Here's one vote for fast proliferation of those controversial full-body airport scanners. Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport said today they are stepping up the use of these machines. Properly monitored, such a machine would have spotted the PETN explosive in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's crotch (didn't it itch?).
Let's have more of them, and, despite my ACLU membership, let's override our civil liberties fears on this one. I don't care if some jaded TSA inspector sees me naked and exposed on a screen (as long as the image doesn't end up on the Web, which some ACLU types are worried about -- not that my body is that Web-worthy, except to extreme and pitiful perverts; I predict that lissome celebrity women will be even more likely to take chartered jets if the scanners catch on).
The scanners are expensive but apparently they work pretty well in catching stuff concealed on bodies. That's a good enough reason to employ them, but I'd be even more comfortable if the scanners also caught terrorist items concealed in recta (you like that word?) and other bodily orifices. I hope they work that way, anyway.
As another benefit, the full-body images would be a great recruiting tool for the TSA, which has a high turnover of personnel due to boredom. Where do I sign up?
