If you've got nothing to hide...

[CitizenCain]

Him, and the rest of the industry. I used to have more more movies than I had time to watch. These days, my primary challenge is finding movies I even want to watch.

[CitizenCain]

This seems fairly related... don't videotape the cops, but don't mock them in an animated video, either. Look out, South Park.

Police in Renton, Washington swear out criminal complaint against "Mr. Fiddlesticks," on charges of mocking the police cyber-stalking.

And Kudos to whoever he is for getting "Mr. Fiddlesticks" into the official record. Maybe I should change my nick to "federal fascist" or "government goon" and endeavor to get charged with a crime. Certainly seems like that'd generate a news item or official document worthy of framing.

[Loki]

The sadder part is that a judge signed off on a warrant.

[EyeKhan]

I love the "If you have nothing to hide, then why so fired up about personal privacy?" question. Doesn't the desire for strong personal privacy safeguards implicitly suggest you may be hiding something illegal, or may want to do something illegal in the future if not now?

[CitizenCain]

The sadder part is that a judge signed off on a warrant.

Well, what choice did he have here? Issuing some radical new precedent, bound to be overturned on appeal, that Americans have the right to express their opinions, to the determent of government agents?

Stop advocating radical, left-wing judicial activism, Loki.

I love the "If you have nothing to hide, then why so fired up about personal privacy?" question. Doesn't the desire for strong personal privacy safeguards implicitly suggest you may be hiding something illegal, or may want to do something illegal in the future if not now?

Of course. Everyone knows that all secrets are illegal, and therefore, privacy is only used to protect illegal acts. In that light, the solution to the current TSA controversy becomes crystal clear. People who object to having their genitals arbitrarily viewed and/or fondled are only doing so because they are concealing something illegal in their genitals (like drugs or weapons), or because they are concealing the involvement of their genitals in a crime. Now, I'm no criminologist, but I think it's pretty obvious that genitals are primarily involved in sex crimes, so anyone who objects to invasive genital examinations at airports and is found not be hiding an illegal object is most likely a sex offender, and we should therefore flag anyone who complains, put them on a sex offender watch list and closely monitor their genitals to find out what crime they have committed (or are planning to perpetrate) with the contents of their underwear.

[Loki]

I wonder what it would take for the judge to actually say no. I mean, I expect some cops to be trigger-happy, but it's the role of judges to reign them in.

[CitizenCain]

I'm hopeful that this did the trick, at least for that particular judge. If you read the actual contemporary news reports of the incident, you also learn that the only reason violence was averted was because the commanding officer on scene recognized the judge, and got everyone to lower their weapons. After which time, he went on to lecture the judge about her reckless firearm usage. One can only hope that he now receives "special" treatment in her courtroom.

[EyeKhan]

Of course. Everyone knows that all secrets are illegal, and therefore, privacy is only used to protect illegal acts. In that light, the solution to the current TSA controversy becomes crystal clear. People who object to having their genitals arbitrarily viewed and/or fondled are only doing so because they are concealing something illegal in their genitals (like drugs or weapons), or because they are concealing the involvement of their genitals in a crime. Now, I'm no criminologist, but I think it's pretty obvious that genitals are primarily involved in sex crimes, so anyone who objects to invasive genital examinations at airports and is found not be hiding an illegal object is most likely a sex offender, and we should therefore flag anyone who complains, put them on a sex offender watch list and closely monitor their genitals to find out what crime they have committed (or are planning to perpetrate) with the contents of their underwear.

Good reply. But referring to airport scanners, you have to acknowledge that there are people who have tried, and will try again, to sew bombs into their underwear and blow an airplane up if given the chance. Its not acceptable to allow passenger planes to be blown up on occasion to preserve everyone's freedom to be modest. My freedom to fly without unreasonable risk of an underwear bomb killing me should take precedance over your freedom to fly without some TSA employee knowing how tiny your peepee is. And in any case, I believe the scanners are using technology that fogs out peepees and the like anyway. At least I recall reading/ hearing about it.

[Khendraja'aro]

Good reply. But referring to airport scanners, you have to acknowledge that there are people who have tried, and will try again, to sew bombs into their underwear and blow an airplane up if given the chance. Its not acceptable to allow passenger planes to be blown up on occasion to preserve everyone's freedom to be modest. My freedom to fly without unreasonable risk of an underwear bomb killing me should take precedance over your freedom to fly without some TSA employee knowing how tiny your peepee is. And in any case, I believe the scanners are using technology that fogs out peepees and the like anyway. At least I recall reading/ hearing about it.

Using that particular logic, we'd have to fly naked after a cavity search and a full-body x-rax scan.

[Enoch the Red]

Good reply. But referring to airport scanners, you have to acknowledge that there are people who have tried, and will try again, to sew bombs into their underwear and blow an airplane up if given the chance. Its not acceptable to allow passenger planes to be blown up on occasion to preserve everyone's freedom to be modest. My freedom to fly without unreasonable risk of an underwear bomb killing me should take precedance over your freedom to fly without some TSA employee knowing how tiny your peepee is. And in any case, I believe the scanners are using technology that fogs out peepees and the like anyway. At least I recall reading/ hearing about it.

What do you really think the risks are of you getting killed in a terrorist attack?

[EyeKhan]

Using that particular logic, we'd have to fly naked after a cavity search and a full-body x-rax scan.

Yep, that's next. Some psycho is going to have a bomb sewed into their abdomen. I can't imagine what happens then....

[EyeKhan]

What do you really think the risks are of you getting killed in a terrorist attack?

