I worship Winship -- usually -- but this one is bad.

wow can't believe truthout has a dumb sheep writing articles for it. thought this was for progressives not brain washed, asslicking idiots. the scanners are highly dangerous, anyone with a brain knows not to trust government sources as to the safety of anything. the scanners can see everything, even if a woman is wearing a tampon, or if a man is circumcised and the images are being stored and can be posted on the net. Does the author not see the problem with unskilled, non medical, men and women look at naked little children. Any person can compare facebook with having naked images of us stored on computers is an ignoramous. Lets not ven get into the fact that terrorism is largly a myth and that most terrorist attacks are carried out by elected governments. totally shocked cancelling subscription, no time for any more bullshit, mainstream propragada

I'm so offended. This is like the hit piece in The Nation. Ugh. Does not belong in Truthout.

Airport security is yet another in a long line of issues to distract us from what's really going on. We need security at airports like we need a hole in the head. It's ridiculous, costs millions which is passed on to the traveling public and does nothing to keep us safe.
100% safety against terrorism is never going to happen - unless you want to subject everyone to strip searches (including body cavity probes). It's a question of proportionality.
We don't stop driving because people die in motor accidents even though more people die on US roads every MONTH than died in the 911 attacks.

The chances of any particular person being killed or injured by terrorists in the US is miniscule. So why are we putting EVERYBODY through these intrusive and embarrassing security checks?

Having lived through the IRA bombings in London I see how rational people deal with terrorism... They allow the intelligence gathering agencies and police to do their job. We don't close down the London Underground by searching every passenger! This is bullcrap.

...If the Founders of the U.S. were alive today, what do you suppose they would be doing in response to this country and "Americans" voluntarily surrendering their liberties which were bought at the HUGE price of so many heroic lives?! They would be yelling from the rooftops not to do it, no matter what, and they wouldn't stop doing so until the government murdered them, that is what they would be doing!! They would know without any doubt(s) whatsoever that the government probably would very likely murder them for doing so, and that they were putting their very lives on the line for the truth, but they would not flinch or in any way hold back from fulfilling that duty and responsibility to do so!!

Therefore, can we do any less?! Of course not!! "Give (us) liberty or give (us) death"! What the U.S. government is doing right now is completely traitorous anathema (damnation) to the most important things this country is supposed to stand for, True Liberty and Freedom; and is erecting a totalitarian militarized, corporate-fascist police state in this country that is the antithesis (the exact opposite) of what this country is ONLY supposed to be about; again, True Freedom and Liberty, WITHOUT EVER SACRIFICING THEM FOR ELUSIVE AND/OR ILLUSORY "SECURITY"!

"I think one of the biggest down-sides to our culture of instant gratification is our lack of ability to recognize and appreciate the power of incrementalism. For years now I've been hearing "it's just shoes...it's just gels...it's just laptops...its just pat-downs...it's just body scanning..." Our poor fucking kids! What a world we're about to hand them."

Thanks, Anonymous. My sentiments exactly. I just couldn't articulate them as well. "Incrementalism" is a term that beautifully sums up the issue.

Dear Lord, Truth-Out, do you read and/or screen submitted articles for true terrorism and/or treason against this country before you post them?! That's what this article defends, and therefore is!! Please don't let such evil, traitorous, un-American, anti-American, anti-Constitutional propaganda be propagated here!! Nip it in the bud!! There is NO excuse for it!! If you allow treasonous propaganda such as this article to be propagated, and to more and more deceive Americans, you are being traitorous and treasonous yourselves, and EVERYONE should boycott you and stop reading anything you post entirely!! Geez, are you True Americans or not?! Winship obviously isn't!! Boycott HIM, and all those who write such anti-liberty, anti-freedom tripe such as this article!! Completely do the right thing, for God's sake, or you might as well sell out to the "Fawning Corporate Media (FCM)" propaganda ministry of the now corporate-fascist government, if you haven't already!! God, and you, spare us from ALL such true treason and terrorism here on Truth-Out!!

Some are complaining that TruthOut should boycott submission by authors such as this due to being non-patriotic.

Well, I thought there was such a thing as FREE SPEECH. Are some here hypocrites???

Should you get your foot out of your mouth which seems to be stuck where the sun does not shine, you may realize that this may be one of the ways to root out such treasonous thinkers.

"Make sure you know which way the barrel is pointing before you pull the trigger"!

