Airport Security, Aunt Bee and Me

December 23, 2010 | Comments (1)
Ever since my lengthy coverage (aka, justified meltdown) of the Napolitano/Obama airport screening mandates for the TSA back before Thanksgiving, I have wondered how my own holiday travels would transpire once it was time for my family to fly across the country from New York to California for Christmas.  Well, yesterday marked the first leg of the journey, and I am happy, though somewhat perplexed, to report that I have no out-of-our-ordinary travel experiences to report.

We arrived nice and early at the airport, expecting a longer wait thanks to holiday travels and heightened security procedures.  We approached the security checkpoint.  We saw the scanners.  We saw travelers that looked like they could have been regulars on “The Andy Griffith Show,” their arms outstretched, being scanned.  We saw travelers ushered aside for pat-downs.  My kids asked if they would be patted down.  My kids asked if they would be strip searched.  My kids knew that if I was patted down, I would hope for something entirely inappropriate to occur.

We approached the podium for preliminary TSA vetting of our paperwork.   We were deemed fit for boarding. We walked to the familiar conveyor belt and began the procedure we have done a thousand times before like a well-oiled machine: removing shoes and jackets; taking computers out of carry-ons; throwing belts, watches and small containers of liquids into the gray bins.  We were ushered one by one through the metal detector…..and…..that was it.  “Thanks very much,” said the burly TSA agent standing at the finish line as he directed us back to our long line of belongings waiting for us on the conveyor belt.  Okay then. No scanning, no pat-downs, no strip searches for us.

It was not so pleasant an experience for everyone in our line, however. As we were reassembling our carry-ons and pulling on boots, we watched the progress of an elderly woman – a grandma-type who could have easily played Aunt Bee on the old “Andy Griffith Show” – as she traversed the security gauntlet.  She was ushered through the metal detector, then scanned in the scanner (which just a few days ago failed to reveal a gun a Pakistani man had on his person), then patted down physically, then sent through the metal detector again. Apparently Aunt Bee has been targeted by Obama and minion Napolitano as a serious threat to the national security of the United States.

Our spirits daunted a bit by what we had just witnessed, we reached our gate and learned from the cable news being broadcast there that the lame-duck session of the 111th record-low-approval-rating Congress had finally called it quits for the year after furiously setting a record in the lame-duck passage of bills. “Thank God!” I exclaimed. Looking back, I guess it’s fortunate I didn’t hear that news before going through security, or I would no doubt have found myself receiving the Aunt-Bee security treatment, as well.

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

The Tipping Point Toward Fascism and a Young Boy in Salt Lake City

November 23, 2010 | Comments (1)

We’re not in America anymore. While many of us have suspected this over the last few weeks in our slide toward fascism at America’s airports, it became official on November 19 when a young boy was stripped searched in public at Salt Lake City Airport as four TSA agents looked on.  The seach was naturally caught by cell phone by another passenger waiting for his own groping session, and it has gone viral on YouTube:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSQTz1bccL4)

Disgusting, of course, was the sight itself of the small boy’s bare back as he was checked for weapons and explosives, but even more disgusting, more disturbing, more pornographic even, was the site of the TSA  agents standing watch – particularly the burly female in the bunch, who we will call Ilsa/Eva for obvious, rather chilling, reasons. She stands watching with a look of satisfaction on her face, her beefy arms crossed across her chest.

I felt nauseous after I viewed this footage. Who are these people? What country is this? And I am left thinking that of those TSA agents, I must believe that at least one (please more than one) watched this happening, knew how very wrong, how despicably disgraceful and fundamentally un-American this spectacle was. And I pray that today that one, whoever he or she is (could have been Ilsa/Eva), is berating himself or herself for not stepping in and saying simply: “Stop!”

But no such admonition came.  How empowering it would have been not only for that young boy being exploited so horribly by the Obama administration, but for our nation as a whole.  But, sadly, that simple word – “Stop!” — never came.The moment, that lost moment of redemption and salvation, became instead, once and for all, the tipping point to fascism.

No one is more pleased to see that lost opportunity replaced by this tipping point than Barack Obama, his wife, his handlers and his followers. Remember, too, that the timing of the groping and strip searches and all-out fascism that has erupted over the weeks following the democrat electoral bloodbath of November 2nd  is no coincidence.  We the people are to be punished for that bloodbath, and we are witnessing that punishment today and every day at America’s airports.  We can only hope that when a moment of redemption and salvation presents itself again, the good people in positions of authority who believe in this country will at last stand up and say “Stop!”

