Go Directly To Hell

Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

In a rare two-in-a-day post - that's how you know this is important - I find myself barely able to contain the rage, so I hereby deploy JayG's famous Rage-O-Meter (courtesy Robb Allen):


I was actually stoked when I saw the headline:

Appeals Court: TSA must halt airport body scanners

I was all evil-grin and everything. Then I read the story. In it, Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that the porn-o-scanners violate an individual's right to privacy in a way that the old metal detectors did not.

WIN! Right? No. As is frequently the case, some asshole has to go and ruin it for everyone. And by everyone, I mean We The People, because the TSA doesn't have to stop doing a fucking thing:

Ginsburg said he would not order TSA to immediately halt the full-body screening--which resulted in a near-revolt by air travelers last fall--but instead instructs "the agency promptly to proceed in a manner consistent with this opinion."

Basically, the DC Court of Appeals' official ruling is that porn-o-scanners suck, and the fed.gov should have asked what we thought about it first. A further reading of Orin Kerr over at The Volokh Conspiracy tells us the real meat-and-potatoes of the decision, which is specifically that the porn-o-scanners do not violate the Fourth Amendment. The part about not halting the use of the scanners was merely a clarification that the part about not asking what we thought about it, though a violation of federal law, wasn't grounds to stop the practice of taking dirty fucking pictures of each and ever air traveler - or, sexually assaulting them either as an alternative or in addition to, depending on whether or not they like what they saw - and generally treating them worse than criminals.

So, the official position of the staff here Where Sometimes Things Go Bang is, fuck the DC Circuit Court of Appeals for helping shit all over the Constitution, and fuck CNET for having their heads all the way up their asses for posting a headline that was blatantly false.

Proceed in a manner consistent with this opinion? Judge Ginsburg, extra fuck you in the face with a fucking cherry on top.



tweaker