Umm...

Unless you are under military orders or a court order you never must travel. You're perfectly within your rights to drive, or walk, or ride a horse or other conveyance.

I agree with you, but it's not legally reasonable to argue that you must travel because that simply isn't the case. You're under no government mandated compulsory order.

There is no governmental punitive action if your refuse to travel. Yes, you'd lose your job, but that's a issue between you and your employer and not you and the government.

Again, I DO think there are solid steps we should be taking that are more efficient and more effective than the ones we are. I've yet to hear, for instance, why we don't have smart magnetometers (metal detectors) in place and insist on using primitive technology massively deployed rather than smarter technology deployed correctly.

What's a *smart* metal detector? Simple, it's a device that uses signature strength and type to compare against a database and decide if you're carrying something that might be a gun (thus an alarm) or simply picking up the metal shoelace eyeholes in your shoes. It can also pinpoint within an inch on your body the metal is and notify the operator. It's discretionary in the sense that it knows to ignore certain parameters of trivial metal. As opposed to dialing up the sensitivity so high (as is current practice in some places) that it will pick up the fillings in your teeth!

How about deploying the millimeter wave radar/thermal imaging cameras that basically strip the clothes away from your body and instantly reveal what you're carrying underneath? THESE ALREADY EXIST! No need for touchy feely pat downs, much faster to process people through (About 1 person per SECOND) and the software can even be programmed to blur or fuzz areas of the body for modesty reasons. The combination of thermal imaging and low level radiation detection will INSTANTLY reveal a gun like or knife like object.

It works. It works well. And there aren't any deployed anywhere in the States. Why the heck not?

Why, instead, are we using thousands of people with tired old hand wands and x-raying every pair of shoes and crippling the people flow? The amazing thing to me is that the airports should demand these technologies. They'd be cheaper in the long run, more secure, do more to prevent smuggling and allow people back in to the concourse to meet arrivals and shop etc.

So there you go, a solid proposal from one of the folks that thinks the current system sucks. Let's put that tired old argument to bed at least.

Regards,
-Bouncer-
PS; for the record I have no direct or indirect financial interest in any of these companies that sell or deploy these technologies. I've no dog in this fight except to get better systems that work more efficiently and provide more real security.