Passengers Tolerant of Backscatter Scans

Despite loud protests from a priggish minority, Scientific American reports that 70% of passengers presented with a choice between a patdown and a backscatter scan have chosen the scan.

My earlier blog post on this topic includes an image of the "detailed" backscatter scan of the kind in use in Britain for years. The US version, however, will look more like a cartoon outline.

Critics are sticking to their guns, so to speak: "You should not have to go naked to board an aircraft," says Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Except that you're not "going naked" at all.

And if you are "going naked," so what? If you don't like it, there is a reasonable alternative: prudish passengers can opt to be groped by TSA instead.

And if you find the whole security search thing overly skeevy, you can drive or take the train.