The Michael Roberts story just got personal for me. When I read about it last week, it was just another article about our general loss of freedom. Then, I read the commentary on Slate this morning that the LRC front page linked to. Having already made my Christmas travel plans — we want to make sure that my daughter gets to see her great-grandmother in California for as many Christmases as possible — I started to get concerned.
What will I do if the airport gives me a choice of naked scanners or a pat down for me and my daughter? To ask is to answer as far as I’m concerned: we won’t get to California in time! I took a flight as recently as June, so I thought all this was still hypothetical. But, I was wrong. More and more airports are becoming civil liberties violation centers in the first degree.
I encourage all LRC readers to check the list of airports that currently have or will soon have scanners. This list is thoughtfully provided by our overlords at the TSA. All of the major airports near me are on the naked scanner list, so I’m making alternative arrangements to get us to Christmas dinner on the Pacific. This is going to cost me both time and money, and I’m thinking about how to make it worth my while — James Ostrowski-style. At the very least, I want to alert all of you that haven’t yet given up flying because, like me, seeing far-away family has been too important.
Update from John Spiers: “The best part of the TSA link shows where else the technology is used: prisons….”
12:56 pm on October 23, 2010
