Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
- When You're Cutting Social Security, 'Wealthy' Begins at $25K
- With Little More Than a Note, Obama Deploys US Troops To Niger
- Stripped of 'Country of Origin' Label, US Agrees to Sell Tear Gas to Egypt
- The 'Land of 10,000 Lakes' Is Running Dry
- 5 Reasons Why the Keystone XL Pipeline is Bad for the Economy
Popular content
Today's Top News
Airport Security: The Invisible Hand Cops A Feel
"If you touch my junk, I'm going to have you arrested."
John Tyner's line lacks the elegance of "Give me liberty, or give me death" - but it doesn't lack the weight. We've got to pick it up and run with it, now, while the momentum is ours.
The California software engineer's challenge to an airport Transportation Security Administration agent, who wanted to prod Tyner's genitals before he got on a plane, could - if we act now -- become a long-overdue shout heard round the world. It's a rare moment when we call all speak, confidently and assertively, as one people with one voice.
"The Terrorists Have Won," announces the top headline on today's conservative Drudge Report, over a photo of a TSA agent groping a nun.
"Are TSA Screenings Too Much?" wonders liberal MSNBC's website.
No ambiguity, for once. Nearly all Americans - Tea-partiers and radical feminists and investment bankers and Raging Grannies and soccer moms and church groups - can get behind this one. How often is that going to happen? The daily violation at our airports has finally hit the "national conversation" in a big way - and so has the discussion of what the TSA's attitude toward passengers really means, and really is.
"It's all about everybody recognizing their role," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explains, helpfully, referring to the full-body scans and pat-downs.
Could it get any plainer? Do you need it spelled out? Sure, she ostensibly meant the ordinary citizen's "role" in cooperating to Keep Our Skies Safe.
But the harder truth slipped out with the puerile platitude, and now it's there in a pile on the floor. We all see it, and smell it. She really means it's all about learning and remembering our place in a world where anyone in a uniform Always Knows What's Best. Oh and so does your Boss, by the way - you know, the person the folks in uniform ultimately work for. As do Napolitano, and Barack Obama, and Congress, and the Supreme Court, and the military, and CNN and Fox News. They're working for rich people who want you to have a lower opinion of yourself so you'll do more work for less money. They want you to believe that sacrifice is noble, that they're making you poorer for our own eventual good, and that resistance is futile.
Last weekend, John Tyner happened to have his brain tuned to what the TSA agent's words really meant, saw them translated in the ugly subtitles of reality: "Your body - your balls, which we're about to cup -- belong to us. Oh, and if you argue about that, we can step into that little room there, and you can bend over, and then something else of yours will belong to us, too."
Because as we all know, sexual predation is about personal power. If that predation is institutionalized, as it is now in our airports, it's about social power, political power, and - most importantly - economic power.
The original motive for these extreme measures was security, but any opportunity for such a fundamental form of control is eventually seized by those who stand to make a buck, and by outright perverts - often in an alliance.
That is the case now, and now that we have this window of truth, we have to point it out to all those we know - your redneck brother-in-law, your vegan neighbor girl, your Tea-party aunt, your college professor uncle. We need to demand dignity in travel and freedom of movement in our own country without a disgraceful trade-off. We need to write to our local newspapers and elected officials, and to talk about this at work and in church, at the drum circle or the hunting camp, around the dinner table and at school _ spread the word now.
"You should never have to explain to your children, 'Remember that no stranger can touch or see your private area, unless it's a government employee,'" say the organizers of National Opt Out Day - Nov. 24, 2010 - when they're urging all U.S. air travelers to refuse to be body-scanned. Check them out here http://www.optoutday.com/.
Right now, while we're all paying attention, we have to say no, loudly, on this one. Because this is what we're being told: "We own your lives. We own your bodies. We own your private parts. They are ours to look at, and to touch - not even sexually, not even lasciviously - but clinically, institutionally, as part of work - like the hand of a farmer, say, on the udder of a cow, or that of a butcher on the neck of a pig."
