Here's one I sent to the White House comments page on the crotch bomber...

[backscatter712]

Yes, I clicked send on this...

Can you please put an end to airport paranoia and security theater?

We've all had to take off our shoes after Richard Reid tried to bomb an airliner with explosives in his shoes. After threats of liquid bombs, we've all had to pour out our Gatorade and shampoo. Now that an idiot tried to stuff a bomb in his boxers, are we going to follow the same pattern?

It's nonsense security, we all know it, and frankly, we're sick of the security theater. We're sick of the paranoia.

We're sick of our airports being turned into prisons.

These measure come from the Bush era, and were designed to score political points in the Beltway at the expense of our civil liberties.

Other countries use less intrusive and less visible security procedures at their airports, and things are much more pleasant, yet they don't seem to have more incidents than we do.

So please rein back the reckless use of tasers and detentions. Stop the electronic strip searches (Have you seen the images from the new backscatter X-ray machines? When a person walks through, they leave nothing to the imagination...) Put an end to the ridiculous rules on taking off shoes, pouring out our drinks and stowing our laptops. That stuff does not make us more secure, but less free.

We know that real security measures are not visible, and not overly intrusive to regular people. I have no objection to counterintelligence, behavior-based profiling, a few polite questions, quiet observation, and other common-sense security measure to prevent terrorism, and we know that security can't stop every single attack.

Please return some sanity to our airports.

[Xenotime]

1. Good letter. I'm tired of of the Bush style scare tactics

[MineralMan]

13. Wrong place....sorry

[NJCher]

2. you said it

You said everything I've been wanting to say.

I will write my own version and mail it to the WH.

I've given up air travel except for one trip per year to visit my elderly parents. I've done this because I find this security charade intolerable.


Cher

[gratuitous]

3. "We know that security can't stop every single attack"

From your keyboard to the eyes of someone with some influence.

[MineralMan]

4. You kept using 'we' in that. For whom are you speaking?

Not for me. I don't mind removing my shoes. Nowhere I have gone was shampoo not available. Gatorade is available in every airport newsstand I have ever seen, along with bottled water and other soft drinks.

I've traveled all over the world, but have, apparently, not been to those places with less intrusive and less visible security measures. Perhaps you can tell us where they are and how their security differs. I've seen lots of police armed with automatic weapons in other country's airports, though.

I haven't seen any use of tasers in aiports here. Where have you seen tasers used? As for the backscatter X-ray machines, I have been through one. It didn't hurt at all. I've seen the images. Nothing there that would titillate anyone. I don't care if someone sees the outline of my body. Who cares?

You whine about "stowing laptops," too. In the 80s and 90s, travelers had to turn their laptops on to show security at the screenings. It's easier now. We just take them out of their bag and put them in a tray. Taking it out and putting it back in takes about 10 seconds, total. Is that so onerous?

As for your other suggestions, they are already in place. You don't notice them, because they are unobtrusive.

Is the current security screening practice really all that horrible for you? It seems insignificant to me, compared to it taking me five days to drive across the country. I don't know...maybe that wouldn't bother you.

So, please describe the security screening you actually experienced the last time you flew. Were you tasered? Did someone do a strip search? Were you detained? Or, did you try carrying a drink through the security line? Did you have some shoes on that were a pain to remove and put back on? Was your laptop packed in such a way that it was really, really hard to pull out?

I'm eager to hear your personal experience with the horrors of security screening. It's just that I never seen anyone going through any of that stuff. Now, I do see stupid people being delayed by their stupidity. That's really annoying to everyone else who read the signs and listened to the announcements.

The woman who has her driver's licence buried in the bottom of her purse and has to dig it out to show it to the nice TSA person. The same woman has a pocket knife in her purse, too, along with various bottles of cosmetics and the like. So she has to suffer the ordeal of emptying her purse on the inspection table. The guy with high-top lace up boots who waits until he is standing in front of the tray conveyor to start removing them. The guy who leaves his laptop in the bag, which has to come back and have the laptop removed. The woman with her carry-on stuffed with various bottles of goop and can't be bothered with packing them in a checked bag. She then gets incensed when she has to throw them away because she waited until the last minute to go through security.

And then there's the perpetually annoyed traveler who makes nasty, sarcastic comments to every TSA employee he can find. "I suppose you're going to give me an anal probe, eh?"

Is it really so bad for you? If so, I suggest that you not fly. Your post on that site is pretty weak.

And again, who is the "we" you mention?

[backscatter712]

7. So you're OK with being subjected to stupid, arbitrary rules...

that have no real effect on security.

And you're OK with the electronic strip search. Excuse me for saying that I'm not OK with some stranger viewing pictures of my genitals.

And now you're on to blaming the victim for not jumping high enough and fast enough when the authority figures make new demands.

You've been to Europe, no? In most cases, it's a quick trip through the metal detector, a quick stop with very polite, not demanding, not bullying, security people asking you some very basic questions, and that's it.

No electronic strip searches, no taking off shoes, you get to keep your Gatorade bottle and your shampoo.

Too bad that even though you're willing to trade liberty for security, you'll get neither.

[MineralMan]

10. Again, please describe the horrors of your last flight.

Tell us how horribly you were delayed, and how roughly you were treated. I do hope you're not one of those people who never flies because of the "TSA jackbooted thugs." That would be so disappointing...

As for my experience. I generally just breeze through the metal detector and go to my gate, just as you described your European experiences. You have had those experiences, right? I check my bags and carry just a laptop case, where all my pocket contents go when I leave for the airport. I wear slip-on shoes, so that's no problem. I wear beltless pants. My laptop is in a case that allows me to remove it in a single motion after opening a velcro-closed flap. It takes me about 10 seconds when I get to the screening conveyor to remove my shoes and pull the laptop out. Another 10 seconds on the other side to return them to their proper locations.

