Now what do you think of whole-body scanners in airports?

I have some serious concerns about the privacy guards (whether they will be followed through on).

I suspect they won’t be…

For. Rather be peeked at than ‘ploded.

Complete invasion of privacy. I don’t agree with it at all. Why are they even doing it with airports anyway? Buses and subways have been bombed, do we need body scanners for those too? It’s a total over reaction to make it look like something is being done about terrorism.

I don’ like it but as long as my naked body outline/form isn’t on a screen visible to everyone I’m in line with then I’ll deal with it for the sake of everyone’s safety. The New Yorker actually had a cartoon about this.

I’ve read that private parts can be blurred.

its bad… it was coming anyway and the events at christmas have just been a good enough excuse to fast track it in without due thought.

there is a massive legal question at the moment if the scanning of children actually contravenes the law on creating pornographic images of children… none of this has been thought through its just a big rush.

No and I think that this is a very dangerous path that we are following in surrendering our personal liberties for the sake of safety. Not because of privacy as much as keeping government from overstepping its bounds where it doesn’t belong. It is not my job to make government’s job easier. It is the government’s job to serve its citizens. Part of living in a free world involves risk, People who advocate surrendering more of our essential liberties for the sake of “safety” are enemies of true freedom and autonomy. What happens when they start devising explosives camouflaged in internal organs? Will we be invaded with hoses in our orifices before we board a plane? I think I’ll drive.

Stupidest comment by Fred Teeven (a politician in the Netherlands who’s in favour): “it’s not really an invasion of privacy because you can only see a silhouette, not an actual naked person”.

Shows how privacy is really subjective, and how you shouldn’t shout out only when it reaches your personal border, but shout out when a trend is emerging towards your border.

Anyway, if it really blurs out sensitive parts then that’s where hazardous material will be hidden. In those cases the scanner will only provide a false sense of security. Furthermore, while we’re feverishly looking at the airports for a potential terrorists threat, actual terrorists can just move on to attacking trains, cars or whatever.

In short, the privacy costs, as happens so often, really does not outweigh the suggested (but not proven!) benefits.

As long as it keeps the reptilians off my airplane it’s okay by me.

It doesn’t bother me.

@Austinlad Yes, the private parts can be blurred, but the TSA has had the manufacturers install an override of the privacy filters that can only be used by them. This does not make me trust their honesty…

It does not bother me much, because it is not terribly likely that my naked body will be of interest to anyone except myself. Furthermore, privacy becomes a privilege, not a right, when safety is paramount. Lastly, will the full body scanners meet the purpose? I don’t think they will. Really, what we should be doing is making suicide an unappealing option for the would-be terrorist. How? I don’t know, but the people who run Homeland Security should have a few ideas by this time.

I did’t agree with them at the start, I still don’t. The privacy issues are obvious beyond unending debate of whether the wants of the individual outweigh the many and at what point are the many justified in their over ruling the individual. But then there’s the issue of treating the innocent as criminals, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear… it’s a wonderful statement that says nothing and preys on the psyche to coerce agreement implying you are afraid and that if you disagree you have something to hide. It’s not an argument, it’s used because there isn’t a proper argument that can be made to justify this type of intrusion. What does it gain us? A further illusion of security at the cost of what’s becoming equally illusory privacy and freedom. Just think about the steps, when this fails, what’s next? The interesting thing about stuff like this is once it’s in, much like taxes, it doesn’t go away.

Oh, and the government doesn’t install a back door for “just in case”.

Definitely agree with @wonderingwhy!

All of you who think that this has something to do with your naked body are ENTIRELY missing the point. These measures do not belong in a free society.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin

If it really bothers you don’t take the plane. Go by boat or something. If you absolutely refuse and demand that these machines are taken away, wait for another plane to be blown up, and remember that it could have been avoided.

I can understand how it is uncomfortable for some, but we all are human, we all have the same bodies.

