All over the United States, new high-tech full body scanners are being installed at airports, and we are told that this is for our own good. Apparently it is in the interest of national security that we all be subjected to what amounts to "virtual strip searches" before we get on an airplane. But are these full body scanners actually going to make us safer? Are they actually needed for our personal security? Or are they just dehumanizing us and blasting us with needless amounts of dangerous radiation? Well, the debate continues to rage on but the Transportation Security Administration continues to install them anyway. At this point the TSA has spent more than $80 million for about 500 full body scanners. 133 have already been installed at U.S. airports, and the TSA plans to install about 1,000 more by the end of 2011.
But the debate about these full body scanners continues to grow. In fact, some travelers are getting downright angry. Just consider the following quote from a recent USA Today article about these machines....
"The system takes three to five times as long as walking through a metal detector," says Phil Bush of Atlanta, one of many fliers on USA TODAY's Road Warriors panel who oppose the machines. "This looks to be yet another disaster waiting to happen."
But the truth is that "inconvenience" is only a small part of the debate.
Security officials admit that these full body scanners can see the most intimate details of our exposed bodies right through our clothing, and now there comes word that these machines may be far more hazardous to our health than previously believed.
Scientists at Columbia University have found that the dose of radiation from these new full body scanners could be up to 20 times higher than originally estimated.
Yet the TSA is not even slowing down their installation of these machines. Federal authorities seem to have no concern that millions of travelers could soon be getting fried with massive doses of radiation by these scanners.
What in the world is happening to America?
The truth is that it is getting downright humiliating to travel by plane in America.
Just watch the video news report about TSA security abuse below.
What you are about to see will blow your mind.
Is it worth going through this type of abuse just to get on an airplane?....
Yes, personal security is important, but isn't human dignity important as well?
What does it say about our society when we all line up and allow gawking security officials to examine our entire naked bodies just so that we can get on an airplane?
Okay, so perhaps you say that you just aren't going to fly.
Well, what happens when these full body scanners start being installed in bus, train and subway stations all across America?
You don't think it could ever happen?
Think again.
The truth is that our country is changing.
In fact, a new bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate would require all U.S. airports to use the new full body scanners.
Once we get used to them there, could one day they be required for every bus station and train station as well?
Yes, very easily.
We are on a very slippery slope and our land which once cherished freedom and liberty so much is rapidly turning into a locked-down Big Brother police state.
But at least we will all feel safe, eh?
