Full Body Scanners

There has been a ton of foofarah surrounding airport security procedures this last week. The TSA has rolled out the new full body scanners at terminals across the country. These are the machines that use a low level of backscatter x-rays to produce a picture that looks like a shadowy outline of you without any clothes on. Installing the scanners was put on a crash basis after last Christmas' underwear bomber. He only managed to set his own genitals on fire, but his aborted attack revealed a weakness in the current security system.

People are complaining that it is too invasive, that the new scans violate privacy. Others claim that it is an unwarranted government intrusion into our lives. I have read some people urge that we boycott the air travel system until these scanners are pulled.

Worse, because there is a low level of x-ray exposure that is cumulative, frequent fliers may choose to opt out of the scans. If they do, the alternative is a "pat down" inspection. I've got to admit, I have no desire to have a TSA representative prod my genital area, checking to see if I have strapped explosives to my inner thigh.

But you know who I really feel sorry for? The TSA employees.

You want to see what I look like with no clothes on? Bring it, but I can't promise you'll be able to sleep at night. You need to "touch my junk?" Go ahead. You'll be the one to wake up screaming, not me.

It's not just me. A third of all Americans are obese, with another third in the category of overweight. I can just imagine the daily meeting at the airport where jobs for the day are assigned. "Joe, you'll be working the body scanner today." "Oh geez, no! Can't I x-ray bags instead, please!"

Seriously, I can't imagine a more thankless task than trying to stop terrorists from blowing up random flights.

The Pnedulum Swings Back

A week after the election, and the changed realities in Washington are still settling in. The electorate has decided to throw the rascals and scoundrels out, and bring in a new crew of rascals and scoundrels.

The results are not really too surprising, given the partisan overreach of the first two years of the Obama administration. After all, slapping the label “liberal” on a candidate carries significant negative connotations with the public at large. Even the liberals agree with that, which is why they’ve tried to rebrand themselves as “progressives.”

Two years ago, the picture looked quite different. There was plenty of talk about a new New Deal, the assumption that Democratic Party gains signaled a mandate for a gigantic expansion of the power and reach of the Federal government. America was finally going to take its rightful place among the nations of Europe.

It turns out that most Americans don’t want to live in France, even if they could find it on a map. If they did, Massachusetts would be a lot more crowded.

Even more shocking were the pronouncements made about the Republican party. One pundit wrote that the GOP was doomed to be a “rump party of southern white males.” Astonishingly, just two weeks ago editorial writer DeWayne Wickham wrote:
"Don't be fooled by the political gains Republicans are expected to make in the midterm elections. The GOP is on the critical list. The wins it will score, possibly enough to give it control of the House of Representatives, will be short lived. They are the dying gasp of a political party that has become too intolerant and too white in a nation whose population soon will be dominated by Hispanics, blacks and Asians."

Sure, because if you think massive expansions in government programs, along with tax rates to match, it must be because you are racist. The last time I checked, to gain a majority in the House of Representatives, the Republicans had to have more than half the voters choose their candidate in more than half the Congressional districts in this country. That seems pretty egalitarian to me.

But I think the best riposte to the claim that to be a conservative is to be exclusionary is this: New Mexico elected a new governor this week. Susana Martinez is the nation’s first female Hispanic governor. She’s a Republican.

Election Day

If the polls are correct, the Republican Party is poised to retake control of the House of Representatives. The outcome in the Senate is more in doubt. Although the Republicans will certainly pick up several seats, they will probably not gain the majority.

The most likely result will be divided government and gridlock, to which I say: Long live gridlock!

As a proponent of limited government, I am quite pleased at the prospect of a government that can’t get anything done. A government that can’t get anything done will not expand. A government that can’t get anything done will, of necessity, leave the citizens to their own devices. There is a technical term for that state of affairs. It’s called freedom.

The Republicans don’t need control of the Senate to resist the threat of encroachment into private concerns by the power of the state. Under Senate rules, they only need enough votes to prevent cloture and continue debate. The filibuster is a powerful tool for conservatism.

In the US Senate, it requires 60 votes to be an irresistible force. But it only takes 40 votes to be an immovable object.