Our Eroding Civil Liberties

This article gives an excellent example of why libertarianism is a small, but slowly spreading, movement in the US. It's truly the only logical place for politics to go, what with Federal Government on a binge power grab. A government only has the right to rule so long as it has the consent of the governed, and the US Federal Government I think is rapidly losing favor in the eyes of many Americans.


Excerpt:

One of the most disturbing, which is subject to an ongoing lawsuit, involved a 21-year-old college student from Amarillo Texas. The woman was passing through security at Corpus Christi airport on May 29 2008 when she was subjected to “extended search procedures” by the TSA.

“As the TSA agent was frisking plaintiff, the agent pulled the plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing plaintiffs’ breasts to everyone in the area,” the lawsuit said. “As would be expected, plaintiff was extremely embarrassed and humiliated.”

I would be fascinated to know how many bad guys the TSA's screening methods has truly caught. I strongly suspect the number to be close to zero. Then compare that to the number of people they've violated, and I bet you could plot some very, very interesting graphs.


Also, another interesting editorial pushing for the outright abolishment of the TSA, which honestly, makes a lot of fiscal. Airlines have an extremely strong incentive to keep their flights safe, and if the TSA disappeared, they'd have to cover their own tails or risk losing all business. I'm willing to be the airlines would find many cheaper, more effect, less offensive security measures than the TSA, and it wouldn't waste my tax dollars. I mean, we are in incredible debt peril anyway, right? Scrap the TSA entirely. 


From the article:

Bipartisan support should be immediate.  For fiscal conservatives, it’s hard to come up with a more wasteful agency than the TSA.  For privacy advocates, eliminating an organization that requires you to choose between a nude body scan or genital groping in order to board a plane should be a no-brainer.