Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Don't Touch My Junk

John Tyner went viral when he said "Don't Touch My Junk" when he was told what the enhanced pat down techniques would involve. This has caused people to look into whether these techniques will even be effective. According to the TSA there are two options the full body scan or the enhanced pat down if the body scan is opted out. The full body scan involves a short 30 second scan. The scanners are designed to detect hard objects. They reportedly give a great view of the person. This is on live streaming and it is detailed enough to supposedly be able to tell if a man has been circumcised or not. If that is not enough the pictures can be saved and the machine itself could be a carcinogen and dangerous unless the operator is adequately trained. The person can decide not to do this if the aforementioned risks are too much and they can opt for the enhanced pat down. The enhanced pat down involves checking for metal with a metal screening baton, and then an open palm check brisk, "professional" up the side of the body, and inside of both leg, "all the way up" and for females on the sides and the bottom of the breast. Some opponents of this invasive type screening techniques like Ann Coulter believe that this type of screening is not only offensive but it is useless. They would rather see profiling like what is done in Israel rather than the body scans and enhanced pat downs. She believes that this is reactive, we are looking for possible attacks instead of the attackers. Regardless if this type screening continues we have to ask ourselves how will this affect victims of sexual abuse, rape, trauma, PTSD. Will these methods cause them to have a relapse. How will TSA employee react when there are sexual dissidents who actually enjoy it. Since it is always men patting down men and women patting down women what will be the effect when one of them is a homosexual? Will "TSA screener" become the dream job of people who have sexual disorders, like frotteurism or voyeurism? Even for TSA screeners who have a fulfilling marriage, performing their job, which may involve looking at images of naked people for hours during the day will have a negative affect on the psyche and eventually the marriage. However someone who is already struggling with this could easily abuse this responsibility. In the new DSM-V hypersexual disorder is going to be a diagnosis for people obsessed with sex, this could easily create people with this disorder or at least tip them in that direction. Today is November 24, the busiest day of flying of the year. Many dissidents are going to forgo the screener in favor of the enhanced pat down in an effort to protest these new measures.

7 comments:

  1. Vey good article and awesomely written Ryan. I feel the same way, I do not think that the necessary thought process was put into this method before it was approved or passed. There are lots of grey areas with this procedure and I truly hope that something is done with it. Also, with the advancements we have in today's technology, how can a device that can detect harmful devices, substances or things on people not be made? I believe if they put the minds to it, other ways and methods can be developed.
    Good post Ryan!

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  2. Hopefully, this will change someday via techonological advancement. Let's just keep our great nation in prayer.

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  3. I saw this story on the news and I just started to laugh. Would people rather be unsafe than a few minutes of inconvience? I know I would rather be safe. My question is, are people so full of themselves that he or she truly think that the TSA person enjoys patting people down? I mean really. I work in a group home and everday when the residents come back from school they have to be examined. They have to empty all pockets take off shoes and shake out bra. This is just a house not a plane. God calls us to take responsiblity for actions this includes actions that may not be a direct consecuence of personal doing.

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  4. I enjoyed reading your post and I found this article to be very interesting. I actually just flew out to Arizona from Baltimore for Thanksgiving break. I was actually trying to decide the pros and cons of each technique (the pat down or the full body screen) because I figured that I would probably have to do one or the other. By the grace of God I went through security in two airports and ended up at gates that had not yet established these two invasive security procedures. I definitely agree with what you said about the effects that the "naked" images and pat downs will have on both the airport security and people being subjected to it. This new type of security can lead to a lot of problems.

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  5. Thanks for all of your posts. Ayla the question is not about safety. These scanners do not test for bombs, or sniff for explosives. So if someone wants to get an explosive on the plane they can even though it will be a pain in the "bum" the only way to avoid that would be a full cavity search. I was trying to point out that there are better proven alternative. As for the effects the majority of the TSA employees will probably be great people with our safety in mind. But this will have a negative effect on them just because what is continually going into them. It would be kind of the same for me if I had to look at pornography for the betterment of mankind for two hours a day. No matter my hero mentality or great motives it would have an effect on me.

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  6. Ryan, I had to go through one of those on our way to IL in Richmond! However, people are freaking out about these machines because they are not as revealing as people are making them out to be. They only see outlines and not body parts (no x-ray vision through your clothes!) I would be more concerned about those invasive pat downs like you said. However, at Richmond, they were polite. A female watched me go through, and male watched my husband go through, so they are being very professional about it. These machines are reactive and a waste of money too. They really only look out for metal, and I'm sure if anyone really wanted to endanger us, they have probably figured out another way to sneak weapons on.

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  7. I have never actually thought about people with sexual disorders being attracting to this job because of the availability, but I guess it is a possibility. I know that many people are outraged by the new methods that are being used to keep us safe in the air and land, but when something happens we are always pointing fingers and suggesting that not enough is being done. Finding a balance seems to be a difficult task and nobody seems to ever be satisfied. I guess if you want to travel then you have to be prepared to have every thing that is going in the air searched. I have been searched both with the full body scanner and by pat down. As a person who has worked in an airport, I understand the reasons and am willing to comply if it means safety.

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