New Internal Cavity X-ray Technology for Airports 308
Thanks to a new type of X-ray scanner unveiled in Australia, annoyed TSA agents won't have to send you to a hospital for a body cavity scan, they can do it in-house. Officials say that more than 4,600 man-hours were wasted last year in hospitals waiting for scans. From the article: "Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the scanners would also help innocent travelers. 'The option of an internal body scan will more quickly exonerate the innocent and ensure a minimum of delay for legitimate travelers,' Mr O'Connor said."
I thought it was... (Score:5, Insightful)
Politicians are full of shit. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why should they need to be exonerated? Why should they have to suffer through a high intensity blast of x-ray just to prove that they aren't terrorists?
Why aren't the terrorists exploiting this hole RIGHT NOW and KILLING MILLIONS and INFLICTING TERROR?
Maybe it's because the threat is overblown and someone is sucking your cock in exchange for your pushing these useless, unneeded machines. Or maybe you're like Chertoff, destined to profit handsomely by pushing your employer (and other governments) to buy equipment from a company you own.
I feel safer already (Score:3, Insightful)
freedom (Score:4, Insightful)
> He said the new X-rays would be used only if suspects agreed to undergo scans.
How long will that last for?
In the UK, airport body scanners were "optional" when introduced - it was obscene how quickly they became mandatory. The word "big fat lie" came to mind.
More to the point, why are drugs banned? if I want to take drugs and someone wants to sell them to me, what's wrong with that?
Why do we have a whole bunch of people taking money from us without our consent, deciding what we should or should not do, and then enforcing those rules upon us?
Only a matter of time before the TSA jumps on this (Score:4, Insightful)
I bet Ms. Janet Napolitano is wet just hearing about this*.
I'm disappointed that this article is not from the Onion. Can no one realize that 9/11 was just a fluke and the likelihood of it happening again that way is astronomical (I know this is in Australia but I can almost guarantee that all heightened security is a direct result of 9/11, the British train bomb, and other random events)? Let's get rid of the security theater we have in place now and just live because life is pretty much bad enough as it is without having to invent reasons to make it even more miserable.
I'd rather die on a hijacked plane than have to undergo full body cavity searches - at least my wife will be richer that way.
*No need to thank me for that visual.
Not anymore (Score:5, Insightful)
Police checkpoints, wire tapping, spying on civilians from multiple directions, "emergency" powers designed to circumvent the concept (which of course are never repealed)... the guarantee of innocent until proven guilty has been eliminated in all but lip service. It's really no surprise; every government must do this at some point or their business stops expanding (in both power and revenue).
The cold hard truth is that big government NEEDS a society full of "criminals", and if nature doesn't supply it, they will fabricate it through the coercive power of government.
Re:Not anymore (Score:4, Insightful)
Not applicable. We have the illusion of choice and democracy in America to placate the masses. But we really only get to choose between fascist authoritarian kleptocrat douche bag pandering to divisive inflammatory topic A and fascist authoritarian kleptocrat turd sandwich pandering to divisive and inflammatory topic B.
Re:Only a matter of time before the TSA jumps on t (Score:4, Insightful)
It was not a fluke. It was so well planned that it doesn't ever need to happen again. The terrorists did the work once, and then left to the USA (and other) government to continue their work for them. Now, they can just sit back, relax and enjoy their ... hummm ... what do terrorist drink ?
Thank you! (Score:5, Insightful)
TFA mentions how they "understood privacy concerns in relation to internal X-ray use". FUCK THAT!
It's not a privacy issue. It's a fucking health concern.
A fucking dentist covers you up in lead before he takes an X-ray of your teeth, and these morons want to let someone with a questionable understanding of buttons do X-rays of your gut?
Re:I thought it was... (Score:4, Insightful)
Eating their own dog food, and all that.
Re:Not anymore (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not anymore (Score:5, Insightful)
The US is no more homogeneous than Europe is. Just as you have fairly varied laws between, say, France and Turkey (which is part of Europe if not the EU), we have fairly varied laws as well.
It is unfair of you to cherry-pick the things that happen in our "crazy" states and pretend that they're representative of the United States.
Think of it this way.
The United States is like a family with fifty members.
You've got the bookish preppies (New England, New York, some states in the Northern Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest), their country cousins, (much of the Midwest and the SouthEast), and Uncle Hippy (California)... They're generally OK, you can have a normal conversation with them, and nothing weird will happen.
Then you've got the weird cousins everyone else tries to avoid (the dumber of the "Red" states, of which Texas is probably the worst). They pick on strangers, they get drunk and punch out environmentalists, and in general, embarrass the whole family.
You Europeans are like people living across the street, gossiping about us because we threw a barbecue and the whole weird family showed up. Forgotten are all the good things the family does, our literary works, our scientific discoveries, the two or three times we've called the police and stopped your house from getting burgled, and the fact that we're generally good neighbors. All you want to harp on is that Cousin Joe from Texas got drunk, stripped naked, climbed a telephone pole, and peed on a police officer. You think we're all terrible because of Cousin Joe. It lets you feel all SUPERIOR.