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

Airport Groping Continues – As Does the Rage

November 20, 2010 | Comments (0)
Just when you think it’s safe to talk about something other than Obama/Napolitano/TSA groping and naked radioactive photography at America’s airports, the situation continues to escalate as America refuses to let it go.  I would expect no less from the people of our great nation, the majority of whom recognize tyranny when they see it.

As we know, air travelers have been given the choice to submit either to naked photography sessions powered by invasive radiation, or to full-body pat-downs (“groping sessions”) performed by TSA officials.  The outcry, the fallout, the backlash have been deafening – and all in time for Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel times of the year.

In recent weeks we have seen our nation transformed (Obama’s word) into a tyrant’s dream.  Now, there is no one more rabidly concerned about airport security – and national security – than I am, but what we are witnessing right now is pure insanity.  As Americans coast to coast are submitting to newly institutionalized humiliations and assaults, we all know full well that these procedures prevent nothing, and in no way target those who actually do wish to see our nation brought to her knees.

There is an answer, and we all know what that is.  Hint: Israel’s El Al Airlines.  But in a current post-9/11 culture that has inexplicably elevated political correctness to a sacrament, we find instead this (and all within the last couple of weeks):

  • A flight attendant – a 32-year veteran and breast-cancer survivor – claims she was groped manually, aggressively, and far too intimately; then was forced to show the gropers her prosthetic breast.
  • A woman in St. Louis was forced to submit to a groping session because of the metal in her artificial knees. I would rather not describe here what she alleges she endured at the hands of the two TSA interrogators, but I will say again that it harkens back to those dreadful women’s prison movies of decades past. If her story is true, I wholeheartedly agree with her that it was in every way a “sexual assault.”
  • Still no clear statement on how Muslim women in burqas will be interrogated/groped, yet we have all now surely seen the Catholic nuns and non-Muslim 3-year-olds being fondled in the name of national security.
  • Elected officials, including Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) are shouting that these procedures violate our 4th-Amendment Constitutional protection from “illegal search and seizure.”
  • New York City Council members are supporting legislation to ban full-body scanners in the Big Apple.
  • Various airports are contemplating replacing the TSA with private security services.
  • Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has described the airport groping procedures as nothing but “love pats,” which we should all be willing to enjoy.
  • This hot topic has become prime grist for the comedy writer’s mill and YouTube, the latter of which currently hosts a video of a man who calls the TSA to inquire about job opportunities that he understands would permit him to act out all his sexual proclivities.  Chilling are the TSA representative’s very matter-of-fact responses to his questions.
  • Despite the widespread revolt, TSA Chief John Pistole has announced: “I’m not going to change those policies.” Keep in mind that he may say only what Obama and Napolitano mandate (“just following orders”).
  • Even the brilliant, consummately dignified Dr. Charles Krauthammer, one of the sharpest minds ever to eviscerate the hypocrisy of our culture and our politics, is singing the praises of the American airport traveler’s new rallying cry: “Don’t touch my junk!”

The airlines have for the most part remained mum on this topic.  The exception is Southwest Airlines, whose Senior VP of Operations, Greg Wells, stated when discussing the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday: “With people getting partially molested at checkpoints, all that is going to be a real shock for them.”  Perhaps the other airlines will speak up when they realize that people are choosing not between naked radiation or groping, but choosing not to fly at all as to prevent the government from “molesting” them and their children.

Rather than listen to Janet Napolitano, Barack Obama and Claire “love pat” McCaskill, I will listen instead to former El Al Security Chief Marvin Badler, who calls the pat-down “a waste of time.”  We would be wise to follow instead El Al’s procedure, which involves at its core…yep, we’re going to say it…profiling.  While TSA officials, mandated by Obama and Napolitano to fondle 3-year-old Tiffany and wheelchair-bound grandma, El Al officials are interviewing would-be travelers, conducting computer background checks on them, and evaluating where would-be travelers were born, where they live, why they are traveling, and why they have traveled in the past. And bring on the dogs. The canine nose trumps the human hand and radiation any day.

Permit me also to clarify that to date, I have had nothing but positive experiences with the TSA, finding them polite, respectful and professional. But as history has shown, a bit of authority, particularly when coupled with a license for physical force and groping, can be transformative for those of weak spirit (Nazi Germany, anyone?). With a dangerously authoritarian administration currently holding the reins, resistance is the key to our survival.

In the meantime, as long as the current policies remain, and as long as those making the decisions choose impotence and insanity over El-Al-style muscle, I have a suggestion.  Men, women, children, all of you: Just wear a burqa to the airport, and Obama, Napolitano and the TSA will leave you alone.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Airport Insanity Update

November 16, 2010 | Comments (0)

After reading my post of November 13, a friend of mine commented that perhaps I am being a bit extreme in suggesting that TSA airport security might be the dream job for a pedophile.  Surely children would be exempt from new procedures that involve naked photography and the full-body fondling of airline passengers.

