TSA Complaining

It's been a while since I posted something here, I seem to have taken to writing things on Facebook instead. Indeed, I wrote up a long piece there on my objections to the latest draconian TSA screening procedures, and why I don't feel that the arguments that it's OK if it makes us safer, or that "flying isn't a right" have much merit.

But the truth is, my argument is a common one, there are a lot of people out there bristling at the idea that they have to have what amounts to nude photographs of themselves taken and/or subject themselves to a near sexual-assault level of "pat down" in order to get through security these days, and it's kind of annoying me how popular this is, because it seems to me to be popular with many of the same people who are quick to level the term "soft on crime/terror" at political opponents when dealing with things like Guantanamo Bay or waterboarding.

It seems to me that for SOME people, this inconsistent application of the "anything for safety" argument boils down to "I have no objection to infringing upon other people's rights to keep me safe, but the moment it impacts me, suddenly the price is too high."

Now, having said that, there are plenty of people who are consistent on the issues, and I don't mean to malign everyone who shares my opinion that the current screening methods go too far. Clearly it would be counter productive to discredit or otherwise argue against all of my support in this argument.

But it does frustrate me when someone who a year or two ago was telling me that if I'm not a terrorist, I have nothing to fear from warrantless wiretapping now has their knickers in a twist over the idea that they themselves might have to be subjected to these sorts of indignities before they can make the Thanksgiving flight down to Aunt Millie's house.

In my opinion, we need to choose an opinion on the value of rights stick to it. Either they're important, in which case we should respect everyone's, even when it is not convenient to do so, or we need to decide that all of these "rights" and "freedoms" that we hear so much about are overrated, and then not complain when it is our own that start to erode.