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
95 Comments so far
Show AllAccording to this article, the TSA is now putting their hands down individuals pants if the pants are "baggy":
http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-now-putting-hands-down-fliers-pants.html
We are in the minority - at least as polled today. And I don't really doubt the figures.
85% approve of the body scan/pat down for security !
So just sit down, put your head between your legs and kiss your a__ goodbye.
FWIW, I've noticed in both video clips and written comments that those who defend the wholly unnecessary and abusive TSA goon squad policies and tactics often do so with smarmy self-righteousness.
They announce (orally or in writing) in their most crisp, no-nonsense Adult voice that they are PERFECTLY WILLING to submit to whatever REASONABLE protective measures the Authorities (aka the Nice Policeman) deem fit to impose.
Occasionally they dip into the worn-out reactionary lexicon and sneer at the "whiners" and troublemakers who presume to object to such manifestly sensible provisions.
Amerika = Troll Nation
What you've just described _ 'That crisp, no-nonsense Adult voice' _ IS exactly the enemy. It's The Policeman Inside. When that's created in someone's head, the War is over, for that individual anyway. It's the ultimate case of joining what you can't beat, of joining the bully to participate in his perceived strength. If a person adopts That Voice _ even once _ it's nearly impossible for them to go back, because it'd be acknowledging an awful mistake. This is the struggle we face.
Brilliant.
ALWAYS wear your football helmet, or at least a flag pin, when you go near an airport. That way the 'authorities' will know that you support 'America'.
Speaking of Terrorists, I recently watched this movie on NETFLIX instant:
9/11: Press for Truth (2006)
It's based on Paul Thompson's 'Timeline Project'. In my opinion, it exposes the lying bastards better than anything else I have seen.
The so called terrorists are making fools out of Americans and laughing their heads off. So we had two individuals worldwide who c hanged the awy all Americans travel. One used his shoes to no avail and the other his underwear. Two fools whose antics made patsies out of all Americans. Two who affected 300 million. Love it! Next of course we will have another fool who will pack his rectum with explosives and ineptly be found out,then guess what? I can hardly wait.
You are so right. It's like the new wrinkle of banning toner cartridges in cargo. Whatever are they going to do the first time some "terrorist" packs explosive material in a cell phone--or a wristwatch--or a necklace--or a __fill in the blank. The terrorists have already won by reducing this country to a bunch of sniveling fools afraid of anything that moves and willing to sacrifice their rights at the drop of a hat. Wow--maybe hatbands?
What terrorists have won? Surely you mean the men the Bushs, Cheneys, Ashcrofts, Obamas and Napolitanos of this world serve. The Osamas are mere phantoms, the men behind the puppets are real.
The terrorists are whoever all this BS is supposed to protect us from. You fill in the blanks. Personally I am more afaid of my own government than any other mythical boogeyman because they are so busy protecting us from terrorists they have become what we are told to fear.
Fantastic analysis, succinct and to the point. These two men won their wars while losing the battle. Bin Laden has to be gloating about his successes. 2 men have brought a nation of 300 million+ American cowards to their knee's, no wonder they plead guilty because to them being guilty is a victory declaration.
What evidence is there that Bin Laden had anything to do with 9/11 or is alive at all?
Somewhere in the Human Resources division of the Department of Homeland Security there must be a job description which includes detailed instructions concerning how to handle the genitalia of strangers. Knowing the government, it's unlikely that this particular activity is merely assigned to "other duties as required". Hopefully someone will request this document so that we can all see an example of the degree of perversion that our leaders find necessary to employ in order to protect the nation.
If you're a terrorist--or even if you're not--take the train.
yes, and while we're at it, don't drive either, especially if you are pregnant and/or have kids or babies in the car. Unmarked cars with x-ray machines called "Back-Scatters" may be on the highways.
Not all that long ago a young man screamed out 'Don't tase me, bro!' to a Police officer who intervened at the request of the organizers of a John Kerry speaking engagement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE
The uniformed thugs silenced a legitimate question, snuffing the student's right to free speech. And the US population derided him, did nothing.
