Drew Sheneman for December 29, 2009

^ I have news for you, most international airports already profile. They’re not only looking for terrorists.

The flight I boarded yesterday urges no checked in luggage, only carry ons. (it’s Ryanair, who else) The tendency in future will be to limit baggage weight to counter rising fuel costs and increasing the cost of checked luggage to defray rising baggage handling costs. Ryanair charges £15 per checked baggage item, per flight, with a limit of 15kgs per bag. Carry on baggage is limited to one bag, 10kgs max with dimensions 55cm, by 40cm, by 20cm. Ryanair is particularly finicky about this.

Body scanners have been trialed at Heathrow & Gatwick for a few years now. I’d prefer a body frisk, thanks. I have had them so often I don’t care.

well the sight of more of the above would sure keep me from flying

Unfortunately, ya dont even get a fig leaf threw those machines. Its an invasion of privacy and we should not have to pay for this because government has caused so many problems with other countries. Oh how we yearn for the return of Christ. Throw the wicked works into the trash can(Blackhole) already, along with those that lie.

As I said elsewhere, I think we should all have to go through the airport naked, it would help us spot the people with bombs, and the sight of how most of us look naked would probably keep many teenagers from having sex.

There are not only terrorists, there are also drug trafickers, don’T you guys forget it.

Ya might wanna analyze the chemical content of that leaf.

fennec, I had to look up that word to get the joke ;-D

This is searching innocent people without reasonable suspicion or a warrant. The only thing left is body cavities.

I’ll never eat another fig.

Planes, trains, and automobiles. Now scratch the planes and add ships.

I’ve been through about every security method in use - the new full-body scan, frisking, metal detectors, bomb-sniffing dogs, getting the wand waved over me, even had my laptop keyboard vacuumed. The main issue here, as I’ve been saying, is that this is largely useless and fictional - “security theater,” as someone called it. And annoying. See “Ask the Pilot,” the Salon.com column written by a working pilot: http://tinyurl.com/ydwl9ex Oh, and profiling doesn’t work either. Two reasons: first, it doesn’t narrow the choices enough. Let’s say you profile Muslims. Fine. There are around a billion or more Muslims in the world - some estimates say one in four people. Not very helpful. Also, how do you confirm it? Tattoo people with their religion? Why on Earth should we be tracking religions when we are (appropriately) forbidden by law to even ask what they are? Second: there is no profile for “terrorist.” The FBI “profiler” nonsense is a gigantic scam. (I’m a personality psychologist – the exact field “profilers” should be using – and I’ll tell you it won’t work.) Even if you did get a decent profile (e.g., Saudi Arabian male of Islamic persuasion), then smart terrorists would simply recruit someone who doesn’t fit the profile. Like Richard Reid.

motive, I’ll add to the uselessness of the security methods. I have an artificial hip. I set of the walkthrough scanner every time. I allow extra time in all airports for this reason. However, their hand wands cannot detect my hip 90% of the time. What good is it to be alerted to a potential threat if you can’t find it. They do not seem perturbed by this. In fact, after a desultory patdown they wave me on board. I do not look or generally walk like I’m disabled. On the occasional days that it is bothering me and I have to use a handicapped space I get dirty looks. I find this less than reassuring.