Freedom in the Airports

     On Saturday a man from Oceanside, CA was thrown out of the San Diego International Airport because he refused to submit to a full body scan and a pat down body search by TSA agents.  He may be prosecuted and possibly faces fines of $11,000.  He said that he felt full body scans are "a huge invasion of privacy" and did not want to opt for the other choice of going through the usual metal scanner followed by a pat down search.  He even referred to a pat down search as sexual assault.  While this whole event was going on, he turned on his cell phone and set it on top of his luggage where it recorded the next half hour of his interactions with the TSA.  He put this recording on his own blog later that day and by that same night 70,000 of people had listened to it, 5% of which he says think his actions were idiotic.  The whole story can be found on http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/14/tsa-ejects-oceanside-man-airport-refusing-security/.

     While I also don't enjoy pat down searches and the whole security process at airports, I feel that they are important and unfortunately, a part of traveling today.  The TSA supervisor said to Tyner that "By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights"  to which Tyner countered, "I think the government took them away after 9/11."  I feel like this is true to a point.  After September 11th, the government had to tighten up security because the events of that day could have been stopped by better security.  I think that if the government had left security the way it was and left the airport procedures the same, people would have been more outraged than they are now about full body scanners.  Unfortunately, September 11th did happen and not only did it take some of your rights in the airport away, it also took people's moms, dads, children, and heroes.  This is the kind of world we live in now and I think that airport security measures are for your own safety and not just government rules put in place so that TSA agents can "sexually assault" you.  I think Tyner handled the situation somewhat immaturely and the fact that he said "Touch my junk and I'm going to have you arrested" to the TSA agent was very unnecessary.  In my opinion, he was putting his own personal feelings before the security of other Americans.  I can't assess the situation completely because I would need to find out more about how security works and what exactly the rules are in writing for flying passengers, but I'd rather have someone run their hand over my clothes for ten seconds than allow another situation like September 11th to occur again.  If Tyner has that big of an issue with any airport security, he should have driven to his destination of South Dakota rather than fly.   
(also I have no idea if this picture is a real toy or what...)