Air Strip

The lovely and talented Becky Akers has a hard-hitting op-ed in today’s New York Post about the latest outrages from the Tranportation Security Administration. Not only are the security checkpoint goons dressing up like cops in an effort to impress… somebody, but they’re also playing peeping tom with airport passengers:

It recently installed body scanners at JFK – machines that strip victims virtually. Anyone who steps into the scanner’s portal appears naked on its monitor.

The TSA claims that leering at us in our birthday suits lets screeners “detect” contraband “quickly, unobtrusively and without physical contact.” It calls the technology “a promising alternative to the physical pat-down.”

Yet cooperating with this striptease doesn’t mean you won’t also get groped. Screeners still conduct a hands-on investigation of any “anomalies” a scan turns up – especially humiliating to passengers with body jewelry, implants or a prosthesis.

But the agency assures us that its contraptions “enhance security without diminishing the personal privacy of passengers.” Right. People pay good money for porn precisely because such explicit images “diminish personal privacy.”

Becky will be the guest speaker at the Manhattan Libertarian Party’s monthly meeting in September. In the meantime, you can read a lot more of Becky’s commentaries on the TSA’s follies here.

Manhattan Libertarian Party