@TehRoflMobile The existing measures (e.g. intelligence agencies actually TALKING to each other) would have been sufficient to catch the underwear bomber. I have yet to be convinced that any new powers are necessary for the TSA to do its job.

The machines are a complete and disgusting invasion of privacy. We’ll at least be able to catch all the perverts and creeps in the country. Whoever signs up for a TSA job to look at naked people all day…

I’m concerned about the cost and the fact that anyone who wants to will figure out a way to ‘fool’ the machines. We won’t be any safer, money will be wasted, flights will be too expensive for many and so in restricting us like this the terrorists have won this round.

@TehRoflMobile and what happens when the black lists become white lists? At what number of downed planes does it become apparent that our existing measures have failed and that a large segment of the population simply can’t be adequately cleared to be considered safe to fly?

Also the question isn’t necessarily could it have been prevented, it’s would it have been.

Don’t like it? Don’t fly.

Flying is a luxury, not a right.

@nicobanks I agree with you completely.

Sorry to everyone else, I didn’t mean to upset or offend anyone.

@wonderingwhy
The interesting thing about stuff like this is once it’s in, much like taxes, it doesn’t go away.
Exactly. And how about next we track the movements of all citizens by having them use a card? And maybe we can tell where all citizens are at all the time. And maybe then we can prevent certain citizens in attending lectures and seminars that may be questionable in nature to the common good. And maybe next the card is used to track all payments and assure all taxes are immediately withdrawn from accounts because there is no longer the necessity to have individuals do such trivial transactions. And since the tax code is updated and a bill was passed in Congress without your awareness then it’s just expedient. You don’t have to think about this because you’re just a citizen of the state. And since this is so efficient, let’s just implant a microprocessor in every individual. Maybe even corrective devices can be implanted to alter behavior and maintain order. Maybe we can change our name to the People’s Republic of America overseen by the System of Collective Good.
Are you kidding? The government needs to be less intrusive not more.

@nicobanks ah, too easy an answer. why should I be the one who doesn’t fly? why not you?

@wonderingwhy Why should it be you who doesn’t fly? Apparently, because you don’t want to engage in the procedures required by the bodies who offer the service. Why not me? Because I really don’t care what happens to pictures of my naked body. (But that’s theoretical. I very, very rarely fly and can’t pinpoint a certain time in my future when I will fly next.)

@nicobanks It’s not about willingness or unwillingness to engage in the procedures it’s about whether or not those procedures should exist at all and if so to what extent.

Unfortunately that’s probably all I’ve got for tonight. Ironically, I suppose, I’ve got a flight to pack for.

I hope none took offense, personally I think this is a fascinating issue worthy of considered debate.

@wonderingwhy Whether the procedures should exist? Hmm. I think you are more engaged in the possibility of the world than I am. What procedures that do exist, should? I can’t think of any off-hand.

I’ll be sure to pose for it when I’m passing through one saturday. ;)

Maybe I can get a copy and show you guys, lol.

I kid, I kid. I really don’t like this… at all!

“These machines can display detailed images of travelers’ naked bodies.”

Not that detailed. Not nearly as detailed as the opponents would have you believe. Which is why I don’t have a problem in the world with it.

Would not have a problem at all with it.

I am getting really tired of the inflammatory ignorance displayed by some of you.
I’ll run through the airport naked. That’s not the point

The issue is framing. They would like to frame this as an issue of prudity but it’s an issue of civil liberty. How short our memories are. A short time ago our government used an issue to frame an aggressive acts of war against a sovereign nation using the same technique. It was a fear based initiative called “weapons of mass destruction”. How else could our government justify an invasion against a nation that posed us no threat. But it was framed as necessary to prevent imminent catastrophe. And that is how these issues are always framed: with fear. What followed domestically was the greatest erosion of habeus corpus ever seen in this country. The Freedom of Information act was decimated. The Patriot Act was created to allow the central government unprecedented ability to act without oversight. Decades of civil rights were leveled as if they were speed bumps on the road to security. These are the people you trust with your safety?

