Originally Posted by studentff

Welcome to FT.

So where do you draw the line for yourself on what's OK for TSA to do? You're not going to die if TSA makes you fly naked or in a hospital gown; would that be OK?

Would you be OK if TSA said you could have no carry-on luggage at all? My employer's policies forbid me from checking a laptop as luggage (no idea what happened to anyone who got caught at LHR during the initial panic over the liquids threat, though I suspect a lot took trains to mainland Europe and flew from there), so I guess we couldn't work and travel any more. TSA refuses to take responsibility for valuables in checked luggage, so I guess that means no jewelry or high-end clothes? What if TSA decided to ban cell phones?

My middle-aged parents and elderly grandparents aren't going to die from having to take their shoes off at the checkpoint, but it's still physically difficult for them, humiliating for them, and an activity that increases their risk of an injury-causing fall. Some people choose not to fly because of that hassle. Are you OK with that?

Are you OK with TSOs using a virtual strip machine on you, or your daughter, knowing that they can find a way to save the image in spite of TSA's claims (think cell-phone camera for a crude solution) and post it on the internet?

Are you OK with DHS/TSA keeping a secret blacklist of innocent Americans who have been convicted of no crime who cannot fly but yet have no effective means of due process or redress?

Where do you draw the line? TSA seems to think it can do anything and everything to passengers if it can remotely connect it to some perceived improvement in security even if it flies in the face of the Bill of Rights, common sense, and human decency. I think they've gone way to far and need to be reigned in.

I don't think the phrases "free country" or "home of the brave" apply to a place where we have to present papers to request permission to travel from the government (ID check and no-fly list) and where our government is afraid of toothpaste and bottled water but unwilling to deploy technological solutions or risk management to deal with that fear. I appreciate your service, and the service of my father and grandfathers, but I'm not at all convinced we do that service honor with the direction the surveillance-state and security-state are heading.