Madness Factor

We were out last night, and one of our friends was telling us he heard the TSA is going to start doing full-body X-rays of passengers. I thought maybe he got it wrong. After a little googling, I come to find out he’s dead right. Yikes. The TSA is going to start a trial run of “backscatter” X-ray machines at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. According to this article in Consumer Affairs:

The TSA says the machines are designed to blur body parts while still finding weapons with pinpoint accuracy. But there’s also a concern that blurred images might make detection of non-metal weaponry, such as plastic explosives, more difficult.

So not only is the method highly invasive, it’s also ineffective. Hmmm…. Sounds just like the Bush administration.

See also this article in the Detroit Free Press.