sciencebro

Hi Tim, do you have any advice on how to maintain poise and class in the face of adversity?

I sympathize. I always opt-out of those terrible, awful x-ray machines that are more about making Michael Chertoff money than they are finding bad stuff on bad guys. Anyway, one time at the airport, one of the TSA goons ran his hand up my leg until he touched my testicles. I said "you found 'em!", but inside I was fuming. He touched my testicles after he stuck his fingers in my waistband, that is. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to punch the guy in the damn face, but I wanted to get on the plane more. Anyway, I know how you feel. And it doesn't feel good.

We hate the TSA for many reasons:

1) It's clear that the organization is incompetent. Regular dudes have posted videos to youtube detailing how they got weapons through security

2) The x-ray machines are bad for at least two reasons-- a) they generate an image of you, naked, on an internet-connected machine designed to share images of you, naked; b) the radiation exposure one gets in the machine is questionable enough that the pilots' union advised pilots to always get a pat-down rather than get a nudie image of them made

3) If you want to fly, either a stranger puts his hands in your pants, and touches your balls, or, you pose for a nude photo. Otherwise, you can go fuck yourself all the way back home and not fly. And it's not clear what the point of this humiliation is, other than to shunt money into government contractors (e.g. Rapiscan, the manufacturer of the x-ray machines), and seemingly pointless government organizations.

What conclusions should we draw from the media's non-response to the DNC leaks, which show the Democratic Primary was rigged?