November 15, 2010 - If you are one of the millions of people who plan on flying during the Thanksgiving holiday this year, you may want to give yourself a little extra time. That's because the geniuses at the TSA are now doing full body scans on some airline passengers. The scans take several minutes to complete and analyze on a good day, with properly trained personnel. But the TSA is short on trained personnel, and after all, when was the last time that you went through airport security and thought that it was being well run? As bad as this news is, there is now a move afoot to boycott the scanners in mass during Thanksgiving. If that happens, it will gum up airport security lines in a way that has never been seen before. It could be a "George Orwell meets the Tea Party" moment.

Full body scanners are the latest expensive gadget that the TSA has decided to waste your money on. According to the TSA, they will make the flying public safer. But according to most analysts, the terrorists already know how to get by them.

Full body scanners actually take an image of what is under your clothing. That's right, if you have ever had a hidden desire to appear naked on film, full body scanning may be just your thing. On the other hand, for most people it would seem invasive. Because of this, it is getting a lot of attention from privacy rights activists as well as just plain old folks who don't really think it's any of the governments business outside of their regular attire.

The TSA keeps saying that it needs full body scanning to detect hidden weapons. Weapons like the flaming underpants worn by the infamous underwear bomber who tried to blow up a commercial airline flight. There is only one problem with this argument. There have been a number of reports stating that any suicide bomber who is actually willing to insert explosives into his or her body - and why not if you are planning on ending it all anyway - will still breeze right by the scanners. That's because they can only see what is under your clothes. They can't see anything that is under your skin.

The TSA has also said that the pictures taken by the scanners are not, and cannot be saved. That however might prove to be a problem if they ever plan to use evidence gathered by the scanners in a court of law. Bottom line here is that there are some very good reasons to doubt the information that the government is feeding the public.

The good news is that nobody has to agree to go through the scanners. If you are told to walk through, you have the right to refuse. Unfortunately, that will just lead to more bad news.

If you refuse to go through full body scanning, then the TSA will do a pat down search of you. But the TSA is no longer doing gentle pat downs. Now they use an "enhanced" technique, which allows the agent to touch your gentile areas. And no longer do they have to use the sides or backs of their hands. Now they can use fingers and palms too, and some news broadcasts are describing the procedure as sexual assault. Needless to say that many of the flying public are not happy.

Now, just imagine if during Thanksgiving, people start opting out of full body scans in great numbers. What do you think is going to happen to airport security lines? I'm betting that they will get very long… ok, I mean longer… very quickly.

Very frankly, the public does need to put its foot down on this issue. If enough people refuse to go through the scanners, even though they will be subjected to full body pat downs, the system will collapse under its own weight. Enough is enough. The government is supposed to work for us. The current system doesn't appear to be working for anyone but on the bright side, it is keeping thousands of poorly trained TSA screeners employed on the taxpayers' dime. 

byJim Malmberg

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