Foot fetish at SAT? Plus laughter about radiation exposure

Went through SAT this morning and opted out of BSK (as always). The TSO who "assisted" me (there is something wrong about "male assist" as the person who gropes you to prove you're not a terrorist) made sure he touched every part of my body, INCLUDING the bottom of my feet. This foot fetish is a new process to me -- for crying out loud, will we now need to remove socks?

I conducted my normal commentary and criticisms during the "assist", and the TSO said I had had a choice to go through the BSK and avoid the "intimate touching" process. I replied that I would not let the government irradiate me nor strip me naked. He laughed and said, well, what about me? I work around them all day.

I told him I felt sorry for his body and health. He just shook his head and walked away.

So pitiful that the people most at risk from the radiation think it's a joke.

Going through IAH last weekend, the TSA barker insisted that I remove my "foot tube" (nylon "socklet" that just goes around the ball of my foot - the toes and heel are visible).

He insisted that my hosiery were really "shoes".

He won't be laughing in a few years.

Nor will the rest of us. As taxpayers we will foot the bill for the federal workers compensation claims which will get filed as a result of this workplace exposure to hazardous radiation. We can only hope that the TSOs get the same "delay, deny and hope they die" treatment from OWCP that our military veterans get from the VA.

Just had a conversation with a TSA worker about this on Thursday. I was in the line for the metal detector and like usual they decided to tell me to step over to the radiation porn machine. I had decided previously to start saying the word radiation more loudly to make sure more people could hear me saying it in my opt out. I said it so loud, though, that it startled me, triggering me to laugh (perverse, I know). The TSA worker also laughed. There is so much wrong with what I just typed, but, alas, it is what it is. So, feeling suddenly chatty, I started telling him, "You know, you shouldn't be standing next to it all day, either. It's not safe. You heard the news about the cancer clusters already starting to appear? Can you just imagine the class action lawsuits that are going to bankrupt our country for real when all of you get cancer?" This is similar to the usual things I talk about at the checkpoint, but this time the worker nodded and agreed, saying, "I know what you mean, but I sure hope that doesn't happen to all of us." So, I added, "They don't even let you wear those meters to see how much radiation you're getting." He said, "A few of us used to but then they made us stop." At that point I couldn't continue this thread of conversation any longer because it was time to follow my stuff and make sure it didn't decide to travel somewhere without me.

Also, a few weeks back, I, too had somebody obsessed with my feet. She was down there so long massaging them that I asked her if she was going to give me a pedicure while she was down there.

It's rather telling that not only does our government not want travelers to know just how much radiation those machines put out, but they actually tell the employees that they're not allowed to wear any sort of monitoring equipment - dosimeter, film, anything - even if the employee pays for it.

(sarcasm)I wonder why that is.(/sarcasm)

Wirelessly posted (Motorola DynaTAC: BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

But of course the Nude-O-Scopes are safe; that's why the TSA will not allow their employees to wear dosimeters.

I was wondering about this recently - does the NoS see the bottoms of our feet? I don't remember what the floor of the MMW looks like but I do recall some kind of mat or carpet between the BXSK boxes.

The notion that the "better" scanning method is less likely to catch something than other methods is simply par of the course, of course. But knowing TSA's usual excuses*, they'd probably say they'd automatically catch someone with something stuck to the bottom of their feet because they'd walk in some unusual way. (Read: people with MS, MD, CP, etc. are going to get groped more)


* in a discussion about AIT, a TSA spokesman said they're not worried about body cavity explosives because such a thing would naturally be accompanied by an external indicator like wires or a handheld detonator.

He can laugh it up with his oncologist in a few years.

Unless it used BlueTooth.

Yes, though that's not the point. They're making the assumption that a bad guy would be carrying a ready-to-go device, not just ferrying parts.

As if bad guys never work in teams. Or perhaps no one would go through security with explosives inside a cavity and then go shopping for electronics and batteries at the duty-free shop. Ah, there go the Best Buy vending machines.

I think we might be talking past eachother, but there is nothing stopping a person from traveling with a ready to go device inside of them (perhaps one that has replaced all of their intestines) that is triggered by a command from their iPhone. Guy gets wheeled onto the plane and later on ....

Like I have done a few times to humble a clerk, ask him/her, "Have you ever watched someone die from cancer?" That usually shuts them up pretty quickly.

Or they ALSO insert the detonator in an orifice.

At ORD last week I started a conversation with the TSO who was groping me. I said I felt sorry for him having to stand by that machine for 10 hours a day. He said they were told not to stand too close to it.