"Anonymous @ Thu, 11/25/2010 - 02:08", there is NO "free speech" for those who commit true, anti-Constitutional treason, or real treason, without consequences and their being held accountable for perpetrating that treason. At least there wouldn't be if the U.S. were truly the Constitutional republic that it's supposed to be, and not the more and more authoritarian, fast becoming totalitarian, corporate-fascist militarized police state that it has become. And, if the U.S. were the Constitutional republic that it is supposed to be, and not the total antithesis of that which it is supposed to be, and is becoming more and more, they would be held accountable, too. Yet, are they held accountable? No, they are allowed to destroy us and all of our True Freedom(s).

The U.S. is no longer the country of the rule of law, and True Liberty and Freedom, that it was designed to be. "We, the People" let extremely criminal traitors rule over us, eviscerate our Constitution, hold the Constitution in contempt, violate it with impunity and immunity, take away our precious liberties and freedoms completely, enslave us more and more, laugh at us with extreme derision all the way to the bank while they are robbing all of us and the entire country dry, completely destroy this country, and bring it under the international enslavement of globalism, the "New World Order (NWO)" and one-world government and religion; all of which is the most absolute treason that could ever be perpetrated against us and this entire country.

Give in to "Big Brother", in whatever small and seemingly inconsequential way, and you give up any rational or after-thought alternatives to that loss of liberty, and more.

Every single signer of the Declaration of Independence and writers of our Constitution, between them all warned US, the future generations, of every conceivable danger to those freedoms and liberties spelled out in those still-historical and unique documents.

I heard this one so long ago that I can't remember even how little I was at the time, or know today who gets the credit (I'd guess Benjamin F). But it was immediately as self-evident a truth as any I have heard even from those whom created this once great nation:

"Give THEM an inch, and THEY will take a mile"

Another one which should be true, but isn't because it takes an active role by those whom might administer the required justice:

"Give THEM enough rope, and THEY will hang THEMselves"

sssigh...

I still can't imagine that the risk is high enough to warrant the intrusion of radiation, much less a pat-down. I might trust a scientist who's done tests on the Xray scanner, but I've seen no reliable information as of yet. And neither of the two recent threats originated in the U.S. Is there some evidence that somebody's about to do something? Why don't they just tell us?

I'm going on a trip before long and I'm practicing saying, "No radiation, please, and privacy if you must do a pat-down, and a same-sex person to do it." If Schipol (Amsterdam) could do a non-radiation scanner that IDs only suspicious items, what's the matter with the U.S besides being in love with the people who make the scanners? After all, building them creates jobs, doesn't it?

Follow the money. It's all about business and making money, and nothing to do with the whole made-up, created by those secretly in power, perceived threats by forces unknown.

It's like we're walking around in a Halloween haunted house 24/7/365 - only this one ain't run by the JAYCEES baby!

Or WE could just quit flying the airlines. They're runnin' out of gas anyway...

"Cranks Resist Security at Airports"? It is obvious to anyone who is paying attention that resistance to the TSA's new security policy goes way beyond a few "cranks".

Public anger is finally boiling over at the degrading way we are treated just to get on a commercial airline flight. The security theater of removing your shoes, being denied an ordinary size bottle of shampoo, going through metal detectors, etc. was bad enough. But the new routine of x-ray body scanners and/or intrusive patdowns that verge on sexual groping take us to a place that is very close to what the inmates experience in prison. And if you object, you can be fined thousands of dollars and subject to arrest!

We are right up against the line where ordinary, law-abiding citizens can get in trouble, just for trying to take an airplane flight. And for what? For some ideal of absolute, one-hundred-percent security that is not obtainable on this earth? That is no way to live, and it is certainly not what the founders of our country had in mind as acceptable government conduct.

Mr. Winship should be ashamed of himself for trying to pass off this evisceration of our civil rights as some sort of minor inconvenience.

The author is simply a coward and a traitor to what this country was founded upon. He certainly doesn't deserve security nor liberty.
Shame on TO for posting this garbage!

Hear, Hear. I'm with Entirely unpersuasive. In fact this author is such a sheeple that I almost think he's a plant.
I also think he's probably too young and stupid to see what has already happened during our last nebulous 'war', the war on drugs where the erosion of our civil rights exploded.
Now he thinks this new round is almost cute. Ben Frank would have vomited after reading this garbage. I did. Oh and for the record Chertoff ordered the scanners while still in public offic and that's a felony.

seems americans are not buying this bullshit propaganda that the TSA security theatre is necessary

because it's NOT necessary.

It's also repugnant and ugly and invasive and so very fascist it's a freaking NAZI police state level, Orwellian Nightmare

Let's just put an end to the nightmare

All the hoo-ha about privacy obscures the main issue- these expensive machines and rude patdowns will not keep explosives off planes. You don't have to have any EOD training to realize that.

