“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.” Josef Mengele, Nazi concentration camp doctor known as the Angel of Death.

"On my radio show, Dr. Ofer Zur, whose grandparents died in the Holocaust, wondered aloud why Jews, who far outnumbered concentration camp guards, didn't fight back."

I have seen it offered that they thought it was just punishment for the life they led.

"And why do you think so few Americans seem more than mildly annoyed at what the TSA is doing?"

1) It only happens to the rich people, who fly places
2) Everybody gets patted down
3) They believe the Big Lie that it makes them safer.

How else could to you explain Americans telling their little girls that the stranger can put their hands everywhere on them?

The correct sign over the airport concourse would only be slightly different fron "Arbeit Macht Frei".

And why do you think so few Americans seem more than mildly annoyed at what the TSA is doing?

Because they didn't and haven't thought through the implication of United 93. So the knee-jerk reaction Congress implemented in the days following 9/11 were nominally approved by the general public.

On my radio show, Dr. Ofer Zur, whose grandparents died in the Holocaust, wondered aloud why Jews, who far outnumbered concentration camp guards, didn't fight back.

The problem is that most people don't know there rights and were never given detailed instruction on interaction with law enforcement and "authority" figures.

This is boiling frog theory. And once you submit, it gets easier to go along. And peer pressure doesn't help. If you are in the prison camp and the guards can kill you on a whim, you and a group have to throw off the fear of death to take out the guards. But you have to have a group realize they are dead either way.

That's just my thumbnail psychology view of it.

Oh, no, Amy. Only rich people can afford a plane ticket, and have places to go hundreds or thousands of miles away.

I say this by inference. I have actually heard, at a County Commission meeting, that "marina owners are rich - look at all those boats!" The nitwit didn't understand who owned the boats.

If you could trade a food stamp for a plane ticket, you'd have a champion - maybe. Individual rights interfere with government, you know.

My kids will never be patted down-at least not until they are 18 and make the choice for themselves (and I rather hope current society collapses before then). Let me repeat that-NEVER! My kids *may* have to accompany my hubby to bail me out someday, but better that than telling them to allow a stranger to fondle them at will.

Hubby will probably be able to bail me out, as he's rarely with us when we travel and thus wouldn't be arrested too.

As for the holocaust, we are strongly ingrained to fight for our self survival. It takes a lot of overcoming it to sacrifice self for group. Even if rationally you know your life will be over rather soon, it isn't easy to risk it.

There's a reason soldiers train incessantly. Fighting biological imperatives isn't easy.

Plus, much like the people on the first few flights on 9-11, maybe they really didn't know what was coming, until it was too late.

Jim P: "If you are in the prison camp and the guards can kill you on a whim, you and a group have to throw off the fear of death to take out the guards. But you have to have a group realize they are dead either way."

I think you nailed it. People submit because they're intimidated. The government has the power to inflict catastrophic consequences on the lives of people who don't submit. Try getting on a plane while refusing to provide nude images of yourself or allowing your child to be sexually fondled by TSA creeps, or both, and you'll pay a high price - confiscation of money or property, captivity and imprisonment, violent assault up to and including death.

Of course you can choose not to fly. But apparently those who do fly find submission to the "enhanced screening" still worth it. Many actually claim they feel safer.

The Department of Homeland Security plans to deploy hundreds of so-called VIPR teams to train and bus terminals, highways, sports stadiums, major events and malls. This is not some further outrage cooked up by the Obama administration. This has been in the works since at least as early as 2005. The Republicans will not end it, and neither will a conservative Supreme Court, as evidenced by the recent ruling in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders.

It's been said a million times: It's not about terrorism and security. It's about subjection: restricting and discouraging movement, and conditioning people to submit to any demand or indignity imposed by any government "official".

A couple of years ago I watched a YouTube video of a frightened 6-year-old little girl standing with her feet wide apart and her arms outstretched being disgracefully handled by some fat, sweaty TSA creep, while her parents stood aside calmly watching. By the time that little girl is 14 or 15 she'll be used to such degradation, and it won't be more than a minor annoyance when some school security guard, policeman, teacher, mall cop or other "official" decides he'd like to pull her aside and administer a little "enhanced screening". She'll know by then that it's all about keeping her safe.

Individual resistence is ultimately useless in this situation. How do we organize better?

BTW: as far as I can tell, most of the ordinary people - the 95% THAT don't fly, are completely unaware of the situation.

It means telling TSA workers (they are not officers) that they are horrible for earning a living violating Americans' constitutional rights.

Amy, this is exactly right. Often people (even my wife) tell me, "Those people are just doing their job. Don't harass them for enforcing rules they didn't write!"

But I see it like you do - the only way those rules get enforced is because our federal government is able to find people who are willing to enforce them.

The reason that the average TSA agent appears to be straight out of the WalMart checkout line is because someone who's poorer and less educated is going to be more willing to "just do his job" for a paycheck. He/she didn't pay attention in high school government class and doesn't have the desire or capability to think through what he/she is doing. All they care about is that their own supervisor told them to do it and payday is on Friday, so read your name off your boarding pass and spread your legs if you want to fly today.

You can't reason with someone like that. You can't expect them to wake up one day and say, "I think I'll read go read up on John Adams." All you can do is push back against them in the course of their daily work and make the "cost" of doing that work not worth the paycheck.

I know, I'm a nit naive and optimistic that way.