"While the risk of getting a fatal cancer from the screening is minuscule, it's about equal to the probability an airplane will get blown up by a terrorist. Either way, the professor argues, dead is dead."

"Guess who was on the committee that developed the guidelines for the X-ray scanners? Representatives from the companies that make the machines and the Department of Homeland Security, among others," Stellini writes. "In other words, the machines passed a test developed, in part, by the companies that manufacture them and the government agency that wants to use them."

"The scary thing to me is not what happens in normal operations, but what happens if the machine fails," Rez told the TImes. "Mechanical things break down, frequently."

"Because this device can scan a human in a few seconds, the X-ray beam is very intense," the California professors' letter states. "Any glitch in power at any point in the hardware (or more importantly in software) that stops the device could cause an intense radiation dose to a single spot on the skin. Who will oversee problems with overall dose after repair or software problems?

"The TSA is already complaining about resolution limitations; who will keep the manufacturers and/or TSA from just raising the dose, an easy way to improve signal-to-noise and get higher resolution?" the professors continue. "Lastly, given the recent [underwear bomber incident], how do we know whether the manufacturer or TSA, seeking higher resolution, will scan the groin area more slowly leading to a much higher total dose?"

“The dumbest part: they did two pat-down demonstrations – male on male, and female on female,” the House staffer said. And they used a young female TSA volunteer “and in front of a room of 200 people, they touched her breasts and her buttocks. People were averting their eyes. The TSA was trying to demonstrate ‘this is not so bad,’ but it made people so uncomfortable to watch, that people were averting their eyes.”

“They shot themselves in the foot,” the staffer continued.

Because I know that having an essentially nude image taken of me might not be traumatic for me but it might be for others.

Because I know that being intrusively groped might be something I can tolerate via dissociation, but not everyone can.

Because I am not confident that the TSA has effectively removed convicted sex offenders from the ranks of people allowed to feel up or look at the naked outlines of the bodies of adults and children.

Because if you want it on board badly enough, you will shove it up your personal area, and they haven't started doing body cavity searches. Yet.

Because I know that it is perfectly possible to get all kinds of things on board that could serve as weapons, even if you feel up everyone's junk.

Because they're still not screening the people who clean the aircraft cabin or re-stock the soda cart, while the back side of baggage claim is still "protected" by an 8' high chain link fence. While in the meantime they're x-raying pilots and cabin crew over and over and over, when all a pilot needs to bring a plane down is... the controls.

Because I do not believe in living in a police state.

Massive attack, originally uploaded by Lbc42.

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Hi from Massive Attack, originally uploaded by Lbc42.

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