Xanderland : Security

My First Experience with the TSA Body Scanner

xsherry — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:38:00 GMT

The verdict: What an unbelievable hassle.

I went to DFW for a flight on Friday, and happened to pick a lane where they had replaced the traditional metal detector with one of the new millimeter wave scanners. Not having used one before I didn’t really know what to expect. After putting my carry-on bags and Ziplock® baggie of liquids and shoes on the x-ray machine belt, I stepped into the scanner. (Yes, into, and not through, like you would walk through a metal detector.)

There, I was asked if I was wearing a belt. I was. I always do. It’s never a problem. Apparently, with the body scanners, it is. So back out of the scanner to put my belt on the x-ray machine belt in the midst of some other poor woman’s carry-on bags and Ziplock® baggie and shoes, and then back into the scanner.

Next, I got another round of questioning…Did I have a wallet in my pocket? Yes. Apparently that’s a problem for this machine too. So, I gathered from the next set of questions, is money, paper, or anything else that you might carry in your pockets. Apparently, despite being horrendously expensive, they’re next to useless if you’re not practically naked.

So, now holding my wallet in my hand above my head, it’s finally time for the machine to scan me.

Two or three seconds later, it’s done, and I’m finally out of the machine. I’d already have my shoes back on, and been on my way if I’d just gone though the lane with the bloody metal detector instead. But wait, we’re not through.

Now, it’s time for me to stand and wait for a bit. Apparently, the TSA employees manning the gate (it takes two of them, it seems, rather than the one it takes for a metal detector) have to hear back from whoever it is that is looking at the scan, and that seems to take another few seconds.

Now, they’ve apparently gotten the alarming news that I’m wearing socks, (given that they already made me take off my shoes, I’m not sure why that wasn’t apparent) and they have to give my socks a thorough manual pat-down. Yes, apparently socks are a problem for this white elephant of a security device as well.

So, in something around ten-fold the amount of time it would have taken for me to walk though a metal detector and been manually patted down, I’ve basically been subjected to the same treatment save the use of a far more expensive and clearly deeply flawed device.

The silver lining, if there is one, is that these absurd pieces of garbage are far too expensive to replace every metal detector currently in use at every checkpoint, and I’m confident that they’ll be easy for me to avoid in the future.

Keeping threats in context.

xsherry — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:41:44 GMT

It’s amazing to me how much money we’ll spend, how much time and effort we’ll waste, how many liberties we’re willing to give up in the name of “the war on terror” which in reality is one of the more minor dangers we face in the world today.

The truth: "We need to keep terrorism in some kind of context," he said. "For example, every year in the UK, more people die in road accidents than have been killed by terrorists in all of recorded history."

That’s a quote from Nigel Inkster, former Assistant Chief and Director of Operations and Intelligence of MI6, as reported in The Register via Schneier on Security.

Colleges confront shootings with training

xsherry — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:58:49 GMT

Hundreds of colleges across the nation have purchased a training program that teaches professors and students not to take campus threats lying down but to fight back with any "improvised weapon," from a backpack to a laptop computer.

From this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26410431/

To that, I ask: "Why not just let them carry real, effective self-defense weapons, instead of making them improvise weapons in the middle of an attack?"

That aside, I have to say that I'm hearted by the fact that it seems like the general population is, to some extent at least, starting to take tentative steps towards taking self-defense seriously. Understanding that capitulation and waiting for the calvary to show up isn't the only or the best option would be a pretty significant change to the "give them what they want and hope for the best" philosophy that we as a society have lived by for so long at such cost. It may be a baby step, but I'd say that it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Carry Permit Holders save lives.

xsherry — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:58:00 GMT

Say Uncle has compiled a list of handgun carry permit holders who have interjected themselves into dangerous situation to save lives. Doing my part to drain the BradyBunch's Google-juice on the term "carry permit holders" :-)

Via Snowflakes in Hell.

This is bizarre.

xsherry — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:42:05 GMT

I have to say, I've never heard of a "fake" governmental office popping up in the States. That's one more industry India's taken the lead in.

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/12/faux-indian-gov.html

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

xsherry — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:36:05 GMT

"If you seek peace, prepare for war." It's a sad fact of the current state of our tapioca-brained liberal politically-correct society that these ageless words of wisdom have been replaced with something more akin to "If you seek peace, bury your head in the sand, and maybe then you won't notice that bad things can still happen."

He has a magnificent beard, so he must be right.

xsherry — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:14:51 GMT

The beard aside, however, what he's saying makes sense. http://www.newsweek.com/id/110937

I'm going to have to check out his book.

Give them what they want...Or not.

xsherry — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:37:29 GMT

"Give them what they want." It's been the standard weak-kneed liberal drivel for dealing with bad people for ages. It's stupid, counter-productive, and while it may be a slightly less dangerous option for a specific individual in a specific case, as a whole it's bad for society and makes the world less safe for us all as we abdicate control of our streets to muggers.

What should you do if you're mugged? How 'bout beating the muggers up with their own shovel? These two women get a hearty "well done" from me.

Some interesting analysis...

xsherry — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:36:00 GMT

Of the recent airline security "threat".

http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interes... (via Bruce Schneier)

and http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/flying_toi...

Aren't you glad our security is being assured by complete morons?

Most nurses are nice.

xsherry — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:47:00 GMT

But some are downright strange and bizarre. Story here.