By the same token the government would attempt to reframe this. The incidents of people dying in a plane crash due to human error are greater than of that from a terrorist plot by far. Maybe they could pay attention to that. Or if the government is really concerned about its citizens perhaps investing funds in the safety of most deadly form of transportation by far- the automobile. You can be rest assured that there are financial interests in this and like the war machine and the defense industry they have intentions of profiting hugely from this endeavor and exporting it abroad. And of course our friends as usual will be China and Iran. Funny how we have such a similar tack on so many issues as these despotic regimes?

But don’t even think this has anything to do with saving lives. If that was the case there would be trillions invested in safer roadways.
Here’s the line do not cross it.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

@nicobanks
These are not wholly private institutions but are supported by my money so damn straight I and anyone else has the “right” to object to this federally funded practice. If it was the employees at McDonald’s that would be different.

I am irresistibly reminded of a news report I saw on BBC World or CNN. It was an election in Iraq, and a woman, heavily shawled and burqua’d, was being escorted to the voting booth by a man, presumably her husband. Upon entering the enclosure, she was scanned with a hand scanner by an armed guard: her husband watching narrowly during the procedure. It was obvious that he did not approve: perhaps there should have been a female guard instead.

@SeventhSense are you saying I’m ignorant because I cracked a joke?

@bea2345
Yes of course, hundreds of thousands have been killed as well but who cares they’re not American citizens.~
@Axemusica
No are you trying to pick a fight?

@SeventhSense not at all. I couldn’t agree with your arguement more. It just seemed directed toward me since I cracked a joke about posing for the scanner.

@Axemusica
No I realize that. Sometimes levity is good and sometimes it derails like a wave of laughter in a classroom. But God knows I’m guilty of that myself.

Beg pardon, @SeventhSense: what the little episode illustrates is how paranoia is causing this wholesale invasion of one’s personal space. It is more than time for policymakers to fall back, and think where we are going.

Was and am still against this.

im glad i fly like…..never. ;)

@bea2345
Yes I agree and it’s our job to put limits on them as citizens. Government was created to serve the people and the people are to restrain them when their intrusion becomes too great or oversteps its usefulness.

You know there are areas in Western Queens in NY near the airports where the neighborhoods are so dense and the air traffic so tight that planes look like they are going to land in a backyard. Now anyone of the tens of thousands of Muslims in NYC could stand in the back of one of these neighborhoods with a hand held rocket launcher and hit a plane like the wide side of a barn with a rock. Should we build a bulletproof glass dome over neighborhoods adjacent to airports?

There is no end to an ability of one or a handful of individuals to wreak havoc on a society if they are so inclined. No short term benefit or perceived benefit is worth the cost to personal liberty. Further escalation and obfuscation will be the only result. The horrific forms of bio terrorism that have been relegated to the back burner will surge forward.
These asses still use the term War on Terrorism as if it could be fought.

Security is just a catchword for politicians. There is no such thing. The only security from acts of terrorism is an abandoning of perceived benefit from the act itself by the perpetrators. And then can only come about from changed minds and ideals. And imagine this. They may actually be able to provide some answers. Like get the hell out of Saudi Arabia. What are we doing there anyway except as security guards of the house of Saud. They curse us behind our backs, commit atrocities against their women and men alike, smile in our face but fear their own fanatics as if they aren’t. Let them work it out. If we need a presence in or near the Mideast put peacekeeping troops in Turkey or something.

And don’t even get me started on the millions of dollars of death in the form of arms we pump into Africa. It’s really appalling and twisted our hypocrisy.

There is no justification for the body scans. They will also be defeated. What needs to happen is that terrorists need to be ferreted out BEFORE they get to the scanners.

Couple of quotes to put into the mix:
“Air travel is the most expensive unpleasant experience in everyday life outside the realm of words ending in -oscopy.” – Jonah Goldberg

“The United States does not have a security system; it has a system for bothering people.” – Shlomo Dror, Israeli air security expert

One would think that Americans had already been sufficiently been convinced to be so scared that no additional erosion of individual rights would be resisted.

