Invasion of the Body Scanners

The news these days is filled with stories of the new backscatter and millimeter-wave body-scanners in airport security checkpoints around the United States. Like many things in America these days, the public coverage of this story is very polarized and most of the public is somewhere in the middle. On the one hand, TSA insists that these screenings are necessary to deny terrorists access to commercial aircraft; on the other, many among the traveling public are upset for various reasons.

Some worry about the radiation dose, though that has been compared in the research to the dose one would get from about 20 minutes flying at cruising altitude just from the natural radiation present high in the atmosphere (TSA actually claims on their web site that it's equivalent to two minutes). This may or may not be a valid concern, but it's probably overblown.

Others are offended by the invasion of privacy inherent in having total strangers looking over what are effectively naked images of their bodies.

TSA says passengers have 3 choices:

1. Undergo the body scan screening.
2. Undergo what is referred to as an "enhanced pat-down", a procedure that in any other context would be regarded as sexual molestation.
3. Don't fly.

Moreover, once the security process is started, the passenger is required to complete it, so choice #3 must be made ahead of the checkpoint.

The controversy over the use of these devices, ostensibly in the interest of public security, rages on in the media, but much of the flying public seems to actually be ok with it, convinced that the value in terms of improved traveler safety is worth the intrusion.

Others would say that in effect the terrorists win this round,because they have forced the greatest nation on earth to relinquish some of its rights and freedoms.

We in America are nothing if not adaptable. This controversy has only just begun. It will likely make its way into the court system, where it will take some years before a final decision is rendered. Meanwhile time goes on and Americans will get used to it.

Where did the intelligent Republicans go?

I remember a time not so many years ago when Republican was not synonymous with moron as it sadly has become. Republicans were wrong a lot, sure, but for the most part they were intelligent, educated, articulate, serious people. What happened? When did they become such a pathetic bunch? When did they become anti-education, anti-intelligence, actively ignorant, dominated by right-wing Christians? Why?

Democrats certainly have their share of problems, but at least they're trying to deal with reality.

And then there are the Tea Partiers - decrying the entrenched interests in DC, but themselves mostly just an extension of the Republican Moron brigade.

And where the hell is the 80+% of the population not on one extreme or the other? It's time for the real people to stand up and be heard. Someone has to tell all these wing nuts to shut the fuck up and stop vandalizing America.

Alert: Evolution Suppressed in Connecticut

"Mr. Tangarone, a 17-year veteran of the Weston school system, claims that a program he wanted to teach about Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln was rejected by the school administration because it involved teaching evolution -- the scientific theory that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor."

Mark Tangarone, who teaches third, fourth, and fifth grade students in the Talented and Gifted (TAG) program at Weston Intermediate School, said he is retiring at the end of the current school year because of a clash with the school administration over the teaching of evolution.

"Under normal circumstances, I would have retired in two more years. However, I feel that because of an unacceptable administrative action, I can no longer continue teaching in Weston," Mr. Tangarone said.

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