What a coincidence, then, that less than 24 hours later, I would stumble upon the story of a 3-year-old who had a meltdown when she was subjected to a full-body patdown by a TSA agent in San Diego.  The toddler’s dad happens to be a local San Diego news broadcaster, who made sure his daughter’s experience would not be forgotten or denied.

So, dear friend of mine, no, children are not exempt.  But you have to assume they are confused.  Parents, schools and pediatricians expend much time and effort teaching children how to guard against strangers and improper touches.  Consider then those children who are properly schooled in the fine art of self-protection, only to find themselves fondled by strangers in TSA uniforms at the airport.

Of course common sense has no place in the America of Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano – at least in those areas of government where they still have some authority.  As if to thumb their noses (yet again) at an America that refuses to cooperate with a wholesale leftwing transformation of the United States, they tweak their policies daily, almost as though they are trying to see just how severely they can punish and humiliate the American people.

For example, today we learned that if you intend to wear sweatpants, pajamas or similarly loose-fitting leggings on your flight, you will literally find TSA hands down your pants.  And in the wake of the Muslim community’s demands that their women be exempted from full-body patdowns, Napolitano has stated that “adjustments” will be made, and “with respect to that particular issue, I think there will be more to come.”  I don’t think Janet herself even knows what she means (or what she’s doing), but I certainly hope it doesn’t mean what I think it means.  If it does, the response will not be pretty.

The irony at the root of this madness is that most would-be terrorists on planes since 9/11 have been foiled, not by TSA prevention policies, but by passengers on those planes who did not hesitate to jump in.  Even on the day of 9/11 itself, the heroic passengers of Flight 93, knowing the fate of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and knowing what awaited them, refused to go down without a fight.

Since that terrible day, the majority of us have become more vigilant, more observant, and more willing to take necessary action.  Despite what one might glean from the behavior of far too many of our elected and administrative officials, the vast majority of us have become far less politically correct, as well.  In other words, we know that traumatizing 3-year-olds and naked pictures of Grandma are not the answer.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

TSA Security: A Dream Job for Pedophiles?

November 13, 2010 | Comments (2)
It appears a rebellion is brewing at America’s airports, and just as we enter the holiday-travel season.  The Napolitano/Obama Department of Homeland Security has mandated that air travelers will have two security options from which to choose if they are to be deemed safe for travel: Submit to radiation photography and add to Janet Napolitano’s naked picture collection (four images evidently being equivalent to a chest x-ray), or permit the TSA to perform a full-body pat-down of your full body and all its nooks and crannies (images of 1950s womens’ prison movies come to mind).

In response, airline pilots, who must also make the choice, are rightly incensed, Muslim organizations are demanding exemption on religious grounds and instructing their burka-clad women to allow only a pat-down of their heads and necks (now that exemption would certainly be ironic, wouldn’t it?), and travelers in general are just saying “No!”

I don’t know how it will shake out, although I must say I personally am not looking forward to my own upcoming holiday air travels.  I think back to my family’s flights across the country three months after 9/11, when, for some reason, my 5-year-old son was labeled a potential terrorist, a label that would stay with him for several years until he reached middle school.  Every time we would travel, and I mean every time, we would traverse the security gauntlet, and the TSA official would invariably say “Which one of you is…”  We would interrupt the official mid-sentence with “this is who you’re looking for,” as we pointed down at the young child beside us with tousled sandy hair and a t-shirt that we made sure featured an eagle and an American flag.

It became a joke, both for our family and for the rugged National Guardsmen whose job it was to stand guard over my son as he was checked for weapons and explosives.  My son started to look forward to that moment when a big, burly Guardsman, machine gun in hand, would say with a grin, “Come on over here, buddy,” and usher him aside for further inspection.  On many occasions, the Guardsmen would even let their young suspect examine their weapons, the likes of which were found nowhere on my son’s person, but surely contributed to his fascination with weapons today.

In time the federal government apparently realized that my son posed no threat to national security, and he has not been targeted for several years now.  But given the current state of airport security practices and the privacy-violating choices facing American air travelers in this age of non-profiling political correctness, my son’s years as a potential threat got me thinking.  Wouldn’t TSA security be today’s dream job for a pedophile?  Think about it.  The day consists either of taking naked pictures of children or patting them down physically.  What more could the garden-variety pedophile ask for?  And all with the stamp of approval from the U.S. Government’s Napolitano/Obama Department of Homeland Security.  I know I certainly feel safer.

Betsy Siino | Comments (2)