First there was a fatwa from Muslim clerics about them. Now the Pope for Catholics. Any other religion’s leaders want to object? Atheists will have to object individually. All of which means no one uses the machines, everyone gets a pat down, slowing the checkpoints to a crawl.
BTW, I flew home out of Green Bay, WI on Saturday where I got the explosives hand swab. For some reason, the machine was across the room so he had to carry the pad there to test it and I had to wait. Even if the machine is right next to them, it still takes 10 seconds to report. Green Bay is small airport, so short lines, but if this was Vegas with hundreds in line at a time?
Can anyone seriously debate that on one level at least, the terrorists have won? And those who would use terrorism as an excuse to tighten control on us?
Airport security chiefs may have thought they had enough to worry about with shoe bombers, underpants bombers and people who forget to put their toothpaste into those little plastic bags. But, if so, they were reckoning without Benedict XVI.
At a meeting in the Vatican at the weekend, the pope made an authoritative – if entirely unexpected – incursion into the raging debate over the planned use of airport body scanners. He told an audience from the aerospace industry that, notwithstanding the threat from terrorism, “the primary asset to be safeguarded and treasured is the person, in his or her integrity”.
[…]
He warned: “It is essential never to lose sight of respect for the primacy of the person.”The pope’s words will delight civil liberties campaigners opposed to a device that strips passengers virtually naked. But those involved in airport security will no doubt point out that, when he himself travels — on Alitalia – the pope and his entourage are simply waved through security controls. An exception was in 1984 when a permanently installed detection mechanism in Luxembourg alerted security officials to the fact that John Paul II and his aides were packing significant quantities of metal. It had been activated by their crosses.
This Pope scares me. Please stop posting photos.
I’ll agree with the Pope on this one. If the scanners were something like they had in ‘Total Recall’ I don’t think we’d be having such a debate like this.
Nice ‘flying Pope’ picture.
What nudist colony does Uncle Dave live in?
Did he honestly thing there would be no objection to a machine that sees under clothes?
When the Muslims objected, I said it wouldn’t just be the Muslims. It won’t just be the Catholics. LOTS of people don’t like strangers to see under their clothes.
I think these machines are a bad idea because they aren’t worth the money.
Instead, use highly trained, highly competent screeners.
But the conservatives would rather see Americans bombed than pay workers well. http://tinyurl.com/y88xa6k
BTW, Look at all the buttons on the Pope’s outfit. I wonder how long it take for him to dress in the morning? And how many staff?
What is with the airfoil?
I am pretty sure because if they did scan him they find one or two kids underneath his robes doing the you know what.
Pope can suck it.
No, It’s not the terrorists that won. The Oligarchs did, they’re doing the same thing in every western country. Britains got it a lot worse.
A point may have been missed. Traveling to America has always been uncomfortable and expensive. But now that it is also personally invasive and sinful, you’re going to attract a whole different type of tourist. Yes, the airport sadomasochist, voyeurs of cavity discomfort, body scanner exhibitionists, rubber glove fetishists. Making people pay, for the “special services”, might help to pay for the cost of running them. Might I suggest that a line of verbal abuse and spells in handcuffs and tightly fitting constrictive leather straps while suspended in a dark room? I hear that works, for some people.
#6-Theone-if they did scan him they find one or two kids underneath his robes doing the you know what.
Interesting you would think that.
It says more about what a pervert you are than the Pope.
#9
Or maybe at the very fact that you are absolutely clueless what’s been going around in the news in regards to church and kids, doing you know what. Oh, just so you know, nothing is happening to these fcks.
So again, fck the pope and fck all those priest or fck-ards that have done what they’ve done and gotten away.
That picture looks like he just levitated off a balcony and is about to pepper the crowd below with lasers from his eyes.
Fear the Laser Pope!
#10-Theone-you are absolutely clueless what’s been going around in the news in regards to church and kids.
It’s difficult not know what is happening in the Catholic church regarding kids, but that doesn’t mean the Pope is guilty.
You might want to direct your anger toward the pedophiles and homosexuals who have entered the church under false pretenses as a way to prey on the vulnerable.
There is every reason to be angry, but at least direct your anger toward those who deserve it.
TheOne,
Are you honestly surprised at push-back when you baselessly accuse people of paedophilia? Especially people’s religious leader?
