Next time you travel you could paint weird spots on your skin and tell them to please grope you, as you'd love to share your contagious disease with them.

The last few times I've flown, in order to combat this, I purposely leave a bottle of water in my bag. Then when it goes through the x-ray, it's flagged, and they'll make sure nobody just takes it. All they do is remove the bottle of water and run it through the x-ray again. Although one of the times I did this, they didn't even flag it.

I guess it'd be a little harder with a laptop - what if you purposely left your laptop in a bag instead of taking it out like you're supposed to? They'd probably flag it and not let anyone take it. Though they'd probably be mad that you didn't take it out like you were supposed to. It's pretty believable/innocent to say you "forgot" you had a bottle of water in there...not so much with a laptop.

Have you ever tried telling them you were going to opt out and prefer they hand search your bag instead of x-raying? I haven't tried that yet, but have considered it.

I always take my puppy with me when flyling...he's a service dog and they treat us very nicely although they always pat my hands with something to make sure i don't have any bomb residue i guess......well next time i'm going to have to explain about my new metal hip replacement....that should be pretty funny indeed....will keep you posted....flying went from being fun and exciting and adventurous to slightly worse than the greyhound bus station with a shitty attitude towards passengers from nearly everyone.....but the TSA has been the money wasting joke of the decade......i forget to take my computer out regularly and they rarely catch it.....what a crock of horseshit

I am with you that TSA is a huge violation of ours rights. However, my experience at Chicago O'Hare, Chicago Midway, New York LaGuardia, and New York Kennedy doesn't match up with yours.

I always opt out. When they finally lead me to the other side for a pat down, they *always* ask me to identify my stuff on the conveyor belt and then they take it over to the pat down area. They do this as part of the "glove test" where they test for residue.

Strange that they don't do this with you. I fly at least once per month and this has been their modus operandi for at least the last 18 months.

More proof that TSA rules make no sense- my military son-in-law and his team had to go thru TSA enroute to Afghanistan (not sure why) and TSA let them keep their guns, bayonets and military knifes as carry-ons but confiscated his nail clippers telling him it was per TSA rules (I guess the military only precleared military issued equipment).

"confiscated his nail clippers"

Unrelated to anything else but I just had a funny image pop into my head of assault nail clippers.

"When they finally lead me to the other side for a pat down, they *always* ask me to identify my stuff on the conveyor belt and then they take it over to the pat down area."

I've had about a 50/50 rate on this. Orlando airport they would do that before the pat down. Los Angeles they did after. Last time I was in Pittsburgh they didn't bother with the chemical analysis bullshit. Of course we don't know what the standard operating procedure is (deliberately) so I couldn't tell you how it's *supposed* to happen.

It certainly wouldn't surprise me if it was an intimidation tactic. And it certainly wouldn't surprise me if it was done to make stealing from travelers easier.

I've always been allowed to grab my bags (or a TSA agent grabbed them for me) when I've been pulled aside for a pat down.

San Francisco's airport seems to have attitude-free TSA screeners.

Note: at SFO the TSA employs a contractor to handle the TSA screenings - the [non-union] contract employees do screenings per hour and per agent than LAX which uses government [unionized] employees.

I've gotten fireworks past the TSA chemical "test"

For those who dont understand what that means, I got explosives past the explosives test

That's very odd. I opt-out every time I fly, and they always gather up all of my stuff (often requiring a second agent to help because I've used 7 bins for all my crap) and cart it over to the groping / sniffing station.

But that doesn't really mean all that much, because they all definitely have different rules and insist that "that's the way it is everywhere". Like, my CPAP machine, for instance. In the case, out of the case, case open, case closed, you name it, they've insisted it be in that configuration. Well, ok, thus far they haven't insisted I turn it on it's side or anything, but you get the point.

FYI: In most locations, they've replaced the ionizing radiation
scanners with microwave scanners. It doesn't address the
freedom from no-probable-cause searches, but it does fix the
safety hazard problem of Xrays.

Do you use a microwave oven? The emission standards for microwave
oven leakage are orders of magnitude higher than the power emitted
by the scanners.

I admit I clicked on the link with the small hope there would be a photo of your puppy-to-be. Congrats on finding the one and passing the vetting process!

I no longer fly. Due to life's experience, I can not abide being touched by strangers, and if patted down, I would surely hit, kick or bite someone. Or meltdown, in trying to control the reaction. I guess I am more about Fight than Flight...I have scared the hell out of a touchy coworker or three.

A question to you who do fly: I target shoot frequently-at least 3x/wk... Would residue from that (legal) activity be detectable to their chem tests and get me in big trouble? Just curious.

Do you use a microwave oven? The emission standards for microwave oven leakage are orders of magnitude higher than the power emitted by the scanners. -- Ron at August 14, 2013 4:41 PM

Please show a reference to that.

In addition the number of people who died because they worked in a microwave towers in the 50's and 60's is uncountable.

And quite frankly that is off-topic. Why should you be searched because you want to get on an airplane? Why not be searched to get on a train? What about getting on the Interstate?

If you say any of those are ridiculous please justify the other.

I "opt out" every time (when did someone opt me in?!) and I've only experienced this once. On my way from Las Vegas to Los Angeles coming home from a conference, I stated that I would not enter the scanner. After hearing the same tired phrase about how it's "safe" I waited for a TSO to come and grope me.

Except my items weren't pulled off of the Xray, they passed through to the end where they sat in one of the busiest airports in the US, where anyone could steal them.