Extremely low, though that underwear bomber was flying into Detroit, where I live, and was apparently trying to blow the plane up in the last minutes of the flight. Worst case the circling plane goes boom and debris rains down on my neighborhood.... Otherwise I, my occupation, and my location are too unremarkable for terrorists to attack. Unless, of course, they decide it might work well to give average Americans the message that we are all targets and blow up Nowhere Middle America....

I get your point - is it worth going to such lengths to protect against an underwear bomber, a shoe bomber, a knife weilding psycho if it's so rare? But would it be rare if we didn't protect against it? I don't know, who can say? All I know is I fly often and I don't want to get blown out of the sky, so I wait patiently in the security line, I take off my shoes and belt, I put my laptop in its own bin, and I get scanned, presumably letting some back room flunky look at a computer generated image of me under my clothes. That really doesn't bother me at all.

[Enoch the Red]

Extremely low, though that underwear bomber was flying into Detroit, where I live, and was apparently trying to blow the plane up in the last minutes of the flight. Worst case the circling plane goes boom and debris rains down on my neighborhood.... Otherwise I, my occupation, and my location are too unremarkable for terrorists to attack. Unless, of course, they decide it might work well to give average Americans the message that we are all targets and blow up Nowhere Middle America....

I get your point - is it worth going to such lengths to protect against an underwear bomber, a shoe bomber, a knife weilding psycho if it's so rare? But would it be rare if we didn't protect against it? I don't know, who can say? All I know is I fly often and I don't want to get blown out of the sky, so I wait patiently in the security line, I take off my shoes and belt, I put my laptop in its own bin, and I get scanned, presumably letting some back room flunky look at a computer generated image of me under my clothes. That really doesn't bother me at all.

Look into security theater. These security measures may make you feel safer, but they aren't going to stop a dedicated and moderately intelligent or clever terrorist.

[EyeKhan]

Look into security theater. These security measures may make you feel safer, but they aren't going to stop a dedicated and moderately intelligent or clever terrorist.

What is security theater?

[Steely Glint]

http://tinyurl.com/25ggeeb

[EyeKhan]

Interesting. Enoch, is it that you believe the scanners would not detect an underwear bomb, that there's other ways to sneak a bomb onto a plane that can't be caught by the scanners, or that there's just way too many ways to knock down a plane for the airport scanners to make a difference? Can you discuss your thoughts and/or provide some links, etc? Thanks.

And Steely, thanks for that link, I got a chuckle out of the Let Me Google That For You thing....

[Enoch the Red]

Interesting. Enoch, is it that you believe the scanners would not detect an underwear bomb, that there's other ways to sneak a bomb onto a plane that can't be caught by the scanners, or that there's just way too many ways to knock down a plane for the airport scanners to make a difference? Can you discuss your thoughts and/or provide some links, etc? Thanks.

And Steely, thanks for that link, I got a chuckle out of the Let Me Google That For You thing....

Let me ask you this. What good is an millimeter wave scanner in Detroit when the underwear bomber is boarding in Amsterdam? Are you willing to spend millions upon millions of dollars to protect against a failed attack, (one I should note that was not foiled by the existing exorbitantly expensive security apparatus) when circumventing all the expensive security measures you could possibly think of involves flying in on a carrier from another country?

Sure, you feel safer, but installing millimeter wave scanners in all the airports in the United States would not have prevented the underwear bomber plot.

And what happens when the terrorists surgically implant bombs in their bodies, or weapons in their rectums, (not that they even have to, incompetent baggage screeners have let knives, guns, bullets, etc... through at terminals around the United States) ? Do we spend billions of dollars forcing everyone through a CAT scan before they fly? All so you feel a little safer on your next flight?

[CitizenCain]

Good reply. But referring to airport scanners, you have to acknowledge that there are people who have tried, and will try again, to sew bombs into their underwear and blow an airplane up if given the chance. Its not acceptable to allow passenger planes to be blown up on occasion to preserve everyone's freedom to be modest.

But, it is acceptable to fondle everyone's genitals in utterly ineffective attempts to prevent a tragedy with less than one-in-million odds of occurring in the first place?

Say, wanna get some insurance against being hit by lightning? All it costs is having me rummage around your wife's crotch every now and then...

As Enoch's pointed out, these security measures don't work anyway - you wanna sneak a bomb onto a plane, all you need is high school level understanding of chemistry and physics, and the tiniest modicum of creativity.

Use your chemistry knowledge to make, for example, PETN. (Here's a site explaining how to make lab-grade PETN.) I'm an overkill kind of guy, so I'd make about a kilo, which is at least 10 times what you'd really need. Of course, it's detectable by chemical sniffers, so what you'll want to do once you've made it, is seal it in an airtight container (or plastic bag) using one of many commercially available consumer products for preserving food or storing perishable whatevers. Afterward, clean the outside of the container with a powerful organic solvent... benzene comes to mind immediately, and it's now undetectable to chemical sniffers. Smuggle it aboard in your luggage however you wish, and you have a bomb ten times bigger than needed to blow up an airliner, that you can set off with a piece of flint and a mechanical mouse trap. (Yes, really.) How you gonna prevent that? Ban all luggage? Disassemble everything any passenger brings on an airplane? Because that's what it'll take. (And you might want to ask yourself the question of why I feel comfortable publicly disclosing a general method for getting a very large bomb on a plane - it's not because I'm a reckless jackass.)

Like Enoch said, security theater. It's all smoke and mirrors designed to make you feel safe, that in reality actually makes you less safe, and costs a bloody fortune in the process.

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

Keeping unwanted hands or eyes off my penis is definitely an essential liberty, and TSA security measures qualify as "little temporary safety," at best.