1st and 4th Amendment rights have already been seriously eroded already by the Bush/Cheney regime+++. Ben Franklin would urge every American to yield no further to exaggerated claims that giving up more of your (few) remaining privacy rights will make you safer. It surely will not make you more free!

+++See a detailed discussion of this in a recent thread!

Thanks @Dr_Dredd for bringing this to our attention. Ultimately, even full body scanning without Japanese style porn pixelation of pubes is still going to fail. They will just board the aircraft with a bomb up a body cavity or even inside their stomach like the cocaine smugglers’ human ‘mules’ already routinely do. It only takes 50 grams of plastic explosive to rip the whole side of a commercial airliner off, ensuring its mid-air breakup and crash. That’s less than 1.8 ounces of the stuff.

If privacy issues cannot be addressed with full transparency, then I’m against scanners. Even if scanners are put in place, they will not stop determined terrorist, just dumb ones. More money on intelligence and police investigative work will probably go further to add safety and stop attackers before they even get in line to board a plane. If scanner deployment takes money from policing, then I am completely opposed to it.

I would agree with @SeventhSense about just pulling out of the Middle East if we knew it were possible without dire consequences. But our thirst for energy and refusal to even think about alternative forms because it ‘costs too much’ has got us over a barrel. If we pull out, the corrupt House of Saud will fall. What will replace it is probably an extremist Wahhabi Muslim regieme bent on destroying Israel and having ALL THAT MONEY to do it.

We’d have to abandon Afghanistan, which would provide the Taliban and Al Qaeda a perfect safe haven to first topple Pakistan and get thenuclear arms there, then launch those ICBM delivery systems at—where? Certainly Israel would be a target. What other hated Western or Russian targets? This could easily lead to all-out Nuclear Armageddon.

Even if we got incredibly lucky and Saudi Arabia stayed a friendly state, the Pakistanis and Afghan government cooperated and kept the Taliban and Al Qaeda at bay, I’m not at all convinced that the Islamist’s interests would be satisfied. It might instead show them that the West is fearful and easy to control through intimidation. Ultimately, Islamic Fundamentalist want a caliphate that covers the whole world. They believe that any who don’t bow to Mecca and even many who do but don’t follow just the right procedures in doing so (moderate Muslims, Shiites, etc) are all Infidels and must either convert to their form of worship and shariah law or be put to death.

That’s a devil I don’t want to make a deal with.

@ETpro
I definitely think Afghanistan is vital as is Iran and think we need to pay very close attention to them.
I’ve known quite a few Muslims. In fact there’s a mosque around the corner.
The thing is- a decent home, a color TV a good job and in a generation or two it’s Football and Nintendo. I can’t imagine that the rest of the Muslim world is really much different. Well fed, content people lack the envy of the West. And I think that this is the main motivation. Radical individuals are culled from areas devastated by war, conflict or poverty. The will to die for a cause generally requires desperation. Healthy people don’t want to commit suicide. Of course there will always be fanatics but even radical Islam does not love death. No one does regardless of what they say. They are just deeply disturbed by indoctrination and are having a radical culture shock in the last 50 years. Recall we were burning witches only a couple of hundred years ago in this country.
And if the case is that we have a true enemy nation we deal with them as we always have, with overwhelming force and the support of the world.

You are 30,000 feet over the ocean. this man pulls a plastic gun from the small of his back and orders the plane redirected to Afghanistan. everyone on the plane panics and obeys the hijacker. you are wondering how this person boarded the airplane with a weapon and was not discovered in the screening process. now you have learned that some weapons can pass airport screening, without being discovered. this is why we need full-body screens at airports. plastic guns are just one of the weapons that will not be detected with todays magtometer screening devices at airports. sure, the body-screening may be reveiling, but what price can you place on a person or childs safety at 30,000 feet?

