Ventura may a massive 9/11 Truther, and, surprisingly, that wacko viewpoint doesn’t enter in his lawsuit, but, he does have a good darned point
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration on Monday, alleging full-body scans and pat-downs at airport checkpoints violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Ventura is asking a federal judge in Minnesota to issue an injunction ordering officials to stop subjecting him to “warrantless and suspicionless” scans and body searches.
The lawsuit, which also names Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole as defendants, argues the searches are “unwarranted and unreasonable intrusions on Governor Ventura’s personal privacy and dignity . and are a justifiable cause for him to be concerned for his personal health and well-being.”
The lawsuit is based on the fact that Jesse has a titanium implant from hip surgery in 2008, so, now he sets off the metal detectors, meaning he either needs to go through the body scanner or get enjoy a groping session in full view of everyone else in the security section of the terminal. And he has a darned good point. It must shock Janet Incompatano that some people actually have a problem with this.
I’ve mentioned before that I have the same issue, since I have a stainless steel bar in my right leg. Instead of simply focusing on the area where the hand wand makes a beeping noise, they pat me down in full. You know, because this 5’8″ WASP fits the Islamic jihadi profile.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
I’ve got three screws in my hip, but am not aware if I’ve ever set off a metal detector. Didn’t set one off last year when me and brother flew out to Seattle. Will be making the same trip again this year. Reckon I’ll find out, eh?
Mike
What’s scarier to me are the times I go through security and the detector doesn’t go off, when other times it does at same checkpoint. Makes me wonder what else they are missing
I like Ventura. I may not always agree with his analysis, but overall, he’s on the right side of the argument – for the People and against the government.
What I don’t understand is all the “conservative” animosity towards “truthers.” Do I believe their analysis? No. The 9/11 attack was NOT an “inside job,” but the wholly predictable and logical consequence of bureaucratic incompetence. Government has limits. It is incapable of doing what most people (left and right) expect it to do. But …
Why should anyone take the government’s word for it regarding what happened on 9/11? After all, the government lies. All. The. Time. About. Everything. That politicians are liars who seek power above all is an ancient, eternal truth. As Hayek famously declared, “in politics, the scum rises to the top.”
Then there’s the very shady history of the CIA which has spied on American citizens, drugged people and proposed actual terrorist attacks on our own country (Operation Northwoods) among countless other atrocities. Isn’t that alone more than enough to create doubt about the intentions of our rulers? Isn’t trusting the intentions of our rulers dangerous?
It wasn’t that long ago in American history that the conservative movement was straight-up anti-state. But somewhere along the line we stopped criticizing government and adopted our favorite parts of it instead. In my 42 years on this Earth, the state has grown exponentially and never ceases growing. Democrat, Republican, it doesn’t matter. It grows more intrusive in my life by the day.
Maybe as conservatives, we need to fess up to our part of the blame in all this. Maybe our decision to become anti-Democrat instead of anti-state helped fuel the growth of statism in our once “land of the free.” Maybe we should become skeptical of everything and everyone in government once again, and stop picking on the only people around who haven’t learned to love the state.
Never forget, our country was founded in war against our own government. Our Founders had no allegiance to the crown (and quite frankly, more freedom than we have today).
In summary, “truthers” may be wrong, but I have no beef with them. Because trust in politicians and bureaucrats is a fool’s game … the unsustainable debt and airport porno-scanners simply proves my point.
I definitely understand what you are saying, CL. There are Republicans who have too much trust in government, but, in the case of the Truthers, sorry, they are completely out there. While there were certainly mistakes made by government in the path to 9/11, there is no way they conspired to either make it happen or let it happen. Thing is, I don’t take the governments word, I take the word of experts who did the heavy lifting to show that what happened was not a conspiracy, and shot down all the Truthers conspiracy theory.
But, yeah, we should be concerned about government and those in it, because, even most Conservatives are looking for power, and power corrupts.