TSA: Protecting Us From Ourselves, One Senator at a Time

Rand Paul had some trouble getting on a flight in Nashville because he didn’t want his junk checked:

The T.S.A. said that Mr. Paul had been screened by a version of its millimeter-wave body imaging device that uses a generic image of a passenger and, if it detects any anomaly, puts a yellow box on the body area that requires greater scrutiny. An alarm was triggered when he was in the machine, which – under administration procedures – required a “targeted pat-down” to see what caused it. But Mr. Paul refused to submit to the pat-down, the agency said.

Last time I flew, on Christmas Day, nearly everyone who went through the body scanners in Tulsa had to get additional screening, including me. I don’t know why everyone else was stopped, but the buttons on my jeans did me in. After the screener was done frisking me, I wished him a Merry Christmas and thanked him for protecting us from jean buttons. He didn’t like that very much.

ProPublica with more on the numerous false positives from the machines.