No longer 'either/or'

Not that long ago, the Airport Gestapo was reassuring the public that all they had to do to avoid those uncomfortable public gropings pat downs was to walk through the magic body scanners. You know, the ones that give our Federal Peeping Toms X-Ray Vision. The ones they used to swear they don't save the images from.

Apparently, even choosing between these two lovely options is no longer enough.

An Alaska state lawmaker is making her way back to the state Capitol after refusing a pat-down search at a Seattle airport, a spokeswoman said.
Rep. Sharon Cissna underwent a body scan as she was preparing to leave Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Sunday and was then required to undergo the pat-down by Transportation Safety Administration officials, said Michelle Scannell, her chief of staff...
Scannell, in her statement, said Cissna was ordered to submit to a "very intrusive pat-down or leave the airport." She said Cissna, who had been in Seattle for medical treatment, was scheduled to return to Alaska via ferry.

I'm sure we all feel a lot safer knowing that 68-year old white female state legislators aren't being allowed on aircraft unless they walk through a nude-a-tron AND submit to tactile inspection of their mastectomy scars. What was the point of the X-ray vision again???

I've said it before: this won't stop until the majority of the public does what this legislator did and simply refuse to fly. Once the airlines start seeing the hit on their balance sheets, they'll scream for some common sense and sanity to be restored to air travel. Until and unless this happens, all we're doing is telling Big Brother there's no limit to the indignities we're willing to accept.