X-ray backscatter security scanners

[Owlie]

Is it bad that I'm half hoping I don't get an interview at one of the schools I'm applying to because I'd have to fly? I hated it before the backscatter machines/"enhanced pat-downs" were introduced.

[Mr. Bloom]

Since I've got no special needs or issues, I've got no problem with the security. While I recognize that some find offense in the "pat down" alternative, I'm guessing that after a couple of hours of it, it's as unpleasant for the "patter" as it is the "pattee".

I'm glad that I'm not a TSA agent:

• No upside
• No gratitude
• Heavily regimented
• Stressful monotony
• Stereotypes galor

I'm glad we have the TSA...I'm sorry we have a world that requires a TSA.

I hate flying for plenty of reasons...but security is no where near the top of my list

[Jolt]

Is it bad that I'm half hoping I don't get an interview at one of the schools I'm applying to because I'd have to fly? I hated it before the backscatter machines/"enhanced pat-downs" were introduced.

I just got back from a couple of job interviews that I had to fly to...didn't have to go through the scanner or get patted down at all. I did initially get picked to go through the scanner in Boston but they were kind of backed up so they ended up just sending me through the regular metal detector. Then on the way back I was flying out of Duluth, MN which has a very small airport that doesn't even have the scanner. Those small airports are kind of nice...not so much crowding and chaos, and it doesn't take forever to get to the gate!

[OakLeaf]

More:

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2...rport-scanners

[sundial]

Oak, the article that you posted certainly raises more questions than answers. Like many here, I don't have a desire to fly--especially now that I have new hardware. What is alarming to me is this gradual desensitization of the masses to the whims of questionable security measures. What you see is not unlike how the Jews were searched prior to being sent to the camps in Nazi Germany. It has sunk that low.

[Crankin]

I still won't stop flying, but I wonder what the profile is for who gets scanned.
We flew from Logan to San Diego and back. DH got scanned both times and I was waved through.
He definitely looks "Semitic" and I got the Aryan genes.

[sundial]

Crankin, from what I've read from first hand accounts it seems that you will be TSA'd if you are 1) handicapped 2) elderly 3) woman. Arabs rarely get patted down, possibly due in part to their Sharia Law.

[TsPoet]

I still won't stop flying, but I wonder what the profile is for who gets scanned.
We flew from Logan to San Diego and back. DH got scanned both times and I was waved through.
He definitely looks "Semitic" and I got the Aryan genes.

that doesn't make any sense. I fly a lot - the lanes where you will and won't get scanned are labeled, all you have to do is move over. He must have been standing in different lines than you.
That's in the 5-6 airports in which I've flown over the last few years with the scanners.

[Crankin]

Nope, we were standing in the same line. I was behind him. He was motioned to stand in front of the scanner and when I was about to step forward, the agent waved over to the other line, to go through the regular thing. They do this all of the time at Logan and it seems rather arbitrary.
It also happened in San Diego.