I don’t give the Catholic church any sort of pass on the child abuse scandals but I have no reason to believe the pope is a paedophile. Nor do you.
If you cared enough to go beyond baseless sniping, you would have noticed that the current pope is taking this scandal more seriously than did John Paul who seemed pretty clueless about it (if not passively collusional).
http://tinyurl.com/yfs8hez
The terrorists have won? Really?
So when I put locks on my doors the thieves have won. When I don’t walk down a dark alley at night, the muggers have won, when I put on my seat belt the government has won, when I tear the protective seal off of a bottle of aspirin, the mentally challenged have won, when I wear a condom the viruses have won, when I diversify my investments the market has won, when I count my change the sales person has won…
It seems that every scumbag on earth has won except me.
… perhaps I should rephrase that.
Dr. Dodd,
Right on and amen to you. I appreciate your reasonable voice on this.
However, I would challenge you on the point that these scandals where from paedophiles infiltrating the church.
Every organization that works with kids has that problem or at least vulnerability — churches, Boy Scouts, sports teams, schools, Taliban, etc.
But few have covered-it-up the way the Roman Catholic Church did. They even enabled the abusers by moving them from church to church with no attempt to protect the children.
I have my theories about why they did this but it was not just a case of infiltrators.
>> Skeptic said, on February 22nd, 2010 at 9:25 am
>> The terrorists have won? Really?
>> So when I put locks on my doors the thieves have won.
When conservatives collectively crapped on our Constitution in their post-911 panic, the terrorists won at least a little, IMHO.
Uncle Dave,
I’ve had the explosive swab done on my luggage even before 911. I arrived very early for a critical flight and just about missed it because the low-IQ guard insisted swabbing the BOTTOM of my many carefully packed pieces of luggage.
The goofball security guard kept LITERALLY goofy-chuckling at my concern about missing a very important connection on a critical international trip.
BTW, I’m not just tossing out the “low IQ” charge. This guy clearly was very low functioning.
And that’s my rub… I think out best airport strategy is to hire well-trained, very smart and savvy security personnel rather than million-dollar pieces of high tech equipment.
A well trained guard would have realised that me, my wife and baby where highly unlikely terrorists and just swabbed a couple of our bags, for the sake of randomness, and let us go.
But conservatives are blocking the hiring of good security personnel because they are philosophically against paying government workers a good salary.
These conservative believe all security should out-sourced to private firms who hire disposable, minimum wage workers. And they love gazillion-dollar pieces of equipment because they can reward their donors with the contracts.
#13
I have to LMAO for this. My frustration is vented in sarcasm. No, I don’t think the pope is a molester, but yes I do think he’s partly to blame for doing absolutely nothing; rather saying but nothing has actually happened.
If by taking it more seriously you mean to voice that you are taking the matter seriously then it has ALREADY been a huge fail. Talks this week have produced no results into actions against KNOWN pedophiles.
And while all this is happening or not happening, depending on how you view it, victims are once again left defenseless and without justice. Look at it from the victims point of view for a minuter here. Pope and some of his “management” teams are saying they are taking this seriously, raising your hope that something would be done, ONLY to find out that absolutely nothing has changed from all the BS talks. In the meantime, pedophiles, some even known, are still out there.
If the pope isn’t to blame, then he sure as hell shouldn’t be in the leadership role. Being up there and doing nothing about one of the most despicable human acts against kids is already a sin to begin with.
Yes, I’m very upset at the current news. No, I’m not particularly upset at the pope at all. The question is why aren’t you guys as upset as I am? And please don’t say I should direct my anger at those responsible because really no one fcking knows all that is at fault and/or should be blame. But leadership can change it IF they want it to change.
>> The0ne said, on February 22nd, 2010 at 10:03 am
>> I have to LMAO for this. My frustration is vented in sarcasm. No, I don’t think the pope is a molester, but yes I do think he’s partly to blame for doing absolutely nothing;
Sarcasm? Seems more like snide to me.
But, anyway, did you read my link?
You’re factually wrong to say the pope is “doing absolutely nothing.”
Seriously, dude, you are just plain wrong. Read the link.
… what makes you think I’m not outraged?
Just because I don’t share your glib, vague-directed animosity?
