Everyone is talking about these newly installed naked body scanners found in air ports across the United States. I have heard some arguments that I believe are lacking in thought and are driven by a combination of fear and expediency. I figured it was time for me to share my opinion. Before I do I'll start with two arguments I have heard recently, "better safe than sorry" and my favorite "let's have one plane with naked scanners and one plane without any security and lets see what plane people decide to fly on, and good luck finding pilots". It's clear that most people form an opinion without thinking about what they are saying. Our opinions tend to be a conglomerate of cliche sayings and ideas found in the common vernacular that have been so far removed from independent thinking we can come up with them quickly yet completely absent of original thought. Both of these arguments assume that there is no other option on the table. Good thing "We the people" can think outside the box and use some common sense here. What are we giving up? What are we gaining? Is there a better proven way to achieve the same result?
Here is how I see it. We have .0001% of the population that tries to strap explosives to their crotch and get on a plane (that was a rough estimate). And we also have 99.999% of the population that has no interest in becoming a martyr through the suicide bombing of innocent people (another estimate). Yet the leaders of the TSA have devised a fool proof plan - Lets assume everyone is a terrorist and treat them equally so we can maintain our political correctness and keep the ACLU off our backs, Brilliant! Not really.
When people form opinions similar to the ones I mentioned in the first paragraph they could possibly be thinking. If so they would be thinking as a pragmatist. The pragmatist takes the path of least resistance, the easiest way out, the fastest way to yield results. Quality of the results and long term effects, however, is not taken into account. Is it too much to ask our government to come up with thoughtful solutions to these types of problems? No. It is not too much to ask, but it does require the government to do a good and thorough job and that is not pragmatic. It takes a lot of hard work and due diligence to achieve high quality results. It can't be done by people in empty suites who have been appointed to positions they are not qualified to fill by their political buddies.
So who's in charge of the TSA? John S. Pistole. And who is above him running the Department of Homeland Security? Janet Napolitano. And who's in charge of the company OSI Systems that made millions of dollars selling naked body scanners to the TSA? Deepak Chopra. I don't have enough info right now to draw any concrete conclusions, but someone made a quick buck out of this deal.
This week Katie Couric said, " last year 136 dangerous weapons were confiscated by the TSA, and that's worth a little discomfort." I wonder if 136 law abiding citizens are missing their swiss army knives? How many of those 136 were linked to potential terrorists threats with connections to radical groups? How many were average citizens who forgot to take their pocket knife out of their pack back?
Conclusion
There is a better way to handle airport security that does not involve naked pictures or invasive groping of law abiding citizens. For example the Israeli method. It just happens to be more politically correct and easier to treat EVERYONE as a terrorist. Government is being lazy. The side effects of government laziness, in this case are citizens losing some of their freedoms. Not to mention the radiation exposure to frequent fliers. That's why I'm ticked off.
Read more here
Here is how I see it. We have .0001% of the population that tries to strap explosives to their crotch and get on a plane (that was a rough estimate). And we also have 99.999% of the population that has no interest in becoming a martyr through the suicide bombing of innocent people (another estimate). Yet the leaders of the TSA have devised a fool proof plan - Lets assume everyone is a terrorist and treat them equally so we can maintain our political correctness and keep the ACLU off our backs, Brilliant! Not really.
When people form opinions similar to the ones I mentioned in the first paragraph they could possibly be thinking. If so they would be thinking as a pragmatist. The pragmatist takes the path of least resistance, the easiest way out, the fastest way to yield results. Quality of the results and long term effects, however, is not taken into account. Is it too much to ask our government to come up with thoughtful solutions to these types of problems? No. It is not too much to ask, but it does require the government to do a good and thorough job and that is not pragmatic. It takes a lot of hard work and due diligence to achieve high quality results. It can't be done by people in empty suites who have been appointed to positions they are not qualified to fill by their political buddies.
So who's in charge of the TSA? John S. Pistole. And who is above him running the Department of Homeland Security? Janet Napolitano. And who's in charge of the company OSI Systems that made millions of dollars selling naked body scanners to the TSA? Deepak Chopra. I don't have enough info right now to draw any concrete conclusions, but someone made a quick buck out of this deal.
This week Katie Couric said, " last year 136 dangerous weapons were confiscated by the TSA, and that's worth a little discomfort." I wonder if 136 law abiding citizens are missing their swiss army knives? How many of those 136 were linked to potential terrorists threats with connections to radical groups? How many were average citizens who forgot to take their pocket knife out of their pack back?
Conclusion
There is a better way to handle airport security that does not involve naked pictures or invasive groping of law abiding citizens. For example the Israeli method. It just happens to be more politically correct and easier to treat EVERYONE as a terrorist. Government is being lazy. The side effects of government laziness, in this case are citizens losing some of their freedoms. Not to mention the radiation exposure to frequent fliers. That's why I'm ticked off.
Read more here
