Business-Class Outrage

For a good many years, I felt as if I was a lone ranger in the feeling that "national security measures" had gone too far after 9/11. As many Americans put on their elbow pads and helmets upon the raising of the terror alert level, I took the scale as a mere joke. And while I am fortunate enough to not have to fly on a regular basis, I found my biannual trips to the airport to be dreadful. Having to smell everyones nasty feet at the security gate got old, and I will always miss that bottle of Head and Shoulders dandruff shampoo that was just 6 too many ounces to bring on a national flight. It is also quite irritating that when I need my hands free for a few minutes, no one seems to want to watch my bags for me...

But the TSA has now rung a liberty bell in the heart of every plane flying patriot; they have installed full body scanners! Conservatives and liberals alike protested this addition, citing it as invasive and pornographic. The TSA took this message to heart, and responded to the people with something to the extent of "well, we can grope you instead." However, this alternative was also not favorable. I thought nothing of the outrage, I was delighted to see it if anything. Though, I read a blog recently that made me reconsider my perspective on the issue and those who take it the most seriously; the business class.

Where were these advocates of liberty when the Bush administration (with the help of Democrats) issued warrentless wiretapping? Or waterboarding? Or imprisonment without trial? The author of the blog notes all of these things as greater invasions of liberty than body scanners, and I would have to agree. He provided a scatterplot which was "completely fabricated" to show these personal invasions in comparison: