Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! The only people really freaking about this are people who fly all the time for business or for vacation i.e. rich people. This isn’t to say that the new procedures probably aren’t totally stupid, overly invasive, and don’t make us any safer. That’s probably all true, but to act like they’re some huge assault on basic civil liberties is ridiculous. There’s no fundamental, constitutional right to fly on a commercial airliner. It’s something I’m going go through all of 2010 without doing, because I am poor.
I realize that since the initial Gawker post I linked was posted there’s some evidence that public opinion has changed, but that’s most likely the result of the relentless push on this by rich people with high-paying media jobs. And even then, nearly two-thirds of the people in that poll favored the full body scans. It’s the pat downs that are the controversial, but you only get a pat down if you refuse the body scan for some reason, most likely because you’re worried about the radiation exposure because you fly all the time on business. Maybe spend some time at home with your children instead for once?
One of the things I loved about the movie version of Up in the Air is that the Ryan Bingham character loved his road warrior lifestyle, just embraced it. In the real world, one of the most annoying things about rich people is how they’re always whining about the minor inconveniences of their endless business travel (when they’re not randomly posting a string of airport codes in their status updates). Rich people, be like Ryan Bingham. Bang chicks on the road. Revel in all the perks and cash. Don’t be like fucking Penn Jillette.
