Posts Tagged ‘scanner’

First Class Security Theater

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

If you live in the United States and you travel by air,  you are familiar with the TSA. Yes, the notorious Transportation Security Administration, renown for hiring sexual deviant employees to molest children  while their easily bypassed, radiation spewing body scanners preferentially select hot women, has reached a whole new level of greasiness.

So what are they up to, you ask? Why, creating a caste system for airport security! Now CEOs, celebrities, politicians and other mucky-mucks won’t have to settle for simple first class seating. Instead, they can also snub their noses at the masses while cruising past screening lines with their first class security clearance. (more…)

TSA Body Scanners Damage Human DNA

Friday, December 17th, 2010

As if the threat of totalitarianism weren’t enough, now it turns out that the full body scanners used for screening in airports cause significant damage to the DNA of those being scanned and those who operate the equipment.

Researchers from the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico show how the radiation emitted by the TSA’s scanners “may significantly affect the natural dynamics of DNA, and thereby influence intricate molecular processes involved in gene expression and DNA replication.”

Forget that these new security measures are not very effective, what with all the 12″ razor blades and loaded guns getting through. We already knew most of these new steps amount to security theater, anyway.

But here we have a concrete reason for everyone to protest against these scanners: THEY ARE DAMAGING OUR GENETIC MAKEUP!

Security checkpoints that alter our DNA. Is there any greater threat to future generations? Yes…these toys.

Don’t stop the backlash against the TSA. The fight is part of something bigger.

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

Yesterday protesters held what they called an “Opt-Out” day, where air travelers who were selected to submit to a full body scanner would opt-out of the screening process. The protest has been called a flop, since most travelers opted out of the protests instead of the scanners, leading the TSA to feel as if the public has already spoken.

But just because most people didn’t protest doesn’t mean they are happy about it. It just means most people will shut up and take the abuse if it means reaching their destination on time.

And as disappointing as these protests may have been, a positive note is how this latest erosion of civil liberties garnered at least some outpouring of dissent.

See, the idea of strangers seeing my naked body or having my groin area searched isn’t my concern, although without a happy ending it does seem like something’s missing.  No, this latest clash against the TSA is part of an even greater battle: the fight against totalitarianism.

Totalitarianism is one of the biggest threats facing humankind today. If we aren’t careful, our entire world could end up enslaved to a system designed to protect us. When people have no rights and dictatorship reigns, entire segments of the population are left to suffer (see Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, or today’s North Korea.)

Body scanners aren’t the problem. Face recognition cameras on every street corner aren’t the problem. Having an orbiting satellite that can read all of our thoughts directly wouldn’t be a problem, so long as the control over said device was left open to the public. In this fight against totalitarianism, technology isn’t to blame.

The real issues emerge when we have government agencies imposing regulations with little to no accountability to the public.

If the TSA were enforcing democratically agreed upon measures, then they wouldn’t be cause for concern. Just like if the information gleaned from all the wiretapping and ubiquitous surveillance were made freely available in the public commons, then we wouldn’t be at risk of losing our freedoms.

Instead, so long as organizations like the TSA go unchallenged,  we are heading towards living under shadowy overlords ruling our every waking moment.

Modern technology can already be used quite readily be used for enslavement, putting entire populations under the control of a tiny minority. As many alarmists will attest, certain forces are working diligently to strip humankind of power with each passing moment.

Our new technology can also be a great liberator, especially when it channels the will of the people. And this is precisely what we will need to do to fight totalitarianism:

Harness the community building power of the Internet, coordinate at the speed of instant messaging, and take the power away from these secretive defense agencies and place it back squarely in the hands of the general public.

Power to the People!

Say NO to more police power and security measures!

Monday, November 8th, 2010

He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither. -Benjamin Franklin

We used to have police officers with radar guns giving out tickets for going too fast. Then photo radar was discretely mounted to parked cars on the side of the road. Next up, red light cameras. Now, since the boxes were already up on the poles, we may as well have the red light cameras give out speeding tickets, too. Pretty soon, every vehicle’s GPS will be tracked, and drivers will be fined for every single infraction:

“Let’s see, Mr Piedlourde, you exceeded the speed limit four times, failed to stop at one stop sign, and didn’t signal while changing lanes. Total cost for your trip to the store: $813.00. Have a great day.”

So much for the open road, and the skies haven’t fared any better.

Thorough pat downs… sure. Take off our shoes… okay. No liquids… fine. X-ray our luggage? Hell… why not just x-ray our bodies to see us naked. Whatever you need to do, oh great and all-seeing security guard, we’ll just switch into sheeple-mode and allow ourselves to be corralled and prodded in order to reach our destinations.

And it’s not just on the streets and in the air… these escalating levels of security and authoritarian control are happening everywhere. While some of these steps may make us feel safer, few, if any, of the new regulations and precautions are actually making us significantly safer. Most of these security measures serve as security theatre, where the price of admission is nothing less than our freedom and civil liberties.

Then, if and when the shit hits the fan (as it inevitably will) and another traffic accident happens or terrorists strike, what do we do? Do we recognize the futility in attempting to eliminate all risk from life? No, we mindlessly allow our civil liberties to be eroded as we cave to what are predominantly irrational fears.

Well, the time has come to say “Enough!”. We need to define a balance between freedom and security. No more additional precautions. To hell with more police powers. Let’s draw a line in the sand- and it needs to be behind where we are now because we’ve already let it go too far!

If we don’t stand up to authoritarianism, if we keep succumbing to fear and continue to enable a system that holds an ever tightening grip over our lives, soon enough the biggest threat will no longer be speeders or airplane bombers. If this keeps up, the greatest risk to our lives will be the very system we’ve created to protect us.