I guess I'm one of the cranks - along with 61% of ALL Americans (according to Zogby, no less) and probably 99% of Truthout's readers.

If Truthout intended to actually offend its readers it succeeded.

This isn't really just a choice between terrorism and inconvenience. This is about whether the United States of America can SURVIVE. I'm not refering to our place on the map. I'm refering to another piece of paper on which this country was founded.

What does it mean to be an American anyway? Does it mean being kept safe and warm at all costs, and "protected FROM our freedoms"?

Tell me again, Uncle Sam, what are we "fighting" FOR?

So, apparently, only TENS OF THOUSANDS (rather than millions) of American citizens participated in the protests yesterday. As a result, according to the hillariously cute and DEEPLY OFFENSIVE, patronizing, and un-American headlines from the AP yesterday, not much of a delay was felt. While writers for the AP, fox and, Michael Winship, were on the sidelines jeering wildly at the humor of watching ordinary American citizens trying to regain SOME control over this country, YET ANOTHER of the very rights we claim to be colonizing the Middle-East to defend, is being STRIPPED AWAY.

I'm sickened by the sentiment of this truly repulsive article.

If Truthout intended to actually offend its own readers, it succeeded.

Usually I enjoy reading the comments to Truthout articles. But the comments on this article are generally disgusting and display a remarkable lack of intelligence and common sense.

The hype about the body scanners is just that --- hype ---overblown, paranoid reaction to non-existent "threats" to privacy and/or health. In a few days or weeks, you won't see anything about this in the news.

As Winship tried to point out (and apparently not grasped by some) is that there are many more issues that are far -- extremely -- more important than the scanner "issue."

I'm reminded of the "death panel" charade that the Conservatives made up to scare the gullible and divert attention from the real issues. It is not too far fetched to think that those who seem to protest the loudest --- about "privacy" and "4th amendment" -- are really ultraconservatives who would rather have us focus on scanners than on what is really going on to undermine democracy and rational thought in this country.

...Therefore, the response of most of the people here to this article is NOT "overblown", contrary to your ignorant, dismissive, and anti-American attitude and beliefs, and your defense of anti-American attitudes and beliefs. In actuality, it is what you have to say that "lacks intelligence and common sense", and that is "hype" and "overblown", as well as a traitorous response to the article; not the majority of people here who are defending the Constitution and its principles. But, according to you and your ilk, defending privacy, the Fourth Amendment, our Constitution, and our civil liberties is supposedly irrational; when it is those who do not obey, defend and protect the Constitution, like you and your kind, who are the truly irrational ones, and who have little or no idea what they really stand for.

You are so blind to the fact that you are standing on a foundation of quicksand, that you can't see the forest for the trees, or the real truth because of the lies blocking you from the real truth. You've been so indoctrinated, conditioned and programmed to not take the principles, standards, duties, responsibilities and laws of the Constitution seriously; and to defend not obeying, protecting and defending them; as well as to defend almost everything the government does, especially to violate, contravene and abrogate them, that you evidently cannot even recognize that you and your entire premise, as well as all of those like you and the writer of this article, are defending the completely indefensible, and are speaking against True Patriotism and those who are carrying out, which is the ultimate in traitorousness.

I am glad to see all the opposition among the progressive community. I hope truthout reads all the replies to this garbage specious argument. This is not a partisan issue as winshit and hannity would have us believe. It is time for us to rise up against this fascist assault on all of our freedoms...our god given rights, before we are involuntarily put into concentration camps for our own security...to protect us from the terrorists.

-Don, What is going on in this country that is more important than the destruction of our civil rights? Seriously, Don, what could be more important to this country than the Constitution on which The United States of America derives its purpose in even existing in the first place?

---------

-"anonymous" 16:05, I've personally had disputes with s. wolf britain myself. I've wondered about the aluminum foil myself.

Still, did he make some kind of a threat to you? I read his comment & I didn't read ANYTHING that could be construed as a "threat". I'm sorry he used harsh words in his replies. I think there's plenty of room for passion on BOTH sides of an argument. But, if he didn't threaten you, HE'S NOT A "CYBER BULLY".

Also, do you honestly want us to believe that the "cyber-bullying" of one individual against another is worse than the REAL AND PHYSICAL bullying of the U.S. government against ordinary citizens who've committed no crime other than wanting to board a commercial plane after paying through the nose for tickets?

