airport nudity

So, apparently there's a movement to declare November 24th a body scanner protest day, on which all airport travelers are asked to refuse to go through the new full-body scanners and instead insist on a full pat-down and genital frisking, in a private room, with a witness present.

This seems misguided to me. I mean, I'm imagining that I'm an average traveler, and I get stuck behind a bunch of people deliberately gumming up the security lines. I'm late for my flight, have to sleep in the airport, get charged $50 for rebooking, and miss Thanksgiving dinner with my family. This will succeed at provoking outrage, but I don't think it will be at the scanners.

I also appear to be in a very small minority of people who think that TSA procedures are an ill-planned, manipulative sham, but who aren't particularly bothered by the idea of being seen naked. Hell, it makes more sense that being asked to take off my shoes. On the other hand, I'm not opposed to the idea of being seen naked. Being seen naked by a device that can store my image indefinitely and transmit it anywhere, and that's making money for people who spent months outright lying to the public about its ability to do those things, makes me pretty sick.

(millimeter-wave and backscatter x-ray scanners also put me in the same weird position as GM crops and social network data mining -- I end up being opposed to their use even though I think they're incredibly cool.)

In any case, getting through airport security involves doing a lot of deep breathing, and reminding myself that the screeners aren't the ones who wrote the rules; they're just ordinary folks doing a job.