The following is from a blog reader and frequent flyer who wishes to remain anonymous.
“Male, anomaly, right thigh.”
“Female, anomaly, right arm”
“Male, clear.”
It’s just after 6 AM. I’m sitting at a gate at Boston’s Logan airport. I had noticed a long line at the checkpoint, and saw that it was because they were using the porno scanners. As a frequent traveler who lives in the Boston area, I know Logan. I went to another checkpoint where I walked through the magnetometer without incident, then made my circuitous way back to my flight’s gate.
I hadn’t realized when I took my seat at the gate that the black cloth surrounding the area next to me held the TSA voyeur ogling the images from the porno scanner.
“Male, anomaly, lower back.”
“Female, anomaly, groin.”
“Male, clear.”
This went on for several minutes, at a rate of about 4 per minute. The porno scanners are much slower than magnetometers. They aren’t any better at detecting explosives or bomb-making parts, as several critics have demonstrated. So why is the TSA so determined to force these extremely expensive, dangerous, humiliating x-ray machines upon us? It can’t be because of the fool who scorched his privates last Christmas; these machines have been in development for many years.
Economists will explain that the TSA is a monopoly, and monopolies always raise the price and lower the quality of goods and services. Raising the price means slower scans and longer lines. But it also means that the TSA will have a perfect excuse to demand larger budgets and more workers to deal with the intolerable lines they create once the porno scanners are in widespread use. It’s a perfectly understandable, rational decision for a tax-feeding bureaucracy immune to competition.