@SeventhSense I think that among 2nd generation US and European Muslims, and others in countries like Turkey, Indonesia and India you are largely right. But in the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and the rest of North Africa and in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as well as the Islamic states that were formerly part of the Soviet Union and some that remain in Russia, you have a lot of recruiting material.

@ETpro
Exactly and what do we do in all of those areas mainly Africa except meddle and assure ourselves a ready supply of enemies on one side or the other.

@SeventhSense No argument with you there, my friend. I just don’t get the prevailing logic that we can’t afford to provide our own energy needs and have to be there to assure lots of oil. We ship off supertanker loads of money to countries that hate us, and then spend trillions more constantly sending troops here and there because of the havoc our long-term foreign policy has wrought—and we can’t afford it? We can’t afford NOT to wean ourselves from foreign oil.

@ETpro
Yes and besides we get twice as much oil from Canada and Mexico

Promote our oilsands and we’ll make you more!

@faye & @SeventhSense We’re getting off the topic of airport scanners, but this would make a great topic for a new thread.

Yeah, sorry@DrDredd

I do not care what they do. I just want to get to my plane.

I wish they would allow us to bring food on again.

I think its a total invasion of privacy, even though it “may’’ be for the greater good.

However, if this thing actually becomes internationally used, I know a few friends who would be more than enthusiastic to join the guard force.

@belakyre What I do not believe is that every person who moves from the private sector to government work instantly takes on a sinister, controlling, prying and prurient interest in snooping on us.

I think those in charge on 9/11 were devastated that they had failed to protect the public they serve from that attack, and that their efforts, even when misguided, are mostly out of concern to never let that happen again.

@ETpro I’m just waiting for a bomb to be surgically implanted into someone. We know there are fundamentalist Islamic doctors, and I’d bet they would do it in a heartbeat.

I don’t know if the machine would pick that up.

@SeventhSense Supported with tax dollars? Are you sure? Federal money in general sounds more credible to me, but I don’t really know that. Anyway, it still comes down to not-quite-the-point for me… it just isn’t an issue that grabs me. Personal privacy… meh, it is not at the top of my concerns.

My only concern is that I wear a rubber at all times
Its a necessity Cuz I jizz in my pants.

@ChazMaz Don’t think that’s gonna show up on a scanner…

Ya, never know.

@nicobanks
The airline industry wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Federal dollars propping them up.

@Dr_Dredd The 2nd in command at Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri is an accomplished surgeon.

The only reason for resisting the full body scanners is that they will not work. My luggage, my handbag, my cabin tote, all have to go through an X-Ray machine and we don’t know what that does to my electronics: camera, laptop, cellphone, etc. And still the bombers get through. From the very start, there should have been an examination of why Muslim families are allowing their young men – and now their women – to die before their time. What is happening that makes living so worthless for these young people? We need to address this question and we need to do it now.

Already inoffensive men and women are being targeted because they “look like terrorists” – whatever that may mean. Respectable housewives are being abused for wearing the scarf in otherwise moderate, developed countries. Christians and Muslims killing each other in Nigeria, Muslims warring with Hindus in India. We cannot go on this way, giving ammunition to every extremist, whatever his stripe.

@bea2345 Amen. The final answer is to cut off the roots under terrorism. I fear many of those are partly of our making.

Word

Indeed.

And al-Zawahiri was definitely who I had in mind, @ETpro!

@SeventhSense Of course, but Federal dollars and “my money” aren’t the same thing. Or maybe you think they are (considering democracy and all)? Anyway, I thought you were suggesting that tax dollars, specifically, funded airports—maybe this is true as well, but I’m not convinced.

@nicobanks
Yes, yes and yes.

And not only airports but trains as well. Oh the good old boys love to throw our money around. Amtrak already is being kept afloat with our generous support and has been for years. That’s why we have bullet trains crisscrossing the country. Oh wait they need more money for that -HR6003

And consider this: In the early 1980’s President Reagan fired over 11000 striking air traffic controllers who were striking illegally according to terms of their “government union”. If the president can fire you then you are not a private institution. Airports can not run without federal oversight and that always comes with federal money. Not unlike postal workers they don’t have the same rights as other unions. They are considered too important to the well being of the economy which of course they are. But the post office is apparently a “self sustaining model.”.

