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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

- Hey fellas, check this out!

Speaking with blog ace April Gavaza of one abusive institution or another, it immediately brought to my mind everybody's favorite, the TSA. Now here is a civil institution freely and repeatedly abusing its given authority.

Adding to the TSA saga, here is the latest of TSA missteps:
Ellen Terrell was asked by a female TSA screener “Do you play tennis?” When Terrell asked why, the screener responded, “You just have such a cute figure.”

Terrell was then told to go through the naked body scanner not once but a second time. She then heard the TSA screener talking into her microphone saying, “Come on guys, alright, alright, one more time.”

After Terrell was forced to undergo a third blast of radiation from the body scanner, the male TSA agents in the back room who were obviously enjoying the show tried to send her through yet again to see more images of her naked body.

“Guys, it is not blurry, I’m letting her go. Come on out,” the female TSA screener said, finally ending the ordeal.
It's not blurry - wow, there's a relief.

They are considering adding a person that could act as a passenger advocate, but as the advocate would also be a TSA employee, they are not sure that would fix the problem.

My guess is 'no'.
What, me worry?

The TSA's purpose is not to catch terrorists. It is not to make air travel safe. The purpose of the TSA is to screen passengers. And screening is what they do, day after day, over and over. To which end they have policies and guidelines, and it is to these they are committed heart and soul.

Given the exceptionally tedious aspects of screening ordinary Americans, one can hardly blame them for doing what they must to brighten their days. It's all just a part of the price we must pay.

I just love the TSA.

3 comments:

  1. I remember high school days hearing of friends working at Tasty-Freeze, and how they would have code words for a cute gal (don't worry, the girls had their own code words), where they would call out an order for something that isn't even on the menu. "Big and tasty classic on drive thru." But this is ridiculous. For one thing, we were just dopey teenage boys, and for another thing, we weren't equipped with a device that gave us superman's x-ray vision, heaven help us!

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  2. Just like Froot Loops, Tastee-Freez attempts to create a few degrees of separation with that "Tasty" part.

    I hope those guys really didn't let it scan three times--only kept her around to compare the scan with the original. But never bet against stupid when it comes to dealing with gov't bureaucrats and all idiots with a little power. The whole lot of those involved need to be fired immediately. And this is certainly a case that merits a civil judgement, on top of that.

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  3. I've been told by someone who works with Portland's TSA group that new scanners won't have explicit images. He also says the images won't be saved after the person is passed through. I'm hopeful about the first, skeptical about the second. Funny how "not saved" and "not made public" don't apply to certain people (like Joe the Plumber).

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