FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Elderly woman asked to remove adult diaper during TSA search
Old Jun 28, 2011 | 5:53 pm
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Boraxo
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Originally Posted by Fredd
Columnists are now weighing in, giving the story legs at least for awhile longer. Like others, I hope every time an incident like this one is publicized that it'll be the tipping point:

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/tsa-tra...ry?id=13940089

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/op...ome&position=2

http://www.deseretnews.com/blog/33/1...SA-lunacy.html
Here's another one I like:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,796893.column

It seems the first commandment of the TSA is that every mind must be trained in the likeness of a machine. "Garbage in, garbage out," is how computer programmers explain the way bad outputs are determined by bad inputs. Likewise, if TSA workers are programmed not to use common sense or discretion — surprise! — TSA workers won't use common sense or discretion.

Why not? One reason is we've institutionalized an irrational phobia against anything smacking of racial or religious profiling. Once you've decided that disproportionate scrutiny of certain groups is verboten, you'll have to hassle everyone equally. Thus we're told that a 95-year-old woman's diaper is just as likely to be the front line in the war on terror as a 22-year-old Pakistani's backpack.

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