Thank you, Billy Bob, for someone coming to my defense; but, more importantly, to the defense of the principles for which I stand, and the defense of that which is against the un-American heresy and its proponents who buy all of the "U.S.-government-manufactured-terrorism" lies that supposedly justify our doing away with our Constitution and its embodiment of our rights which we are born with, and that we must NEVER sacrifice for so-called "security".

The U.S. government now creates "Reichstag fires", and creates and sets-up patsies, like Nazi Germany did in order to "justify" invading Poland, and in order to get the "good Germans" to give up their liberties and freedoms, and accept the setting up of a totalitarian police state in their country, a dictatorship taking over everything, and exterminating all dissenters and opposition from all walks of life and political persuasions.

All of that is being repeated in "America" today, but those who defend the totalitarian takeover of the U.S., or who refuse to face that IT IS HAPPENING, call all those who speak the truth about it, so-called "threats", as happened in Germany, feeding right in to what the government wants in order to stir up enough opposition to the truth and its proponents, to be able to eradicate all dissenters and opposition from all walks of life AGAIN...

...They have lost sight, or are losing sight more and more, of the fact that we must NEVER compromise with the destruction of freedom and liberty; and that we must be willing to stand against that destruction---even if it means sacrificing ourselves and dying at the hands of the totalitarian plague that is overcoming "America"---in order to warn our fellow-citizens that they better rise up en masse against this destruction of everything we should hold dear above all else except God Himself, which are our liberties and freedoms that were purchased at the monumental price of millions of American lives, no matter what.

Because, if they don't rise up en masse against it, no one except those who sell-out and betray their very souls, their liberties and freedoms, their Constitution, their country, their fellow-citizens, and their entire world will be supposedly "safe" and "secure"; and because, in truth, they will be no more safe and secure than all of their fellow human beings, and everything else, that they betrayed and sold-out.

So, the most important question at this point in time is, are we going to be cowards and traitors like those people named above, and far too many "Americans"; or are we going to exercise the True Heroism and Courage that our forbears exercised, "come liberty or come death" (my words), to preserve, protect and defend our freedoms and liberties no matter what it takes, as long as it does NOT, IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, FORM OR FASHION WHATSOEVER, "take" surrendering those liberties and freedoms?

First, I would urge all readers, in fact all people; to read the article "Police State USA: TSA Gestapo Empire" by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (go ahead and check his bona fides). Posted at GlobalResearch.ca; but I'm sure it's making the rounds.

Second, Mr. Winship merely quoted the party line regarding the amount and danger of the radiation from the device. Curiously, he did NOT include statements from radiologists, x-ray techs, cancer researchers, or any other such people. There are numerous individuals speaking out that this IS a serious health hazard, that what A.P. and Mr. Winship have been told to say -is a lie. Even one of the inventors of the device has stated that we are being lied to about the health risks of the device.
Silly me, I thought a writer WASN'T supposed to provide one-sided information. It seems to me I once heard about 'balance in writing'.
And since I'm on the subject, Mr Winship:
Were you just too lazy to do the fact-finding?
Are you just uninterested in the actual facts?
Who cut you a check for writing this?
The definition of "propaganda" is:
"As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission)"

I think I can guess who cut you that check.

Be a good little sheep, because your little protest will be turned against Obama by the republicans. Show your allegiance to Obama by demurring!

...The "opt-out" protest(ers) didn't "demur", the protest was over before it began because the TSA preempted it by shutting down the scanners and pat-downs temporarily, thus avoiding its effectiveness. But The People will just think "out-of-the-box" more and devise better protests against the traitors' unconstitutionally criminal procedures which haven't ended, that WILL be effective. Therefore, you ain't seen nothin' yet, anti-American.

So you be a good little sheep, show allegiance to the traitor Obama and evil, and demur. As for me and all True Americans, we will not demur, and we will show allegiance to fulfilling our duty(ies) as spelled out in that part of the Constitution, through the Supremacy Clause, known as the Declaration of Independence. All while you fellow-traitors-of-Obama are serving evil and selling us all out with your cowardice and traitorousness.

CORRECTION(S):

Article title: Mother Kept In “Glass Cage” For Almost An Hour By TSA For Resisting Over Breast Milk

Article author: Steve Watson, M.A.
Article websites: PrisonPlanet.com and InfoWars.net
Article date: November 30, 2010

prisonplanet.com/mother-kept-in-glass-cage-for-almost-an-hour-by-tsa-for-resisting-over-breast-milk.html

Do you finally see what's really going on, and do you now realize that IT IS happening? God help us all if we don't completely put an end to all of this madness!