The gross Police over-reaction in Pittsburgh, where hundreds of peaceful citizens were trapped, assaulted, and brutalized by the Police, acting on the wishes of the Elite. The following clip is just one example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8WYLuSGhSA
Again, the protesters, exercising their Constitutional right to free speech, free association and assembly were ridiculed and silenced. And again the US public did nothing.
SO where are we?
We have one man, typical of the population objecting to the increasingly brutal and invasive treatment by the thugs of the Elite. He has a moment of notoriety, his story picked up by hundreds of blogs, the MSM, and echoing around the world.
And, if recent history is any indication, the US populace will do... nothing.
Nothing but submit.
How long will it be before someone is pulled out of line, escorted to a little room... and that is the last time anyone sees them alive?
This is the future you have created. This is YOUR future. And it starts tonight.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
Yes! and did you hear that ex idiot in chief refer to the protesters at his inauguration in 2000 who protested his theft of the election as "activists" in a derogatory manner!
UGH! What a cynic and poor excuse for a human being!!!
I bet the sperm that created him cheated its way into the egg!
Thanks a lot bad boy,
Now, I'm having nightmares about the egg.
in this world, the only real rights that you have are those you are willing to fight and die for. To quote Cheney, to hell with what any damn piece of paper says.
42 years ago I was a 17 year old kid on the streets of Chicago. I was near the Hilton hotel on one of the east-west streets, maybe Congress that feeds into Michigan Avenue near Grant Park. A then famous protester named Abbey Hoffman had climbed up onto the statue of General Grant on horseback a few blocks away. The streets were jammed with protesters who were demanding an end to the genocidal, illegal war in Viet Nam. Beyond the sidestreets were crammed solid with blue uniformed Chicago police. TV cameras those days were about the size of a Volkswagen. There were three of them on a platform on the sidewalk along Michigan Avenue. My friend and I were just in front of the cameras and news crews from NBC, CBS and ABC. Here and there in the crowd were people with cameras and reporters with notebooks. An order was given and the police riot began. Suddenly a hundred or two hundred cops of the 12,000 awaiting orders rushed the media platform and smashed the TV cameras and beat hell out of the news teams. Anybody with a notebook or camera was flattened and beaten. The eyes of the media put out an order was given and the rest of the pigs rushed the crowd of 3,000 demonstrators and beat the hell out of anyone they could get their hands on. A young woman who moments before had been standing next to me was held down by several of the helmeted thugs and beaten with three foot nightsicks by a few others. Tear gas, an understatement if there ever was one, filled the air. We were sure many of the beaten were killed before our eyes. The violence was that intense. There were 12,000 National Guard troops and 26,000 regular Army troops at the ready in case 12,000 cops couldn't overwhelm 3,000 peaceful demonstrators.
Those cops look like Boy Scouts compared to the Robo cops the authorities put on the streets today.
What to do with this time continuum?
Observe? React?
It seems to be having a tendency to paralyze me latlely. How do you get around that?
"No matter that a deadly sharp can be fashioned from virtually anything found on a plane, be it a broken wine bottle or a snapped-off length of plastic, we are content wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and untold hours of labor in a delusional attempt to thwart an attack that has already happened, asked to queue for absurd lengths of time, subject to embarrassing pat-downs and loss of our belongings."
— Patrick Smith, "The Airport Security Follies"
http://jetlagged.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/28
/the-airport-security-follies/
I don't care anymore. I am already 'broken'. Humans aren't worth fighting for.
No you are not, and yes we are.
Yet more TSA abuses:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26843.htm
Airports have the right to dump the TSA and have their own private screeners:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Amid-airport-anger_-GOP-takes-aim-at-screening-1576602-108259869.html
This country is getting stranger and stranger. I just finished reading ," From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act, by Christopher Finan. Even Free Speech has had a lot of bumpy rides , not that that road has ever been smooth. However, this kind of "touchy feely" government is not what the Founding Fathers ever had in mind.
