Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Big Sis is watching...

I've been following with great interest the furious anger travelers are feeling at the intrusive, indecent, invasive "security" requirements now in place in many airports across the country.  Gee, do you opt for a full-body scan that administers large doses of radiation and strips away your clothing and reveals your naked body in front of perfect strangers?  Or do you "opt out" and get harassed, humiliated, and sexually fondled by a bunch of TSA employees who (let's face it) may or may not like what they're doing?  Do you strip-search Granny in her wheelchair while letting the hajib-wearing Muslim woman pass because searching her would be "against" her religion?


So I came across this article that reports how lawsuits are being prepared against Janet Napolitano for the ugly turn these "security" jokes are taking.  Janet Napolitano, if you recall, is also the one behind the Department of Homeland Security’s report on Rightwing Extremism which pretty much classified anyone who is a conservative as a domestic terrorist.

And it suddenly dawned on me...Very simply, Janet Napolitano just doesn't like us, does she?

This woman is responsible for stripping ordinary American people of their dignity, their patriotism, their strength in numbers, their concerns about our government and the economy... in short, she and her ilk think most American citizens are a bunch of dumb sheeple, and the sooner they whip us into shape (meaning, submissive and compliant), the better.

13 comments:

  1. I have lived in AZ for the last 10 years of my life, of which Big Sis is the former Governor, and was elated when I watched her go off to D.C. I thought that finally, she would be someone else's problem. I guess that the time has come to eat my words and swallow my pride. Yes, she now is someone else's problem, and that would be everyone.

    Let this be a lesson to all, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

    Oh, just in case you were wondering, I have no need to fly currently and do not forsee a need in the immediate future. There will be no pornographic footage of me or my family archived by the TSA, and I will not fly again until the scanners have been removed. Anyway, that's my $.02.

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  2. Hi Patrice,

    I just have to chime in here. I'm a supplier to the company that manufactures these (Rapiscan) and have personally taken a tour of the facility and seen the 'behind the scenes' views. We don't work directly on the body scanners, we manufacture the computers that run the smaller baggage scanners.

    I've read the radiation reports and can tell you that what the machines expose you to are surprisingly far less than what you will be exposed to while in flight on any commercial aircraft. The machines have the ability to be dialed in to an amazing amount of detail, but no machine leaves their facility set to do so, nor can the operators outside of certified repair technitians can change that. All images are all scaled back to a ghost image and programed to detect non organic materials. The images are not saved unless a wepon is found. The person that sees the image never see's who they are viewing outside of their screen image, they are in a separate room, often on another floor. I have no problem going through these scanners.

    IMHO flying is a choice and a privlage, not a right. If someone refuses to go through a security check they should not be allowed to board, period.

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  3. Paul- The TSA does not save your images, there is an auto delete function set in the software. Images CAN be saved, but only when a wepon or other evidence is found to do so, and requires approvals to be maintained. I hardly consider a blurry body image to be pornigraphic.

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  4. Karla - No one considers a blurry image to be porno worthy, but the ones I've seen all over the net are in strong enough detail not to be called blurry by any stretch of the imagination.

    Flying is a not a privilege. It's a service and an industry. My body sanctity does not stop at the airport. We teach our kids not to allow people to touch them in bad ways, but that automatically goes away when we buy a plane ticket? I don't think so.

    http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20012583-281.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

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  5. Karla, the US Marshals apparently saved over 35,000 images from body scanners.

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/full-body-images-from-security-scanner-revealed.html

    So, forgive me if I have my doubts about the TSA's honesty.

    In reality, citizens have no idea whether or not the government is saving these scans. They certainly wouldn't tell us if they were.

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  6. Janet Napolitano is as qualified to run DHS as I am of running the local Weight Watchers program. This woman is so inept it must make people wonder why she was chosen for this job. What security experience does she have? What emergency traiing does she have? How can a person with absolutely no idea about danger or security or terrorism or warfare run the most important homefront protection department in the nation? She was appointed because of her lack of knowledge and backbone, not because of them. She is the shill, just like Janet Reno was for Clinton. When the SHTF, Napolitano will be blamed, just as Reno was during the Waco attack. All the while, the president looks innocent. HAH!!! He's about as innocent as a rattlesnake loose in a mouse nursery.

    So, what does the average flyer do about these latest invasions of privacy perpetrated by the government itself? Refuse to fly? Refuse to be scanned? I think not. Buy a hijab and wear it! Overwhelm the TSA people with hijab-wearing women AND men and see what type of chaos that causes at the airport. We need to think outside the box when it comes to "fighting" back. Find a hajib and wear it at the airport, you'll be treated like royalty. Guaranteed.

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

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  7. @ Karla I beg to differ

    http://www.prisonplanet.com/government-lied-naked-body-scanners-can-transmit-images.html

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  8. This is a link to a male scan. http://epic.org/privacy/body_scanners/Body_Scan_Pic.jpg

    This is a link to a female scan: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Backscatter_x-ray_image_woman.jpg

    As you can see, neither could be considered "blurry". In researching for TSA scanner photos, I only found one which might be considered so. Otherwise, they were extremely detailed.

    I don't care how much radiation is or is not involved in the exposure. These pictures represent an invasion of privacy.

    Pornography is the viewing and/or distribution of sexual images for the purpose of sexual arousal. These may not technically be pornographic, yet we need to remember that parents have been arrested as child pornographers after film developers reported them for taking pictures of their own children in the bath tub. Why is this different?

    I understand your support of your industry, Karla, but this situation is out of control and needs to be stopped. In particular in light of the selection process for the scans, and the intimidation that occurs if you opt out of them.

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  9. And yet again

    http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/full-body-scanner-images-saved-3776419

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  10. But if you're Muslim wearing a burka (sp?) there's no need to worry about it. I may have to invest in one...NOT! You won't catch me flying until they reverse their policy on that one! Afterall, aren't they the ones that have caused this invasion of privacy?

    -Nina

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  11. This is just one more reason my family drives cross country when we're taking a trip.

    Once you strip people of their dignity, they're nothing more than cogs in a machine. A foe humiliated is nothing more than a gnat. The ultimate victory would be for them to get us to believe that we have no intrinsic value....Then they can do whatever they want. This is just one more step to that end.

    ~Sarah

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  12. Yep. Sarah gets it.

    When one looks at the way the indigenous or first peoples were eradicated and subdued, the early common denominator in the process is the stripping of their spiritual systems. Once you've done that to a people they become much easier to starve, control and kill.

    It also worked very effectively in Germany, Russia and China.

    America is seeking a focus, and I pray we find it very soon. I believe the extent to which we will succeed in achieving that focus will be determined by our willingness to continue allowing political correctness to trump reality when it comes to public discourse and policy making.

    Profiling is not a four letter word, and the sooner we stand up and demand, in clear and simple terms, the Israeli method of providing air travel security, the better off the world will immediately be. Profiling is the basis of much of the best practice of law enforcement. It's time to take back our words from the hype whores and their pimps in media.

    And it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
    I believe the thugocracy that infests our white house and congress are feverishly working their dark juju to unionize the TSA, and this must not be allowed. (I pray for another President with the intestinal fortitude and loyalty to America to do some liberally applied union busting and some serious Reganesque butt kicking. Honorable unions are one thing, what we have allowed them to become is quite another.)

    Think of the manpower and tax dollars now being squandered on this Orwellian scam. Think of how far it would go if applied to border security.

    A.McSp

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  13. Napolitano is the picture of the progressives who are facing you down. The weird look about them is only incidental. They are all freeks. Look at them for a few moments and then decide. If you think there is nothing weird about them then I will kiss your butt on mainstreet.

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