of the scanners AND the enhanced pat-down, you are denied flight (which makes sense, given the rules) AND fined $10,000. WHAT.
Dear TSA,
Fuck off.
No love,
SDW
AHH and I actually looked up the possibility of a train trip for our regular San Diego visits instead of flying. Sadly it takes two full days of travel, so that's four days of just travel on an already short trip. We also briefly considered driving, but right now Puplet is a big down arrow on that one. So flying, at least for this holiday season, it is. But in the future, we're going to actively try to avoid it if we can.
As people have said, this is basically security theater. I don't honestly believe that this is going to make flying any safer. It will make some people FEEL like it's safer, but what I care about is the gratuitous ripping away of my personal space to serve no actual purpose. And for people who, heaven forbid, may have actual triggery reactions to the patdowns, they have no choice but to go through the scanners. I do see that there are two types - MMW and the backscatter kind, and the MMW are safer. What I wonder is why couldn't they ALL have been the MMW kind?
Anyway, here are many of the links I've been reading about this lately:
http://www.dontscan.us/scans.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35498347/UCSF-letter-to-Holdren-concerning-health-risks-of-full-body-scanner-TSA-screenings-4-6-2010
http://pncminnesota.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/rape-survivor-devasted-by-tsa-enhanced-pat-down/
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/01/delta-ceo/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray#Health_effects
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security/1138014-complete-list-airports-whole-body-imaging-advanced-imaging-technology-scanner.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/08/04/2010-08-04_feds_admit_they_stored_body_scanner_images_despite_tsa_claim_the_images_cannot_b.html
http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/
In kind of related news, we finished Jericho! Heh. I loved the broadcast ending AND the unaired ending included on the DVDs and want to hug Hawkins FOREVER because he is the AWESOMEST. (So is Major Beck. Actually, Jake is pretty much my least favorite character on the show. Hee.) What's interesting to me about the show is the way it really kind of feels old-school Republican in nature (not the new, shouty Tea Party Republican). Although Gray specifically snarks that "this government can do whatever it wants in the name of security," which is a statement I see from the Democratic side (at least in terms of Bush-era gov). Plus there's the Don't Tread On Me flag, which the Tea Party has co-oped. So, interesting to watch the show given the current political climate, but I never felt uncomfortable watching it (though AHH and I would frequently note in season 1 how we felt the community should have gone way more socialist with it's handling of food/water/supplies and how everyone still fighting over what was "their"s was ridiculous in light of the nuclear holocaust, heh).
Did I mention I love Hawkins? Just double-checking. Not sure what our next show is going to be. I think we're going to give Avatar: the Last Airbender another try, or possibly The Dresden Files (we watched the first five minutes via Netflix and were intrigued). But I'm so glad we watched Jericho. I loved it!
This entry was cross-posted at my Dreamwidth account. Please comment here or there. (
comments at DW)