Land Of The Free

You would have to be living in a cave to miss the outrage that has been surrounding the American TSA’s adoption of “Backscatter” nude scanners, which may or may not pose a higher risk of cancer than just flying. Refuse a scan you get subjected to an “Enhanced Patdown” which by some accounts amounts to being groped and fondled by a TSA Agent.

People are protesting it be saying that they are going to refuse to fly. I wonder how long that will last…

There is the story of the Bladder cancer survivor who was subjected to an enhanced pat down which caused him to soil himself. The man with a prosthetic leg who was forced to remove his leg exposing his residual limb while his 4 year old son was made to sit across the room crying.

There have been some amusing stories like the professional sex worker who decided to strip down to her underpants and film it. On the basis that she would not be humiliated by the TSA but would turn the tabled on them. (Video below mostly SFW, also mostly just a film of the ceiling…) you can read about it on her blog though I’ve never managed to get it to load it’s supposedly NSFW, there is also an article about it on Boing boing.


There is also the ridiculous story of the TSA confiscating nail clippers from a group of soldiers who were armed to the teeth with machine guns and worse.

I thought the 100ml of liquid rules were crazy, but the reaction to the backscatter, and the alternative extreme pat down are taking the piss.

This is bat shit crazy, do we actually benefit from this, to be honest I think we we are sacrificing freedom for the illusion of security. There are hundreds of other stories… Post your most amusing ones in the comments.

Image Via Pundit Kitchen