I protested, since I couldn't see them - the scanner was obscuring my line of vision. I was told they didn't "have enough personnel" to watch my items. While I argued back and forth with the woman (who then let 10 people go through the metal detector while not allowing me to bypass the scanner), my boyfriend went through the scanner, grabbed my items and walked away. He couldn't see me once he went through, so he assumed that it was OK to take my items.

By the time I was finally sexually assaulted and deemed "not a threat" (I'm 5'2", not even strong enough to open a jar of jam and generally considered a pacifist), I looked for my things and they were gone. After panicking and having the TSO who patted me down shrug and walk away without saying anything or making a report, I noticed my boyfriend far off to the side. He had grabbed my items and found one of the only open seats in a corner.

I'm with Amy - after that moment I became a bulldog about my things. If my cell is stolen, if my laptop is lifted while some woman who could barely qualify for a retail job feels more of my breast than my gynecologist, do we really think that they'll take responsibility? Of course not!

Do what you have to do. Until we can get our basic Constitutional rights back, we must hold the TSA accountable for our items.

@bmused:

Please show a reference to that.
These are the cites I worked from. I did make a math error
converting watts/ square meter to watts/ square cm. Corrected
below. It's not orders of magnitude different; it's close to a
wash.

Microwave oven leakage: 5 mw/ square centimeter
http://www.fda.gov/radiation-emittingproducts/resourcesforyouradiationemittingproducts/ucm252762.htm

Scanner exposure: .4 mw / square cm to 6.4 mw / square cm (read the
cite to see that this is a pessimistic set of figures)
http://travelsecure.infrastructure.gov.au/bodyscanners/files/INFRA1581_OTS_FS_A4_BODY_SCANNER_HS_INFO_SHEET_1012_FA_WEB.PDF

And quite frankly that is off-topic.
How can that be off topic when Amy's original post explicitly
mentioned safety concerns?

If you say any of those are ridiculous please justify the other.
I never tried to advocate the other in the first place. I merely
discussed the radiation safety aspects of the scanners.

Bad day. I need to correct my correction. Sorry, my math error was
made in checking my original figures. The original ones were correct.
.00064 watts/ square meter is .64 mw/ square meter. Thus it's
.000064 mw / square cm. That's roughly 5 orders of magnitude lower
than the allowed leakage from a microwave oven.

How can that be off topic when Amy's original post explicitly mentioned safety concerns?

I still want to know how I'm safer being exposed to microwaves or XRays than I am in taking down the slim chance that some motherfucking terrorist trying to take over the aircraft.

I never tried to advocate the other in the first place. I merely discussed the radiation safety aspects of the scanners. -- Ron at August 14, 2013 7:55 PM

Please focus on the technical aspects of how your and my rights are being violated.

Please tell me where the technical violation is listed in the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I don't quite see the porno scanner listed as probable cause because I want to fly.

" The emission standards for microwave
oven leakage are orders of magnitude higher than the power emitted
by the scanners."

I don't get into, or stand in front of, my microwave.

Do you have any data supporting that? And do you know for a fact that the airport scanners are set as they claim they are?

"I've always been allowed to grab my bags (or a TSA agent grabbed them for me) when I've been pulled aside for a pat down."

How comforting. Someone who isn't even a real police officer, and who has not been screened herself, allows you to do something while you jump through hoops to get on a plane - while being presumed guilty until proven innocent for doing so.

Crella, about scanners. Generally, you can't turn a dial on these things and change their power output. Your microwave, for instance, uses a timer and shuts on and off. It doesn't vary the strength of the beam used to cook your food because the amplitude of the wave, as well as its frequency, is directly correlated to the size of its emitter. A microwave can be thought of as a semi-solid, or a sound, being pumped out of a pipe. There is a resonant frequency at which it is most efficient, and points beyond which it just cannot go.

With the Rapiscan x-ray machines, claims were made here that the dose was dangerous. I was able to show that the flight itself exposed the fliers to hundreds, sometimes thousands of times higher doses than the Rapiscan produced. When someone suggests that such a machine can just be "turned up", it is useful to think of your coffee pot, stereo or car: you just can't make it more powerful by a factor of a hundred by turning a knob or stepping on the gas pedal harder.

Scanners are NOT the issue. The whole scanner thing is a red herring. Focus on rights!

When the girls and I flew to Florida last weekend we left out of White Plains, which is a teeny tiny airport just over the state line. There was no time to opt out because we were running late, so we all went through the scanner, and the one TSO (woman) said to me, "I just need to pat down your back." I said "oh good, be sure to get my right shoulder, it's been bugging me all day." She was so shocked, she just touched the top of my back really quickly, with her blue-gloved hand, and waved me on my way. Didn't even touch either of the girls. On the return flight from Orlando, we just went through the metal detector. The scanners were operating and we saw some people going through them, but the TSO in our line just had us go through the metal detector, which one of my bracelets set off. He kind of scowled at me and said "go back and put your bracelets on the belt" which I did, then went through the metal detector again, and that was it. No pat downs or anything else. I guess we got lucky. It was really crowded that night and maybe they just wanted to get everyone through the checkpoint and on their way.

My (now) ex has a mid-calf amputation. Not one TSA person ever touched it or tested it to see if it was made of explosive. On the other hand, "the girls" get groped every time I fly commercial.

One of the reasons TSA is such a joke (aside from the fact that these are government-mandated jobs hired out to a contractor who provides no training) is that anyone who has a private pilot's license can rent an airplane and openly carry an armload of weaponry to stow aboard.
If you own your airplane, you can load it up with anything you want. No one is going to search it.

You will never be able to fly again.

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