TSA is political correctness gone INSANE!

[Maimonides]

Apparently when going through airport security we now have 2 options either go through a body scanner that will give you CANCER OR INVASIVE FULL BODY SEARCH as if we are all CRIMINALS!

http://www.latimes.com/health/fl-nbcol-body-scanner-cancer-brochu-120101117,0,3026203.column

As Americans grow increasingly concerned by the privacy implications of what many are calling "naked" body scanners at the nation's airports, U.S. scientists are offering even more reason for worry.

The full-body screenings don't just display graphic images of airline passengers' and crew members' full, unclothed bodies, they may also pose a risk of skin cancer.

"They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays," said Dr. Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at Johns Hopkins University school of medicine, according to a Agence France Presse story.

Love's comments, reported Sunday on the AlterNet website, came amid calls for a national revolt on airport body scanners, with plans firming up for a "National Opt-Out Day" set for Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving, in which airline passengers are urged to refuse a body scan and opt instead for a pat down in airport security lines on the busiest travel day of the year.

Travel experts are predicting chaos in the terminals. But I'm hoping the added attention sheds more light on the cancer question, because Love is far from alone in venting his health concerns.

Though the story has yet to get much traction in the mainstream U.S. media, journalism outlets overseas were abuzz this summer with quotes from U.S. scientists voicing unease about the health implications of airport body scanners that act in many ways like X-ray machines.

Dr. David Brenner, head of the center for radiological research at Columbia University in New York, told the London Telegraph in a June 29 story that considering the large number of people who frequent the nation's airports, wide-ranging exposure, even to minimal amounts of radiation, could add up to one big concern.

"If all 800 million people who use airports every year were screened with X-rays, then the very small individual risk multiplied by the large number of screened people might imply a potential public health or societal risk," he said. "The population risk has the potential to be significant."

Scientists with the University of California at San Francisco were so worried that they wrote a letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology in April raising "a number of red flags" on the scanners' safety.

"While the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high," the letter said in part, adding concerns that "independent safety data do not exist" and raising the potential for further harm if a high dosage was accidentally emitted.

"Any glitch in power at any point in the hardware (or more importantly in the software) that stops the device can cause an intense radiation dose to a single spot on the skin. Who will oversee problems with overall dose after repair or software problems?"

The Office of Science and Technology last month responded to the concerns with a nine-page letter assuring the UCSF scientists that the doses met safety standards and had been adequately tested.

"The potential health risks from a full-body screening with a general-use X-ray security system are miniscule," the government agency wrote. "Several groups of recognized experts have been assembled and have analyzed the radiation safety issues associated with this technology."

But one co-author of the UCSF letter, biochemist John Sedat, told AFP in Sunday's AlterNet story, that the government's explanation was "deeply flawed" and insufficient to ease scientists' concerns.

So are the scanners safe? I guess the verdict's still out. But I for one am going to be thinking about more than my nether-regions being exposed the next time I venture through an airport security line.

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13526724#

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) -  Are children exempt for pat-downs at airport security? Not according to one man who says a TSA employee groped 6 year-old son at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

The alleged incident is part of the growing backlash over the full body scans and pat downs at airports nationwide.

WBTV found the anonymous submission on a blog, "We Won't Fly." The man says the incident happened earlier this month and he describes how his little boy was traumatized saying the TSA agent groped his groin and that the little boy left the checkpoint in tears.

The commenter says his son was aggressively patted down by a TSA employee.

"He was pleading for me to help him and I was admonished for trying to comfort him," the comment on the blog states. "His genitals area was groped. He walked down to the plane in tears."

Read more: "6-year-old aggressively patted down in Charlotte"

WBTV contacted Charlotte's TSA and spokesperson said they knew nothing about the incident.

The TSA issued the following statement:

"Officers are trained to work with parents to insure a respectful screening process for the entire family while providing the best possible security for all travelers."

But the thought of young children being subjected to the pat downs doesn't sit well with travelers like Jennifer Pin.

"I would go with the body scans for them," said Pin whose twin daughters are 6 years old. "They keep away from strangers, so someone strange coming up to them and you know doing something that might be inappropriate, they don't know what that is."

But the anonymous commenter say the scanners weren't an option during his trip through Charlotte-Douglas.

"We were not given the choice of a full body scanner, but would have preferred it over this humiliating experience," the comment continues. "The scanners are still intrusive, but at least my 6-year-old son would have been unaware of the intrusion."

Dart Strickland just criss-crossed the country with his wife and three daughters. They didn't have to deal with the scanners or a pat down this time around, but he admits the concern is there.

"We've taught them all growing up you know hey this is what can't happen, people don't touch you this way," said Strickland. "And then to have to go back and explain that to them, I could definitely see where the concern in that would be."

[muman613]

Normal people have to be subjected to cancer because the American establishment thinks that is much more justified than singling out Muslims--the people who are the real threat that actually deserve cancer.  Kind of like Islam can't be criticized unless all religion is criticized.  Not knowing who the enemy is and punishing the innocent for the enemy's crimes shows that the country has lost its conscience.

You make a good point there... It seems that 'Profiling' is more evil in the minds of the leftists than being fondled by anonymous perverts... The simple answer to terrorism is to profile the fliers like the Israeli airports do.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

Normal people have to be subjected to cancer because the American establishment thinks that is much more justified than singling out Muslims--the people who are the real threat that actually deserve cancer.  Kind of like Islam can't be criticized unless all religion is criticized.  Not knowing who the enemy is and punishing the innocent for the enemy's crimes shows that the country has lost its conscience.

I agree with both of you guys.  This is insane!   

Not only that but the pat-downs are also extra invasive.     Even though they basically grab your crotch, I would rather go through that than the cancer machine.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Kind of like Islam can't be criticized unless all religion is criticized.

You have it all wrong, every religion is supposed to be denounced and blasphemed while Islam is praised simultaneously.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

Am I dreaming in thinking that it's just a matter of time, with enough people pissed off, that this will go away?   Or is this the future of american air travel?

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Given that American voters voted for a Muslim negro two years ago, and that all of the most-populous and developed states resoundingly supported candidates loyal to the Muslim negro two weeks ago, my guess is that there won't be all that much public outrage over this.

[Ari Ben-Canaan]

No price is to great for the privilege of living with Muslims!