TSA madness

A few people warned against the creation of yet another agency.  I won't claim to have been one as I do so little travel I didn't hear about it until it was a done deal.  But now their idiocy is all over the Internet to be read.

Janet Napolitano says "don't worry, I'm with the government and I'm here to help you.  Ignore your child's crying as they are grabbed and frisked by the TSA officers. Or send them through the x-ray machines."  First, to make it clear, I never assume the government has my welfare in mind.  I've dealt with the bureaucracy like any other regular Joe and can clearly see that is not the case.  Second, the x-ray machines are run by the TSA. In big airports, that means 24 hours a day.

Consider the fact they are all over the country with hundreds of machines (not to mention mobile vans equipped with back scatter x-ray machines.  Driving over the same pot holes you do to deploy along sections of highway.  Consider how much good this does your car, let alone a complex device mounted in a van). Anyone want to take bets about these being well maintained on a regular basis as our country sinks deeper and deeper in debt?  Sure, they claim the machines are designed to shutdown if they start to operate outside of a set range of micro bursts.  Familiar with the big computers they have at medium to large (and many small) companies?  They have something called four-nines for availability. That is 99.99 percent of the time. A number go even higher as a goal. Yet these machines do fail on occasion, as is the want of all machines.  Depending on the staff the signs are recognized early or late.  Do you really think the average TSA officer will recognize them? A number of researchers in the field of applied technology are avoiding these machines like the plague. Sure, under normal operation they only hit you with one thousandth the dose of a medical x-ray (or maybe not).  Do you want to be around for the machine failure?

Check out Ilana Mercer's column on wnd.com. Who would have more experience than the guy that ran El-Al's security? When you consider that these new machines can't detect plastic or liquid explosives better than a metal detector (they blend in the scan with the body due to density), can you really think of a reason why this is a good idea?  Other than to avoid being groped by some low-paid TSA employee? Across the mainstream media you hear talking heads advocate them.... but none of them are forced to go through them. Some even (see Ilana's column) advocate a right to avoid them for some people. Welcome to being labeled for the sheep you are in their eyes.