Opt Out Day

I've really, really, really been covering this quite a bit. If you're so inclined, you can pan through my Morning Blogs to find where I start ranting about it.

And I intend to keep ranting about it until National Opt Out Day comes through.

The purpose of National Opt Out Day is to send a clear message to the TSA that they've simply gone too far with the security theater. Taking naked pictures of people is an invasion of privacy. Threatening people with detention and a vigorous groping if they decline to share nude images of their body with strangers is just as bad but at least it compels the folks down at the TSA to consider the extent of the humiliation and indignity they're subjecting their fellow citizens to.

So next Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, the busiest travel day of the year, refuse. Refuse to share nude pictures of yourself with nameless security officers. As awful as it might be, register your complaint by compelling them to waste their time patting you down. And talk to them while they're doing it. Politely of course. Ask if it's something that they'd want to have happen to them. Or their child. Or their grandmother. Ask why a desire to travel nullifies Fourth Amendment rights?

And a couple of other things...

I would encourage people to film the entire process. Provided you're not doing it in a way that interferes with their ability to perform their duties or preventing the orderly flow of people through the screening process, I don't believe that the TSA has any rules against it. Please note that wherever you live may have their own local statutes concerning filming in airports. At any rate, I believe that the security officers will behave a bit better knowing that they're being recorded for posterity.

Bear in mind, I am also in no way a lawyer and my grasp of rules regarding filming security screenings comes after a pretty cursory web search.

And also... wear a kilt.

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg mischieviously suggests "a superfantastic twist" to National Opt-Out Day. He suggests men wear kilts, preferably in the traditional, well-ventilated fashion, inviting a level of intimacy even the most hardened TSA grope specialist may find repugnant. It's a funny idea, but Alyssa Rosenberg of the Washingtonian disagrees.

Ms Rosenberg argues Mr Goldberg's kilt gambit is out of bounds because TSA agents are not unionised, "which means it’s more difficult for them to negotiate with TSA over working conditions and policies and procedures". Perhaps my heart has grown cold. I certainly do not envy the position of those for whom the TSA is an attractive career option. Yet I find it hard to gin up much sympathy for TSA agents who receive a little humiliation in return for the humiliation they take a paycheck to dispense. The fact that TSA agents have yet to win collective bargaining rights does not make it impossible for any individual agent to behave like a decent human being and refuse to act as an instrument of dehumanisation for the surveillance state. Times are tough, and it's easy to understand why an agent would not wish to jeopardise her job by standing up for decency and her fellow citizens' rights. But nobody ever said doing the right thing is easy, and "I'm just following orders" has yet to become a sufficient justification for stripping persons of their dignity. If an order-following agent happens to find his hand up a true Scotsman's kilt, where it should not be, perhaps he will reconsider the propriety of this shady line of work.

After all that, if you're so inclined, you may even consider pulling a Penn Jillette...