How Liable is the Business World for the Behavior of the TSA? and How much are you willing to give up to be "safe"?

I've flown, total, maybe six times in my entire life.

I can honestly say, only one of those trips was of my own volition. The others were either business or I was not of an age to make a decision in my travel plans. I've heard people say you give up your fourth amendment rights when you purchase your plane ticket, that you don't have to fly.

I'm wondering, lately, what country I live in. I have a right, as an American citizen, to have a judge involved and reasonable suspicion proven before my privacy is violated. And granted, it may be a good ten years before I see the inside of a plan...maybe longer.

I have friends and loved ones that travel regularly, both for business and for pleasure. I'm starting to not be so jealous. It seems like more trouble than it's worth, to be honest. People seeing you naked...people grabbing your privates, people grabbing your babies privates, ignoring their screams. People being forced to remove breast prosthetics, people having their urology bags spilled on them. Rape victims being touched, touched, touched. 

CAIR releasing statements on how Muslim women can avoid the enhanced pat downs. 

So my question is this, people, if you are advocating for keeping us "safe" (more on that in a moment), who pays for the psychological trauma inflicted on a trip planned and paid for by a company? If the TSA agent decides to pull your shirt off and laugh at you, does the company that paid for the trip bear the responsibility for the sexual harassment suit? If a coworker happens to think your penis is less than noteworthy after seeing it on a backscatter x-ray, who takes the blame for exposing it? The TSA, or the company who put you in that position to begin with? It's going to happen. Someone is going to sue their boss for putting them on the plane that caused their trauma.

 Now, let's talk about these so called safety measures.

You have a 1 in 5,000 chance of dying in a car crash.
You have a 1  in 11,000,000 chance of dying on a plane. 

The same amount of people have died in a terror related event, since 1960, as have been killed by peanuts, lightning, and deer.

Do you eat peanut butter? Would you like a government agent to approve that for you each time you put it in your mouth?

Should a government agent greet each and every individual at their car every morning, to assure that they are in optimal driving condition? Do you see how ridiculous this is? People are advocating for the violation of other people's rights, based on "safety," when the reality is, your daily, un-government-approved activities are far more dangerous.

*deep sigh*

The terrorists are winning here, people. Many of us are terrified. If we are scared, they win.

At one point do the people who are "protecting us" actually become perpetrators?

Terrorists fly.

This is a true statement.

Terrorists kill their own children to promote their political agenda.

 This is also a true statement.

 At what point, though, have the people who are sworn to protect us become actual abusers themselves?




Watch this video. If it doesn't break your heart to see the young child screaming, "don't touch me!" over and over, as the TSA agent brusquely ignores her pleas and continues to grope her, well, I don't know what to tell you.

They started the search by taking a teddy bear away from a tired child. I'm at a loss to figure out why the teddy bear couldn't ride in his mommy's arms through the metal detector in the first place. She was SO upset at the separation, she couldn't keep still for the scanner, which prompted a pat down from someone with the child relation skills of Count Olaf. (MissPreteen is reading Lemony Snickett right now).

The strange man has his hands ALL OVER the child. Completely ignoring her protests and cries. Doesn't break to let her calm down. Doesn't stop. Finishes his business completely ignoring the fact that she clearly feels violated.

The father films the scene, and the mother holds the little girl, allowing the TSA agent to continue. No one stands up and says..."stop touching my kid." "Let's find another way to do this." "Is there anything else we can do to prove this little girl is safe?

 I mean, it's pretty clear she's hiding a bomb in her t-shirt and leggings.

 So the real question is, why are we allowing a government agency to molest our children?

 That dad had some rights he didn't invoke. Someone should have stood up for that little girl. And the fact that the TSA agent still has a job after forcibly groping a child with no respect for her pleas is utterly amazing.

I'm still sitting here shaking my head... at a loss to figure out how this keeps us safe.

If anything, it makes us victims.