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Ever since 2010, when the Transportation Security Administration started requiring that travelers in American airports submit to sexually intrusive gropings based on the apparent anti-terrorism principle that "If we can't feel your nipples, they must be a bomb", the agency's craven apologists have shouted down all constitutional or human rights objections with the mantra "If you don't like it, don't fly!"
This callous disregard for travelers' rights merely paraphrases the words of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, who shares, with the president, ultimate responsibility for all TSA travesties since 2009. In November 2010, with the groping policy only a few weeks old, Napolitano dismissed complaints by saying "people [who] want to travel by some other means" have that right. (In other words: if you don't like it, don't fly.)
But now TSA is invading travel by other means, too. No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit. In the past year, TSA's snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations and even running checkpoints on highways never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA's air marshal training center since the agency's inception: "Dominate. Intimidate. Control."
The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state | Jennifer Abel | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Airports and planes move more than only people. They have also transported diseases such as influenza, SARS, and turburculosis. Yatta Montrell is flying to Hong Kong and Malaysia from Los Angeles. Every time she travels, she worries about getting sick. I try to take travelers' shots and carry hand sanitizer, she said. Some airports in the United States are able to spread disease more quickly, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They looked at the volume of traffic, the amount of long-range travel and connections from certain airports. New Yorks Kennedy airport and LAX in Los Angeles ranked highest by those measurements.
Researcher Ruben Juanes was surprised that Honolulus smaller airport ranked third in its ability to spread a pandemic. In a Skype interview with VOA, Juanes explains why. Its in the middle of the ocean so virtually every connection is a long-range connection that can take away infected passengers very quickly over many thousands of kilometers. And even though the number of connections is small, a large fraction of them are hubs in Asia or North America, Juanes stated. MIT factored in the travel patterns of individuals: the length of their trips and layovers.
Thomas Valente, professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, says the study is a reminder that airports can spread pandemics more easily than other transportation hubs. Airports move people around and, when youre at an airport, you have time to wait for a plane to leave or if youre meeting somebody for it to land," said Valente. "So theres lots of people sitting in close proximity waiting for things to happen. Sometimes a traveler catches a disease that originated far from home. Not only will we see more pandemics but we are all globally at more risk to things that are happening in other places, Valente added.
Jonathan Samet heads the Institute for Global Health at the Universtiy of Southern California. Many infections are spread just simply by people touching the same surfaces that are contaminated," he said. "So on airplanes again bathrooms, doorknobs are places where infections might spread." Health experts say frequent handwashing is a precaution travelers can take to prevent illness when theyre on the plane or at the airport. MITs Ruben Juanes says the study may help forecast how disease will spread when another outbreak occurs.
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It's not just at the airports anymore. We are heading a down a road where it's going to be nearly impossible to travel by any means without having your Constitutional rights violated. I think calling the U.S. a police state has become justified at this point.
Ever since 2010, when the Transportation Security Administration started requiring that travelers in American airports submit to sexually intrusive gropings based on the apparent anti-terrorism principle that "If we can't feel your nipples, they must be a bomb", the agency's craven apologists have shouted down all constitutional or human rights objections with the mantra "If you don't like it, don't fly!"
This callous disregard for travelers' rights merely paraphrases the words of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, who shares, with the president, ultimate responsibility for all TSA travesties since 2009. In November 2010, with the groping policy only a few weeks old, Napolitano dismissed complaints by saying "people [who] want to travel by some other means" have that right. (In other words: if you don't like it, don't fly.)
But now TSA is invading travel by other means, too. No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit. In the past year, TSA's snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations and even running checkpoints on highways never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA's air marshal training center since the agency's inception: "Dominate. Intimidate. Control."
The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state | Jennifer Abel | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
It's not just at the airports anymore. We are heading a down a road where it's going to be nearly impossible to travel by any means without having your Constitutional rights violated. I think calling the U.S. a police state has become justified at this point.
Ever since 2010, when the Transportation Security Administration started requiring that travelers in American airports submit to sexually intrusive gropings based on the apparent anti-terrorism principle that "If we can't feel your nipples, they must be a bomb", the agency's craven apologists have shouted down all constitutional or human rights objections with the mantra "If you don't like it, don't fly!"
This callous disregard for travelers' rights merely paraphrases the words of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, who shares, with the president, ultimate responsibility for all TSA travesties since 2009. In November 2010, with the groping policy only a few weeks old, Napolitano dismissed complaints by saying "people [who] want to travel by some other means" have that right. (In other words: if you don't like it, don't fly.)
But now TSA is invading travel by other means, too. No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit. In the past year, TSA's snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations and even running checkpoints on highways never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA's air marshal training center since the agency's inception: "Dominate. Intimidate. Control."
The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state | Jennifer Abel | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
The United States is turning into the U.S.S.R....
The United States is turning into the U.S.S.R....
The United States is turning into the U.S.S.R....
I think about how much it's already changed just from the time I was a kid and I'll be 30 years old tomorrow. My grandparents had a station wagon and one summer we all drove from Boston to Florida and I rode in the back of it the whole way. Now they'd have gotten pulled over and ticketed. Same thing with riding in the back of a pick up truck bed. Can't do that anymore. When I played little league we didn't get a trophy for participating. If you lost you felt like crap and were pissed so it was motivation to not lose next year. I remember in elementary school we would bring in cupcakes for the whole class on our birthdays. Can't do that anymore. I remember a kid once bringing in a BB gun for Show 'N Tell when I was like in the first grade. Now he'd be expelled. My father would travel a lot for his job and when we'd pick him up at the airport we'd actually meet him at the gate coming off the plane. Can't do that anymore.
All of this stuff may seem like little minor things in of themselves, but it all adds up over time. Gradually we're allowing the government to restrict our choices.
At least they managed to walk back the 55 MPH speed limit.
