Sunday, November 21, 2010

BloggeRhythms 11/21/2010

Since we live in America, there's another brouhaha brewing, because it just wouldn't be right if folks just sat back, faced facts, and kept their mouths shut. So it seems that some are now upset over body search methods at airports.

A headline story concerns a woman, Cathy Bossi, a Charlotte-area flight attendant, who said that in August, two female Transportation Security Administration agents took her to a private room for what she calls an "aggressive pat-down." They stopped when they got to feeling her right breast, where she'd had cancer surgery.

Referring to one of the agents, Bossi said, "She put her full hand on my breast and asked, "What is this?'" Bossi replied "It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer." The agent then told her, "Well you'll need to show me that." Bossi said she then removed the prosthetic breast from her bra.

According to a TSA spokesperson, agents aren't supposed to remove any prosthetics. But they are allowed to ask to see and touch any passenger's prosthetic. The agency also said it will review the Bossi matter.

This is just one of many in a backlash against passenger pat-downs and high-tech scanners producing digital images of the body's contours. Additionally, Florida Representative John Mica is pushing for airports to consider ditching TSA agents altogether in favor of private contractors, while some travelers are using the Internet to organize protests aimed at the busy travel days surrounding Thanksgiving next week.

After reading all this, I did some homework, mainly because I used to fly an awful lot for business, by my count during a seven year stretch flying the shuttle between NY and Boston more than 630 times alone. Add to that all the other trips I've taken for work and pleasure and the total's got to be well over a thousand.

So, in my research, here's what I found. There are 809,611,003 airline passengers who traveled in America for the year 2008. The most recent annual data available from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Most air travelers in America traveled domestically, representing 80.5% of the total annual total, and, for what it's worth, more passengers traveled in July than in any other month.

So that means almost a billion people, (that's with a "B"), traveled annually in the US two years ago, and today the numbers likely higher. And with all those folks going through airports, any one of them (or more) could be a bomber. And who's to say, despite all the profiling techniques in the world, that one of them's not? Because, all we need is one little slip-up and who knows what target will be disintegrated?

The president himself asked if there are alternatives to body scanners and pat-downs and was told that at the moment, there's not. So, passengers at some U.S. airports must pass through full-body scanners that produce a virtually naked image. If they refuse, they can be forced to undergo time-consuming fingertip examinations, including clothed genital areas and breasts, by inspectors of the same sex as the passenger.

The way the scanners work, naked images of a passenger's body, without the face, are viewed by a screener in a different location, who doesn't know the identity of the traveler. There are nearly 400 of the advanced imaging machines deployed at 70 US airports, thus not all airports have them and not all travelers are selected for scans.

As I see this situation, and as as someone who's flown a lot and seen lot's of bozos on aircraft albeit they weren't terrorists I don't think...whatever airlines must do to keep their planes safe is alright with me. Because, the alternative's something that might resemble the events of 9/11.

And as for the groups of complainers to scans and searches, in total they don't amount to a blip compared to a billion safe flyer's each year. Nonetheless, I think another alternative should be given to them. For folks who really don't want to be either scanned or touched...they can stay the hell home.

That's it for today folks.

Adios

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