@SeventhSense Throw our money around? Don’t you appreciate the ability to travel long distances? I never considered airports and airlines private institutions, of course the government sustains infrastructure – it’s the tax dollars thing I’m not sure about. Anyway, I agree with you about the bitch about being too important for the economy to deserve normal union rights. (That always pisses me off about the local public transportation here. The talk is always about “emergency services,” but I don’t see it as a valid emergency. Hospitals, ambulances, fire stations, police, okay, that I get as emergency services, those are about life and death situations.)

So on top of all of this crap they really dont work:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/01/german_tv_on_th.html

Objects Detected by Scanner: Cell Phone, Swiss Army Knife
Missed by Scanner: BOMB PARTS

LOL

@rottenit I’m sure that differs per scanner (as many use differing methods of scanning), so you can’t just disqualify all body scanners based on that.

@nicobanks
These are the same institutions that created billionares during the 19th and early 20th century who didn’t even pay income taxes. If you have a viable business it should make a profit and provide a service or go under. If a business needs to be propped up it is no longer viable and by necessity should go under or evolve.

It’s just a long line of corporate welfare that we’ve had to endure in this country. The latest being the bail out of the banks who went on to pay billions of dollars in bonuses. Do you know how incensed that makes me? The same people who brought the world to the brink of disaster by preying upon the poor and ignorant get bailed out and then walk away with absolutely no personal affect at all while millions suffer. I would like to personally tar and feather every last one of these bankers. They are strangling us and we’re paying them to do it!

I oppose corporate welfare. I’m not wild about regular welfare but I can see its utility as it does stand between human beings and starvation. Corporate welfare is useless as the assets of bankrupt corporations then become available to the highest bidder. I would have much preferred some foreign company to pump life into our auto manufacturers than what happened – which is obscene in a capitalist society.

@Factotum I agree. But now the corporations will be able to buy themselves candidates who think otherwise.

One of the many reasons I oppose “privatization” of airport security. To relate this back to whole-body scanning. :)

@SeventhSense Unfortunately, it was probably necessary to prop the banks and even the auto industry back up when we did it. Had we not done so, we would be in the grips of a 2nd Great Depression even worse than the first. And remember, the suffering, anger and fear people felt from the first one led to WWII and the death of 60 million people. The time to have prevented this collapse was long gone when Bush pushed through the TARP. And the cost of not preventing it in a nuclear age could have been WWIII.

@ETpro
That’s what they sold us at least. Do you see a pattern here? Fear and immediate response based on dire consequences. The basis of the fractional reserve system is based on creating money out of thin air. And the only thing that was preserved was bankers inordinate wealth. How was the average person spared anything? Millions of people lost their homes and life savings. And they would have found another means to balance their books. They’re ruthless. They would just eat each other.

So to recap, I would not only like to see them tarred and feathered. I would like to see their families wiped out as well. I would like their homes to be burned to the ground and the ashes of them and their kin be used as fertilizer for the gardens of the poor.
Am I asking too much?

@SeventhSense My friend, I am as angry as you and I know you are right that the ones who took the inordinate risks and reaped the vast phony profits (nothing of tangible good being created) got saved by John Q. Public. Nonetheless, the consequences of a massive banking failure would have rapidly rippled worldwide just as it did in 1929.

The FDIC has the wherewithal to manage a few hundred small banks failing per year or one or two of the bigger ones. But if all the largest banks, investment banks, and investment insurers had been allowed to fail, that would definitely have triggered a system-wide collapse so far beyond the resources of the FDIC to fix that it would have brought a depression. That’s not fear-mongering. It’s the truth.

Unemployment this time, because we have off-shored so much of the actual production of tangible goods, would likely have exceeded 50%. With systemic bank failures, people’s life savings would have been wiped out overnight. The banks doors would be locked. Deposit insurance would have been wiped out. ATMs would have stopped working overnight. Your credit cards would no longer work.

