RSSReader Comments
Airport Security Checkpoints: Full-Body Scans
(c) Walt Handelsman
A sampling of your thoughts:
There is no detection method that should be barred from use based on invasion of privacy, as long as the method is not physically harmful and is not publicly humiliating. Any safe, effective, discreet means of detection should be legal for use to protect public transportation facilities and the people there. Just as using such things as software carries implicit agreement to terms of use, travelers using public services must implicitly agree to the methods used to keep them safe or choose another means of travel.
PERRY C. TRUITT
I will feel much safer once we stop the ludicrous process of ineffective screening of all passengers and crew and get back the
effective practice of profiling. We need fewer but more-skilled screeners to do this job. We need legislative and judicial support
to fend off the
Right now, we're doing a good job of discouraging air travel and destroying the airlines while wasting a lot of money in an attempt to make one size fit all.
JOSEPH SONGIN
We do everything but talk with the "enemy" in trying to protect ourselves from terrorism. Think of the enormous amounts of money that go to national defense, homeland security, nation building, and foreign aid designed to achieve the cooperation of other countries. Think of the lives of our young lost abroad in the fight and the lives of innocents lost at the scene. And these costs keep spiraling as the war on terrorism adds new fronts.
What really has been achieved in all these years, and when will an end to it all come? I say it's time to re-inspect our foreign policy and to engage the enemy in discussions with us, allies, and terrorism's host nations. Open the discussions to the press so the public around the world can know the grievances, know the solutions, know the truth.
Just maybe, a better foreign policy will be found in that process.
RON W. SMITH
If the "panty scanners" cost "only"
The more interesting question is why we feel that the extremely low dangers of flying, compared with automobile travel, aren't good enough. There is no logical end to the "How safe is safe enough?" question.
TOM KARASEK
Read our American Foriegn Policy section.
Airline Travelers Should Fear Terrorists More Than Full-Body Scanners
James Jay Carafano
For those 'outraged' by the deployment of the full body scanners, where have you been since 9/11? These technologies are not new. The Transportation Security Administration has tested and evaluated them for years and given ample opportunity for public comment on how to regulate their use. So why is stopping the scanners suddenly a cause cŽlbre in some quarters?
Full-Body Scanners Offer a Sneak Peek at TSA Bumbling
Kate Hanni
Federal officials are back to square one on airport security, despite nearly a decade of effort and billions of dollars. Now the TSA believes that full-body scanners hold the absolute answer to the world's airport security woes. Does that mean that passengers nationwide can now breathe a collective sigh of relief? Well, not quite ...
Assessing Airport Security
Reader Comments
I don't really believe you can put a cost on security and the lives of air travelers. I think TSA [Transportation Security Administration] should do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of the traveling public. If that means X-ray screening or patting people down, then so be it.
What Airport Security Really Costs
Matthew Bandyk
Many Americans see waiting in lines, taking off their shoes, and other security measures as necessary evils. Since the Christmas incident, the government has planned to spend about $1 billion on full-body scanners and other security technology. However, the money spent on airport security goes far beyond the actual equipment.
America Rides off Into the Sunset
Victor Davis Hanson
National leaders have only long-term self-interests and so seek to expand their influence whenever they can. Obama better understand that. As such, a world without strong U.S. leadership really would become a far more dangerous place where the strong do as they please and the weak obey as they must.
The Future of the U.S. Economy: 2050
Matthew Bandyk
Think back to 1967. The job you have today may not even have existed. The Internet, and all the jobs that have come with it, were decades away. The Detroit automakers were dominant. Quality of life was different, too. The lifestyle of the average American may change just as much from 2010 to 2050 as it did from 1967 to 2006. The economy will especially undergo change.
Who to Blame for the Financial Crisis
Mortimer B. Zuckerman
Class warfare, American style, is being waged between Main Street and Wall Street. With President Obama and Democrats in Congress turning up the populist heat against Wall Street, the financial community is losing. Its back is up against the wall. But the administration is also getting its share of the public's rage. So, Who's really to blame?
Fort Hood Report Reveals Deeper Dilemma
Anna Mulrine
There were a couple of points that immediately stood out in the Pentagon's report on the shooting that left 13 dead and 43 wounded at Fort Hood in November. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton made note of them this month in the first of two congressional hearings on what went wrong.
Deficits in a Growing Defense Budget
Greg Bruno
The Obama administration released its second defense budget on February 1 amidst talk of rebuilding the American defense establishment. But Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert, says while the administration's reform rhetoric is laudable, its defense spending plan doesn't allocate money to seriously rebuild the military to deal with such threats as irregular warfare.
Fast Trains Are Cool ... and Very Expensive
Carl Hiaasen
Of all the ways Florida could blow through $1.25 billion in federal recovery funds, a bullet train is certainly the flashiest. Connecting Tampa, Orlando and Miami by high-speed rail is a scheme that's been chugging around for decades, and the prospects for profitability are the same today as they always were: nil.
'People Movers' Ease Airport Hassles
Ed Perkins
Dulles inaugurated its new billion-dollar 'people mover,' and it should make life a lot easier for you whether you live in the area, visit the area, or have to change planes there. Dulles joins a number of other airports around the United States -- and the world -- that offer an easier and more convenient alternative to trekking through endless corridors or schlepping on and off buses
Our Census Reflects our Confusion
Clarence Page
It is time to take another census, as we Americans do every 10 years, which means it is time again to argue about the census. If the census is designed to take a snapshot of our nation, the initial reaction looks like a family feud.
(C) 2010 U.S. News & World Report