February 24, 2007
The fickle ACLU
Buried in a story on the new body-scanning technology making its debut in U.S. airports is this wonderful passage.
"The more obscure they make the image, the more obscure the contraband, weapons and explosives," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Project at the ACLU in Washington, D.C. "The graphic image is a strip-search. You shouldn't have to be strip-searched to get on an airplane. Millions of Americans would regard them as pornographic."
Gotta love the ACLU; they'll fight for the right of Americans to avoid a non-invasive, virtual strip-search -- a search deemed "pornographic" by the civil liberties organization.
It may represent the first time in the ACLU's history that they've opposed any form of pornography.
Interesting.
In any event, the objections to this technology strike me as unreasonable. Contrary to the geniuses at the ACLU, the statement, "The graphic image is a strip search," is as far removed from reality as "a rutabaga is a passenger car," or "the death of Ana Nicole Smith is newsworthy."
A picture is not a strip search.
It's also not a cavity search, and here's the proof. Would you rather walk in front of an x-ray scanner, or have a guard rooting around in your colon?
The fact that you didn't hesitate in choosing the former over the latter would seem to be proof that you -- despite the handicap of not attending law school or working for the so-called premier protector of civil rights in the universe -- are better at tossing out stupid analogies than the professional civil libertarians.
In any event, I'd rather have a technician looking at a ghost-like image of my body than have him patting me down. It's certainly faster, and the thrill to be had from fleeting pictures of flabby and out-of-shape tourists is hardly worth noting -- and certainly less than the closet perv would receive from laying hand on travelers.
Posted by Mike Lief at February 24, 2007 02:48 PM
| TrackBack