Saturday, November 20, 2010

Will The TSA Instigate A “Thanksgiving Revolution”?

Over at When Falls The Coliseum, Dan Sterlace makes an interesting observation:

Our soldiers in Afghanistan are not allowed to search women and children, despite the fact that they are repeatedly used to hide weapons. The TSA is authorized to pat down your daughter, meanwhile, even though you are a citizen of this country.

The government, reserving rights for itself that it denies soldiers facing death in the field. Interesting logic there. Are TSA agents more in harm's way than a Marine patrol in Afghanistan? Or is the government more concerned about the reactions of Afghanis, who are not subject to American law, than they are to actual Americans, who they view as mere...subjects?

Dan gets into that aspect of the government's limited legalization of sexual assault:

You pay your taxes, you may or may not vote, and you are rewarded by being guilty and having to prove yourself innocent when you try to board a plane that you paid to fly on. You are not a citizen. You are a subject.

So it begs the question: Has the government gone too far, when they declare for themselves the right to fondle every woman’s breasts and to massage her cooze, while stroking every man’s balls with the option of sticking a finger up his ass?

Well, the TSA has an answer for that:

John Pistole, formerly the number 2 person at the FBI, who now heads the TSA, said he preferred to educate the public rather than change procedures.

“Am I going to change the policies?” he said, according to AOL News. “No.”

You don’t like being sexually assaulted at airports? Sorry, you’re just not smart enough to understand how being raped is in your best interests. Best lie back and take it, and maybe even enjoy it, because if you fight back, we’re gonna f*ck you up real good…

Sounds like a certain president and his political party, who insists that our anger is misguided, and we’re just not smart enough to understand that socialized medicine is the best medicine, that trillion-dollar deficits are George Bush’s fault, and that if only we destroy what remains of our economy with cap and trade, the rest of the world will follow…

They want subjects. Not citizens. And so the fight is on:

So it all comes down a simple question: will we be citizens whose elected and appointed servants must obey us, or subjects of a self-aggrandizing behemoth that claims sovereignty over our very bodies?

To their great and lasting credit, the American people understand on a deep, even instinctive level that the TSA groping flap is about far more than either security or inconvenience. It is about fundamental liberty, about personal sovereignty, and about preserving our Constitutional rights as Americans. It is a battle that the American people must, and will, win.

Well, I’m not necessarily predicting a “Thanksgiving Revolution” (although I’m curious to see how many “opt out” in airports nationwide), as I do believe most people will prefer to get to their destination in time for a festive family meal, and leave the street-fighting for another day. Fair enough.

But I do believe that after tens of thousands of Americans get a firsthand "feel" next weekend of the government’s latest assumption of powers over their bodies, their may be even a greater vibration of anger and outrage in the air than existed on November 2nd.

And even those who may have heaped scorn and disdain upon the Tea Party might soon find themselves marching with their own “Don’t Tread on Me” banners, as they realize that subjection to the whims of government is not exactly all it’s cracked up to be, and there's something to be said for the place of the..."citizen", in the conduct of his own affairs, and body...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Remember.. the bill of rights was trampled on by the Patriot Act, not by the current administration. Unfortunately, the Orwellian "security" policies and precedents set 8 years ago were not reigned in when a new sheriff came to town. Government isn't the problem.. stupid government is. BTW.. I am a liberal, I'm disappointed that single payer healthcare wasn't enacted. BUT, this TSA searching issue transcends political divides. It is in blatant violation of our 4th amendment rights. I've railed against the Patriot Act, the CIA wiretapping, the invasions of privacy and stifling of free speech from 2001-2008 and will continue to do so. Perhaps NOW there is something that we can all agree on?

The JerseyNut said...

Yes we can! And you made a point I wanted to address in my post, but it was already getting too lengthy, and that is the validity of the "slippery slope".

Cracking open a door - or making an exception to our freedoms - almost always seems to lead to the floodgates being opened. And while I would argue that some security tightening is/was necessary in the post-9/11 world, I could not help but wonder - as I wrote this post - if some of the security measures put into place by the Bush Administration opened the door to my balls being legally fondled by TSA agents.

Ironic that you and I can agree on the abhorrence of the TSA policy, and even agree that the roots of it may have been in the Bush administration, but yet the government refuses to listen to our - and apparently, the American people's - bipartisan chorus of dismay, and instead does what IT wants to do...

Is this stupid government, as you say, or symptomatic of our current government in general (both parties), who see themselves as rulers, and we the people as mere subjects?

Time to remind these folks that we are citizens of a free land, not subjects of a autocratic state.

I have a Gadsden flag I can lend you, if you wish...