I didn’t live through the Depression but my Mom and Dad did, and they told me enough about how horrible things were that I know we don’t want to go there again if we can possibly help it. As much as I hate the corporatism and free-market thinking that caused it all, I think Bush was right to act and Obama had no choice but to follow suit.

What’s sad is too many among us have learned NOTHING. Even though it has bankrupted every country that fully implemented it, the profits of Free Market perfection and deregulation are gearing up to defend Wall Street from any increase in Government oversight or any attempt to break up banks too big to fail.

@ETpro
It CAN’T be fixed. The error is in the system. The system has to collapse because the system is flawed. As long as the fractional reserve system of banking issues debt to create money then the inevitability of this happening again and again is inevitable. It’s not the event. It’s the system itself. There is no money in this country or any other country. It’s a paper tiger consistent of debt. How can debt have value in any logical world? Debt is bought and sold as if it were a commodity. It’s a fanciful made up world perpetuated by leeches who have nothing but a parasitical arrangement whereby they create no value but drain the life from true value producers.
AIG was supposed to be overseeing the banks practices and insuring their loans were sound. They did not do this because they had no incentive of stopping the money train. And as a result of their negligence they were bailed out, their books were balanced and told it was still business as usual. There is nothing stopping them from this behavior. It’s the system itself which is corrupt.

i know they’re very revealing, but surely it makes you safe, and surely you would rather go through one of these than get blown up? :)

I think that scanners are a good idea imagine all your beautiful hair would be burnt off!! :)

maybe some people dont like them, but if you dont well then dont go on an airplane? :D

i don’t like them what if your a fatty

@courtneeRAWR Sadly, the scanners probably don’t make us safe.

Hi I am Doing This in ICT and i think it is a load off bull s***

@Dr_Dredd well thats your thought, but would you like it if someone came onto your plane with bombs? ;3

Good Point Sorry x

Yeah i have to agree to Courtnee.

@courtneeRAWR No, my point is that even if someone came on my plane with a bomb, the scanners probably still wouldn’t catch it. Look at the link I just posted. If there’s going to be intense screening like that, at least it ought to WORK!

but these are built to catch whatever you are carrying if it didnt do this they wouldnt of made them!!!
&& im confused if you asked this question why are you replying to your own question isnt that a bit strange? O-o

btw tht was @Dr_Dredd

OK, let me say this very slowly. The scanners were supposedly designed to catch everything. The TSA is trumpeting the fact that they can catch everything. However, no machine is perfect. The idea that “if it didn’t do this they wouldn’t have made them” is rather silly.

As for answering my own question, this is how we have discussions on Fluther.

Haha I was going to reply, but I think we have to do with spambots :P

They sound like teenagers…

@SeventhSense We were on the GOld Standard in 1929 when the first Great Crash happened, as I recall. Interestingly one of today’s GOogle Quotes is from Thoman Jefferson, who warned. “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”

@SeventhSense I’m with you on the banks, but do you really think there aren’t services which should be provided regardless of “viability” (i.e. profit)?

@Dr_Dredd Getting back to body scanners, there was an interesting segment this evening on ABC news about the extreme variability in radiation dosages in routine CT Scans. It makes me think I should have taken your initial warning about not trusting the safety of airport body scanners without solid, independent testing.

@ETpro I’d heard that report, too. Frankly, that’s what made me start to worry about the body scanners. If I can’t trust the CT scanner that I send a patient to, I’m sure as heck not going to trust a less-well maintained machine in an airport.

And then there was this horrifying article in the NY Times regarding radiation therapy gone wrong.

Good question DD. I think it’s all been said.
But PM me if anyone wants
-<—-stopping following—

@Dr_Dredd , thanks for your comment, thats what you think, but i still have different thoughts, ok? :)

I still think that they shouldnt have the scanners as they would make me feel really self contious, even though i am not even carrying any bad items. This is my thoughts ;) xx