Saturday, March 29, 2008

TSA strikes again!

Hoo boy, all of you TSA defenders are going to just LOVE this one.

A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.
Okay, now that I have your attention, here's the juicy part of the story.
The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.

Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The women then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewelry, Hamlin said.

Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked whether she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was out, she said.

She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring.

"Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her," said Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred...
Okay, so the little Schutzstaffel wanna-bes wouldn't cut the lady some slack. If that were the end of it, it would probably be the end of it (well said, Yogi!). But it wasn't.
Hamlin said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring. (emphasis mine)
Now THERE'S the good TSA Nazis that I know and loath! They force a woman, who anyone with half an ounce of common sense would tell you is only a threat to the teeth of the men who sleep with her, to endure a public humiliation and experience excruciating pain while they LAUGH RIGHT IN HER FACE. Then they ignore the equally "dangerous" naval ring -- after all, no laughs in having her remove that, is there?

Go ahead, you TSA defenders. Tell me (a) by what authority did the Nazis have the right to demand that the nipple bars be removed, (b) why was she allowed to board with her NAVAL ring still inserted if piercings are indeed a "threat", and (c) what exactly IS the "threat" in nipple rings, anyway?

*------------------------------------*
*------------------------------------*