I know a thing-or-two about the life-long devastating effect of sexual child abuse. I’m horrified at what happened in the Catholic church — both to the children and in the systematic cover-up.
But I don’t show my “outrage” by making paedophilia snipes at the pope, lamely justified as sarcasm.
Security Theater. There may be some questions about who’s winning but there can be no question that free citizens are losing.
#17 — I agree that if the security of aircraft is going to include screeners then they should be well trained and paid people.
I will add that all these new and extensions to the security of aircraft are add-ons to a system that was geared torward moving lots of people through quickly. Now there is two objectives at the airports. First, make sure people get on the planes quickly. Second, make sure no one has harmful devices on their persons. Obviously, the second objective slows the first down. After eight years, it might be time to analyze the whole process to find a better compromise.
The current system will more likely buckle under the weight of more terrorist attempts. How many hours is a person suppose to endure before a one hour flight? What items do people have to leave behind or ship by other means because they are not allowed on aircraft? How many low paid workers and high tech machines can we add just because of the last attempt?
There should be a way to provide reasonable amount of security in a reasonable amount of time.
Ol’ Pape feels he has to weigh in on the subject ’cause he figures Jebus wouldn’t approve of scanning machines that show outlines of genitalia. Jebus has been gone for 2,000 years but we still have to vet everything against what He would want. I’m frackin’ sick of Jebus & his (projected) viewpoints.
#17: I’ve had it done on my luggage in the past. Inside, too! The guy who did my hands did hustle over to the machine and said it would take 10 seconds, but still… Why wasn’t the machine right next to where he was working?
I was the only one going through at the time (small airport) so I didn’t see if this was being done to everyone or just certain crazy blog editors.
The OP asked: “Have the terrorist won?” and the answer unfortunately is yes: by their very low cost actions, they have “changed America” and the West in very deleterious ways.
Sadly, “we” have to be smarter in our responses. Hard to do with 45% of the voting public championing the likes of Cheney and Palin.
We have to educate the “moderate” (sic–highly debateable except for Muslims who have left their homeland in disgust) Muslims to see their own best interests in controlling those within their own ranks who wish a more conservative approach to more complicated issues.
When we can’t do it in our own more secular society, hard to see how it will happen in a religious one.
I say let the pope go through without the body scan.
-aside from T-waves having the ability to really fubar your DNA…
I have a way way, waaay out there in left field thought on the popes “dislike” of scanners..
if you dig into the some of the “banned books” books of the bible (like Enoch) and of course, ancient Sumerian texts, it becomes quite obvious that ET’s manufactured us via some handy gene manipulation…ie -making an ET/human hybrid etc..
I imagine, some of the pope’s more “etheric tall hat buddies” might be lose coherence (shape) when exposed to T-Waves.
Since sound/vibration (slowed down) is how physical matter is manifested.. a [higher energy] being who has mastered control of its energy field [or matrix], should be able to make itself appear as a solid humanoid figure with relative ease..
However since the vibratory rate of such an entity in it’s more “natural” form of pure energy is around 22trillion cycles per second, -a terahertz wave scan may have the potential to produce higher order harmonics which may disrupt said entities ability [perhaps concentration?] to maintain a solid shape..
I have been thinking for quite some time now, that the real reason for the body scanners is to spot ET’s
or ET hybrids which are expected to make a major [re]-appearance over the next two years or so..if not this summer..
–yeah yeah, i know, put me in a straight jacket, i’ve finally flipped big time.
-however, anyone who doesn’t have their head up their arse knows all of what we are taught about our origins is completely manufactured BS..and practically every other country except ours has not only acknowledged ET/UFO existence for at least half a century, but have even released 1000’s of declassified “X-Files”
-while we sill maintain the whole UFO thing is nothing but swamp gas, weather balloons or ice crystals..
-anyway..that’s my take on the body scanner BS.
-s
#19
Again, Glenn, I appreciate your article but as I’ve said, say the same thing to the victims that have NOT had their justice even in the face of “facts.”
I can read all there is to read about what the Pope has said and is doing. But until I actually read that victims have had their justice then it’s a moot point. How hard is it to remove a priest? Apparently only God can.
NPR did a report on this whole Catholic/Irish this earlier this week. Seriously, look it up! /sarcasm on last sentence.