TSA Searches

With all the complaints and whining going on about searches and scans being performed at airports, I’m once again compelled to put my opinion into words.  I hear the discussion on the news shows, the talk shows, and among friends and neighbors about what should be done and I’m amazed and sometimes appalled at the same time.  It’s time for political correctness to step aside in lieu of safety for American citizens.

People want to be safe when flying.  They want to be assured no one will carry a bomb aboard their plane and detonate it mid-flight, killing everyone on board.  And they have a right to know this.  Yet some people complain enhancing security checks before a flight violates their privacy rights.  They want to be kept safe but only if it’s not an inconvenience to them.   I’ve got news for those of you who feel this way…  in this day and age, your privacy needs to be the least of your concerns.

For those of you who don’t want your privacy violated – are you willing to die for your privacy?  The new full body scan machines will give TSA screeners a really good picture of what someone has on their person and identify anything hidden on their person that could be a threat to the safety and security of passengers on a plane.  I heard someone say the other day the scanners will also allow TSA screeners to see if someone has a colostomy, breast implants, mastectomy scars, etc.  While this may be true, do the people with the colostomy or mastectomy scars prefer death over some TSA agent’s thoughts of their surgeries?  Will they feel better, as their bodies fall in pieces from the sky, knowing the TSA screener had no idea they had life saving surgery a few years ago? 

I can’t believe I’m actually writing things like this.  Some people would rather be blown up than have some security screener see the outline of their bodies?  How stupid have we become as a nation?   My God, could Bill Mahar actually be correct?

Now we have CAIR, the Council for American-Islamic Relations, saying that body scans and pat searches of Muslmis violates their religious beliefs.  You have to love that.  Muslim terrorists are the reason we do all these enhanced security checks in the first place.   Now, thanks to whining by CAIR, Muslims will probably opt out of the searches which renders them basically useless.  If we can’t search the ones who we know have a history of blowing up planes and buildings, why search anyone?

I filled out a questionnaire many years ago for a Psychologist who was treating my ex-wife for post partum depression.  In a section where I had to complete sentences, one of the sentences was “People are _________. “   My response, after working in public service for years was “basically stupid.”  The Psychologist, upon seeing my answer, asked “Do you really believe that?”   My answer?  “Absolutely.”   He thought there was something wrong with me.  He later ended up in prison for scamming insurance companies.  Go figure.)  When I hear people talking about their personal privacy versus public safety on airplanes I am reminded of just how stupid the general public can be. 

In these days of jihad, terrorism and improvised explosive devices, we cannot be too careful.  I have no problem letting the TSA search me, whether it’s via pat search, visual (strip) search or full body scan if it means my flight will be safe from a terrorist bomb.  Should we profile?  Absolutely.  I mean, come on – how many white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant grandmothers have blown up a plane in the last 50 years?  For that matter, how many Hispanics, African Americans, British, Chinese or anyone other than Islamic extremists have done it?  It’s clear that political correctness will be the death of more Americans in the future.  We are so concerned about not offending anyone that we won’t concentrate on the group of people we know are committing the terrorist acts against us.  And those people know it.  That’s why it’s been so easy for them to attack us to date.

I was happy to see the TSA start utilizing full body scanning machines over the arguments of the right to privacy advocates.  You can be assured the ACLU will file a lawsuit concerning the peoples’ right to privacy, which could possibly discontinue the use of these machines.  But if the ACLU wants to be the advocate for the people they should be fighting for these machines, not against.

The ACLU and other organizations are also against profiling.  I have to admit I think it’s a shame things in the world have gotten to such a state where profiling can easily be justified.  However, if every airline passenger has to submit to this full body scan profiling will be unnecessary.  I’m also in big favor of bomb sniffing dogs being deployed to airports around the country and the world.  Of course, that will probably bring about more protests from various organizations, including PETA, who will want specific guidelines about how long a dog can work and how often he must be given a 15 minute fire hydrant break.

The bottom line is this – in my humble opinion, it is better to be inconvenienced by a full body scan than to have the bodies of a couple hundred passengers be scattered across the countryside.  Those who disagree need to remember Lockerbie, Scotland.   Granted that bomb was smuggled into the plane in luggage however, our luggage is being screened as well these days and I have yet to hear one suitcase complain.   It’s time for the passengers to get screened as thoroughly as possible.  Bombs can only bring down airliners if they are actually on the planes.  Funny how that works.