Reply #24: It amazes me how people just accept these changes as necessary

[Gormy Cuss]

Because they got away with requiring everyone to take off shoes and the 3 oz rule, they're now going for full body imaging too.

The last time I took a flight from SFO's international terminal (a domestic flight, just gated in that terminal) the security lines were the longest and slowest that I've seen since late September 2001. Why? Because everyone was being screened by the full body imaging machine unless they were bold enough to object. I did and was instructed to walk through the metal detector and stand in a corral while waiting for the TSA-like employee to come over and pat me down. Didn't matter that I had gone through the metal detector cleanly -- it was clearly punishment for not complying with the imaging screen. The woman asked me why I had objected and I told her that I objected to being screened by a full body imaging machine with capacity to store and forward those images. I objected with a calm demeanor of course because showing how annoyed that I was would have ramped up the screening even more.

Here's the kicker: in the five minutes that I was held aside for the pat down, no other passengers objected. They all blithely walked into the machine without question.

I remember the jokes after 9/11 about being forced to strip before boarding a plane. With the full body imaging system used as a primary screener it's not a joke anymore.