We are a weird country. I had no idea that people in the 1940s once burned comic books or thought that Robin was gay, although I'm not sure about Batman. I have no idea how the country has lasted this long.
Don't fly. That is a good idea. Maybe everyone should dress like an executive and the guards would leave those supposedly "elite" people alone. Someone has already suggested that people should wear a little flag pin. That's a good idea as I suppose that those guards are working off of stereotypes only. ( i.e. check the baggy pants.)
How peculiar that people can now join the "Mile High Club' without ever leaving the ground. I suppose when the first female passenger is murdered by an over zealous guard, we will all hear the proverbial "She was a loner, " Yes, she will be accused of having an explosive tampon, or some other strange story.
Who are those TSA people? Maybe we should profile them. I knew an older woman who was going through menopause and really sweated a lot. I suppose that other people like this will look reallly suspicious to those guards. That's so sad and dehumanizing.
Of course, now that the Chinese man got on the plane dressed as an old white man ( and nobody noticed..) like I said, who are those guards? Maybe the next time I as a woman have to fly anywhere, I should dress like a guy in baggy pants. Won't that guard be surprised! His expression...PRICELESS!
"Of course, now that the Chinese man got on the plane dressed as an old white man ( and nobody noticed..)"
A fellow passenger did notice, observing that the 'old' man's hands did not match his face, and reported that *FACT* to the Air Canada personnel, who did... nothing.
http://www.canadaeast.com/rss/article/1299439
Just wondering out loud. What if someday one of these terrorists went into a federal government office with something in his colon?
Would all congressmen and senators have to be subjected to probing in that specific area?
It's sad and yet funny, such a powerful country with such an advanced society brought down to such humiliating behavior by a group of nobodies who at one time were supplied by the CIA...
And we are satisfied by hanging Sadam who never even threw a rock at the US!
Yet the idiot in chief who claimed they hated us because of our freedoms is out and about peddling his version of history and admitting his torture orders!
While many other countries with similar "freedoms" go about their daily lives with none of these absurdities in their lives...
Yet no one asks where have WE gone wrong? what have WE been doing these past 50 years to earn or deserve such contempt?
When will someone let the cat out of the bag.... to find two causes for all this...
OIL and ISRAEL....
Perhaps priests can help in the "search"? No, not funny. This US paranoia is going too far and infecting other nations too. Treat the world as you would like to be treated and we would not have these problems.
I have to go back and check all posts, but briefly went through most of them. Surprised it wasn't mentioned. Tyner's video has gone viral. The answer is fairly simple. When droves of travelers start showing up in nothing more than flip flops and very brief, tight, but legal speedos and bikinis, lets talk about viral videos. Give them nothing to search ! I mean everyone. Grandpas, grandmas, the obese, small children, everyone. that statement is so simple. Were tired of your bullshit and this is our answer. Want to embarass an airport or TSA agents and very likely yourself in the process. We have to give them nothing to search. Wear a robe to the airport. stick it into your carry on. As soon as it passes the scanner and you make your point, put on your robe. Will they get the message then ?
Maybe also don't shower for a week before you fly.
It's not just the TSA in the USA abusing people with their power:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/17112010/71/central-strip-search-police-cell.html
It is time, and past time to fight back. And I don't think mass protests where we quietly march in designated areas is going to do it.
Let's take a page from the recent French and Greek protests. Get loud. Get ugly. Be willing to take a few hits. And be willing to dish it out in return.
We didn't start this fight. But we had better be able to show we are damn well willing to end it.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
A good mouthful of garlic works wonders for decreasing boorish authoritarian officialdom.
The former head of Israeli airline security is very clear in saying that the scanner and the intrusive pat-down are totally useless.
As someone who knows how to conduct security checks of air passengers, he knows what he's talking about. Instead of straight talk from Napolitano and Pistole, however, we get non-answers and arrogance in lieu of a believable justification for the unjustifiable.
As disgusting as the thought is, I think everyone should opt out of the scanner, slowing the process and forcing TSA to provide more people. When airplanes start to depart half empty, without passengers who have checked in, the airlines will start to howl.