People forget that TSA employees are federal employees. They are background checked just like the rest. They're not just Joe Schmo off the street, though most people like to think they are.

But anyway, I write you from seat 24F, at JFK airport in NYC - one of the largest and busiest airports in the country. I regret to inform you that there are no nudiscanners here and the only people getting the standard old run in the mill pat down are the ones who consistantly beep going through the metal detector. AS ALWAYS. I'm sincerely upset that I didn't get my happy ending.

news.travel.aol.com . . .|main5|4|link2|28959

Has anyone seen the TSA pin-up calendar? It's hawt!!!!!

www.gadling.com . . .

BTW.......PG-13 photos.

Oh, please. I have these bookmarked from earlier this year. I love them though!

These images were made by medical imaging firm EIZO as part of an ad campaign devised by the German agency BUTTER. It's won awards and such (rightly so!). They ARE making a 2011 version, but alas, only for distribution in Germany.

www.advertolog.com . . .

www.eizo.de . . .

{Sorry. Don't mean to be so nerdy. I just saw them and was like NO WAY!}

To inject a little humor into a pretty serious subject, I present to you the case of Percy Cummings:

Man arrested after ejaculating during TSA pat-down

Spoiler: Show

I gotta say, after my trip to and from MIA last month, considering some of the drama (I went through airport security not twice, but three times), I'm less convinced that these machines and pat downs keep us any safer than we were previously.

I nearly lost my phone in the restroom outside the gate I landed from in MIA. I was frantic. Had to get clearance to go back through security to go looking for my phone. TSA SHOULD HAVE PROFILED ME, based purely on my behavior. But I walked back through security and was wished a safe trip from the TSA agent who guided me through the old school metal scanner. There was a back scatter machine operating at that gate. Again, I should have been profiled to go through it. I was anxious, frantic, and clearly thisclose to freaking out. Seriously. When someone acts like I was acting, they should be profiled and searched more thoroughly. (I'm tied to my phone at all times. I don't even know my brother's phone number by memory. And my boss always texts me before she calls or emails me. It is my lifeline. Fullstop. Thinking I'd lost it was highly stressful for me.)

If someone as highly anxious and stressed behaving the way I was is not selected to go through those machines, and is not subject to a more intensive security search than Joe Shmoe, then frankly, they are not making us any safer than we were before these practices and guidelines were put into place. If we're no safer than before, then they're wasting people's time, money, and energy by using them - regardless of how invasive or not these searches and scans may be.

Further to that, when I departed Florida, my flight left very early in the morning. When I checked in, to go through security, there again was a backscatter machine at the gate, but they weren't even using it. I questioned one of the TSA agents while I was putting my shoes back on, and apparently, they don't even turn the machine on until 8am. So, what? There are no security risks flying out of Miami before 8am? Again - regardless of how invasive or not these searches and scans may be, if they're not in effect 24/7 on every passenger, then they're a waste of time, money, and energy. I still vote to get rid of them.

TSA overlooks a man boarding a plane with a loaded gun.

Just goes to show, full body scans and pat downs don't seem to be doing much.

CarabosseK wrote:



Now if they start requiring a full nude patdown and cavity search for every passenger, I might protest

I think I know a few people that would start volunteering.

amichelle523 wrote:

To inject a little humor into a pretty serious subject, I present to you the case of Percy Cummings:

Not that I know that particular individual...but I rest my case lol.

* Note, I couldn't be bothered reading all 10 pages of comments, so apologies in advance if I missed something!

I fly a lot in Australia... and the only "random" checks we have here, are bomb/substance testing...where they just run something over your bag, and 30 seconds later...you are good to go.

When I flew in Nepal...EVERYONE got a patdown. They didn't have any scanners or detectors...as you stood on the tarmac waiting to get on the plane, they had a male line and a female line. Female lined got patted down by a female official, men by a male official.

I don't see what the big deal is with the full patdown - it's done for security reasons and always by a security guard of your own gender. I would choose that over the nudie scanner. Besides, if the standard patdown is like the one in this vid (at 4:30), there isn't much more they can add to it to make it more "obscene" or "borderline sexual harassment":

www.youtube.com . . .