TSA SCREENINGS.

Roger Ebert wrote a really compelling piece on his blog about the recent uproars over the new TSA screening guidelines. He talked honestly from both perspectives…the weary traveler…and the underpaid TSA worker that is responsible for our well-being and safety.

No matter what happens, here’s the thing I always think when I’m standing in a security line: The terrorists have won. Bin Laden is sitting in a cave somewhere reading all this press and angst and he’s having the laugh of his life. We’re ripping each other apart. We’re name calling our fellow workers and neighbors. We’re even typecasting and profiling our friends and travel companions. (See Up In The Air). The long term solution is not better/more advanced screening techniques—it’s better/more advanced public relations with people we don’t fully understand.

“But wait a minute. How did we get into this dilemma? After 9/11 there was a perfectly logical fear of terrorism. Security checks were ramped up. They kept ramping. Every time there was a loophole, it was closed. An asshole named Richard Reid put a bomb in his shoe and now we all have to take off our shoes. An asshole named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab put a bomb in his underwear and now we get our netherlands plundered. Even though the scanners cannot see items concealed in body cavities, we don’t yet have to bend over and spread our cheeks.”

UPDATE: Check out this clothing line called 4thAmendmentWear . Thye make undergarments with metallic prints that show up on TSA X-Rays. But I bet this will cause more problems for you than you want at the airport.