As for my genitals, I doubt seriously that anyone in the TSA is interested in them, as they are unremarkable, and much like those of half of the population.

I've never been bullied by the TSA, nor asked any more questions than to see my boarding pass and ID. Once, I had to let the TSA guy go through my laptop bag. I had forgotten that there was a corkscrew in it, from an earlier trip, before they were disallowed. Now, I understand that they are allowed again. Even that was completely devoid of any "bullying."

I hadn't noticed that my liberty was traded for anything. I traveled where I wanted to travel. Nobody stopped me from doing so. It would be awkward for me to carry a drink through security, so I buy one when I get to my gate. Shampoo is unnecessary, since every hotel has little bottles of it, and if I'm staying at someone's house, they have some too. If I really must have my own, I pack it in my checked bag. Now, I'm not sure how that restricts my "liberty," as you say.

I must ask that you describe one of your liberty-stealing experiences at the airport once again. Please show me an example of this horror.

[backscatter712]

16. Your taunting me because I don't want pictures taken of my genitalia?

Oh, because they're blurry, in black and white, and similar to other people's genitalia, that makes it all OK to violate my privacy.

Jesus, were you born that stupid, or did you work long and hard to achieve it.

You don't even get the concept of privacy. You don't speak that language. It just doesn't compute for you. You think that just because it's become a routine to not carry bottles of toiletries in the airport, that makes it OK. It ain't fucking OK.

It's not about what experience I had last flight. It's about what has become acceptable and routine at airports in the U.S. Just because you personally haven't been dragged into a jail cell interrogation room, held there for hours, made to miss your flight, yelled at over petty bullshit and harassed for no reason except for being chosen at random or being on some list, that does not make it OK.

The fact that you think it's OK to have a machine take pictures of your genitals for rentacops to stare at, which is morally equivalent to being forced to strip in person, squat, hold your balls and cough while the guards stared at your asshole like you were in jail, shows that you must live one saaaaaaad existence.

[MineralMan]

18. Goodness. Now I'm stupid, too.

It's not at all polite to tell people they are stupid. I wish you wouldn't do that.

It is about what you experience. Apparently there was no recent flight, or you would have described what happened in the security screening. Either that, or your security screening was uneventful.

We do not carry toiletries now, because someone almost executed a plan to bring a binary liquid explosive on a plane from Europe, and because the instructions for doing so were being passed around in terrorist circles. Seems sensible enough to me. I suppose, though, if you never fly, it wouldn't matter and would just seem like a meaningless exercise.

Have you been dragged into a "jail cell" or interrogation room? Really? Dragged? Now, my mother-in-law, who has a knee replacement, was screened in a room for privacy's sake. A very nice TSA woman accompanied her. By my MiL's account, the woman was very friendly and the process lasted about 30 seconds.

As far as genitals are concerned, I guess I don't see the issue there. The backscatter (odd coincidence with your screen name) machine doesn't really show anything, and the images aren't saved, so it seems an odd thing to be concerned about, at least to me. But then, I don't have any particular sensitivity about nudity, anyhow. But, there does seem to be some difference between a fuzzy image of your body and the squatting routine you described. I don't think they're planning to do that sort of thing at the airport. I've never been in jail or prison to experience what you describe, but I can imagine that would be more than a little uncomfortable. I'm sorry you had to experience that on your trip to jail.

[izquierdista]

21. Correction

The second line should end in a question mark. And the answer to the question is yes, he works hard every day to show it off with his other posts.

[backscatter712]

22. I stand corrected. n/t

[blondeatlast]

5. You've confused your pronouns--or been very presumptive. You mean "you"--

or you have the temerity to think you speak for me.

I've traveled all over the world. What we go through here is not all that different than what I've gone through in Europe and Asia.

"We?" You don't speak for me.

[backscatter712]

9. I'm sorry. I didn't know you didn't give a flying fuck about civil liberties.

Silly me for assuming fellow Americans shared American values...

[MineralMan]

11. But....but...but...someone might see the blurry outlines

of your breasts! They might see that you do not have male genitalia! The horror!

Last I heard, you weren't allowed to take liquids through security in Europe, either. You have to buy them in shops in the secure area, along with a decent sandwich to take on the plane so you can enjoy your meal.

I suspect that the OP doesn't fly often, to tell you the truth. I've asked twice now for a narrative of his security screening experiences. Crickets, so far.

[timeforpeace]

6. Someone is caught doing this and it's time to end the security? Brilliant timing.

[backscatter712]

8. Weak strawman. Did you read my letter?

:eyes:

[MineralMan]

12. Your letter? Was that the weak strawman to which you

referred?

[RumJungle]

20. When your plane goes down in flames....

... because no one was checked for explosives because we didn't want to infringe on their civil liberties will you consider that a fair price to pay?

[TwilightGardener]

14. Kind of wish Amsterdam would have been a little more thorough on screening

Mr. Explodey-Pants.

[MineralMan]

15. Will the OP please return to his thread and address the questions

in it? Thank you very much.

[backscatter712]

17. I'm sorry, I didn't know you had the authority to demand I get caught up in your stupid flame war.

You're clearly too stupid to understand dignity or privacy, so I'm done arguing with you.

[MineralMan]

19. I didn't 'demand' anything. I asked politely. I'm in no position

to demand anything. Thank you for returning to the thread and addressing the questions. I won't thank you, though, for calling me stupid twice in that process.

I am not seeing this "flame war" you are talking about. What I am seeing is the usual different opinions on the issue you raised in your thread. Is disagreement with your position "flaming?" If so, there are no threads on DU that don't qualify as flame wars.

I have called you no names. I have done nothing but state opinions and ask polite questions. No flaming on my part.