So I’ve spent quite some time trying to decide what my next entry would be about. As new issues came up daily I was getting better and better ideas for an entry, and leaving the old ones somewhere in my Google docs. I finished several of them, only to realize later they weren’t in the vein of what this blog was for. They were things that mainstream media had blown out of proportion only to distract from what was really going on, and I was attempting to make sense of all the idiocy, which I thought I knew better than to do. So I then set out to write another politics 101 type entry about the abomination our “two party” system has become. Then this week happened. I will finish the aforementioned article and probably post it this month as well, to make up for missing October, but this weeks events have trumped everything, and sets the most dangerous precedent of any thing this year.
I am of course talking about the TSA and its new “safety” measures. For those of you that live under a rock, these new measures subject people of all ages to the “choice” of either going through a x-ray scanner that snaps a picture so that an agent can see through your clothing to ensure you have nothing on your person or, if you don’t like this naked photo shoot, getting a new and improved “palm in” pat-down that allows the TSA agent to feel every square inch of your body, and if they are unsure of what they feel, they are also allowed to feel under your clothes. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, little Sally can now look back on her life and remember that when she was three she either stared in her first porno or let some one get to second base with her. The TSA has a license to grope, and no one is too innocent, or innocent at all for that matter.
In some of my research* for this entry I stumbled across one of the TSA’s new training videos. As my wife will attest, I have been no fan of the TSA for quite some time, I would imagine flying with me is about as pleasant as sitting next to a three-yea- old with a toothache, only with slightly more complaining. Until now I was only complaining of the grave inconvenience for nothing more than the illusion of security, and the concept of being guilty until proven innocent, which seems to be the starting premise for all of the TSA’s policies. This new measure, however, is so much more. It’s an infringement on our “inalienable” rights, it sets an extremely dangerous precedent, and lastly and least important its an insult to our intelligence.
Most important I want to begin with talking about our rights, which are really the only reason these new measures must be overturned. First we need to define some words. Words and their definitions are important. In the discussions so far, we have heard arguments about rights, liberties, and freedom, all of which are often being used wrong. I want to assume nothing and define them. Rights are natural they can not be taken away regardless of how hard anyone tries**. Rights are things such as speech, thought, the ability to defend one’s self, I think you get the picture. Freedoms and liberties are where most people get blurry. My favorite talk show host*** likes to ask people to define liberty without using the word freedom, and often, when I ask, people cannot. Freedoms are things we are able to do like drive a car, fart in public, and in this case fly. They aren’t things expressly undeniable by nature, but are obviously an important part of any free society. Liberties are the abilities to act, believe and express one’s self as one chooses without the unwelcomed intervention from a second or third party, i.e. government. We, in America, are lucky enough to live in a country with a constitution that protects our rights, freedoms, and liberties, but even if we weren’t my argument wouldn’t change (much). I have the right to private property, and nothing is more private than my privates, I am also afforded liberty, and I have the freedom to fly. I won’t insult you by explaining how these procedures infringe on my privates, but I do want to talk about the liberty and freedom part. Barring marshal law, my liberty means government should never force me to choose between my rights and my freedoms, which is exactly what is being done here. I am being told “give up your right to privacy, or don’t fly” and that is not a constitutional or free proposition. That is why this cannot stand unchallenged or in the words of The Dude, “This will not stand, ya know, this will not stand, man”
In some ways the precedent this sets is scarier than the fact that it ever came to this. If this procedure stands, it blatantly says that the government or any agency of government can take away our rights and freedoms as long as it’s in the name of “safety.” Gov Co. has been attempting this concept for quite some time, with things like seat belt and helmet laws, but never has it been done on this scale before. Since terrorism is always a possibility this essentially puts us in a constant state of marshal law.
Lastly I find this whole concept to be beyond insulting. We are expected to believe that this somehow makes us safe. That somehow we weren’t safe until every penis, vagina, and breast in America had been either felt up or photographed. We are to believe that this extremely expensive measure made more sense than airlines spending their own money to train their pilots in weapons and self-defense, which was outlawed. That instead of training these government agents like law enforcement with criminal profile training to simply ask you a few questions prior to boarding a flight, we teach them to apply blanket “procedures” that are not to be interrupted by - God forbid!- using common sense or having an original thought. That instead of saving billions by simply placing three air marshals on a flight, we should instead spend billions on expensive machines that will violate the 1,500,000 people that fly every day. That instead of making sure that people that we have previous intelligence on are stopped from carrying out their attacks like 9-11, the underwear bomber, and the Ft. Hood shootings, we should grope little children.
Honestly I can’t understand how anyone can stomach the idea of this, let alone going through it. There are literally no facts supporting the effectiveness of anything the TSA has done thus far, just speculations. To afford that organization these powers is unacceptable. Now if you excuse me I have to go beat my head up against the nearest brick wall. As always thank you for reading and I hope at the very least I made you think a little.
-D
*This is the first time I needed to do research for an entry and I wanted to share a little bit of my findings: The first commercial flight was in 1914.Regulated scheduling began in the late 1930s. The TSA was officially formed in 2003, obviously in response to 9-11, (now that’s speedy!). There have been approximately 1,296,000,000 flights worldwide since the 30’s. Aproximately 1,500,000 people fly domestically in the U.S. every day. There have been a total of 782 recorded hijackings worldwide, an undisclosed number of which were carried out by the CIA and the Cuban Intelligence Agency (also CIA, weird huh?) on their respective counterparts. Now I want you take a look at the total flights and total hijacking with me real quick. With a drastically rounded down one billion flights and a drastically rounded up 800 hijackings there is a .00008% chance of a flight being hijacked, not very scary when expressed in terms of probability. I mean in no way to down play how traumatic the experience is, just recognize how very unlikely it is to happen.
** Taken away and oppressed are not the same thing, many governments suppress or deny rights, but they can’t truly take them away from you.
***I am in no way endorsed by my favorite talk show host or the company he works for. I hope they don’t sue me.
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