I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watchin' Me...And I Have No Privacy

Maybe Rockwell was onto something with their 1984 "hit" that graced your TV screen back when MTV actually played music videos.  One thing is for certain in life:  Change.  Most certainly, the attacks of 9/11 changed not only the USA, but the world.  After the families and friends who lost loved ones on that fateful day, nowhere has this change been felt more than for those who fly here in the USA.  In typical fashion, our government likes to overreact to situations vs. utilizing astute analysis and arriving at a conclusion deemed sensible.  Their motto is literally:  Ready.  Fire.  Aim.

You all remember Richard Reid, the infamous "Shoe Bomber" who failed miserably at his assigned task which would have netted him 78 virgins by Allah upon entry to lala-land and other warped views of these deranged murderers?  Thanks to this dimwit, you and I still remove our shoes prior to going through security.  The worst part about this situation is that if the uber-complicated protocol of Freaking Common Sense would have been deployed, they would have caught this sad excuse for a human being before he even got on the plane.  Follow along after the jump...

Richard Reid gave the security personnel all the suspicious signs that any passenger terrorist could provide:  A) He got a British passport in Belgium, not in England.  And 2) He flew to Paris and bought a one-way ticket from Paris to Florida.  Did I mention that he also paid in cash for his transatlantic ticket and he checked no luggage and did not have a carry-on either?  What else do I need to know that would prove to me that this passenger is suspicious?  A placard that states "I love Al Qaeda?" Seriously, eight years later and we are still removing our shoes.  But, that's not enough.  Come to think of it, let's install Full Body Scanners which illustrate in 3D technology everyone's genitals, curves, and features that should be a matter of privacy.

Did you know this is what you signed up for when you stood in front of the "oh so necessary" full body scanner which is operated by TSA agents across our nation?  How did these things come about anyway?  I mean, this is the government we're talking about.  In a word:  lobbyists.  I've ranted on this before and this is precisely why I am against lobbying members of Congress.  A program or product doesn't need to be effective, it only needs to have a good lobby to be effective in "winning" the contract.  And the naked-scanner lobby is small but well-connected.  

Chances are if you have had the pleasure to pose for TSAboy or TSAgirl, it was manufactured by L3 Communications.  The contract was worth $165 million to L3 and it was awarded to them 4 days after Christmas last year when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried and failed to blow up a plane.  It's uncertain whether the scanners would have picked up the explosives this coward was using as noted by the Government Accountability Office's report:  "it remains unclear whether [the scanners] would have been able to detect the weapon Mr. Abdulmutallab used."  The scanners cannot pick up items stored in body cavities either.  I'm really NOT looking forward to the next step of this little invasive charade.  So, when do the body cavity searches begin at the local security checkpoint after some ignoramus of a person decides to locate an explosive in his/her orifice of choice?  Oh, and if you opt out of this scan, which is reported to emit levels of radiation that some may want to prevent from exposing their entire body to, you will be subject to a sexual assault very intimate frisk.  The TSA personnel are required to run their hands along the inside of your legs until they meet "resistance."  As you can imagine, that resistance is going to be your man-parts or your woman-parts.  Awesome. 

Happy Flying.  And this is no happy beginning.