Nine words. That’s all it took to make John Tyner an instant, iconic Internet all-star. Tyner, for those living in a cave for the last few days, casually tossed out an ultimatum to a TSA screener that was about to give him a “pat down.”
“Touch my junk and I’ll have you arrested,” Tyner said; celebrity was a step behind.
He has become a cause célèbre for a growing nationwide protest against “full body scanners” that the TSA is intent on installing in airports throughout the U.S. The scanners — for those of you living in a cave the past few weeks — render a reasonable facsimile of your naked body for anyone was a TSA monitor to observe. (If the prospect of seeing that or begin seen by that excites you: go away. Now.)
Now, I’m all for the protests, the angst, the concern over a government body instilled with groping capabilities. However, I refuse to be sucked into the emotional screaming match that insists on calling this “sexual assault” because it clearly isn’t. Humiliating, yes; uncomfortable, surely; a crime? No.
In fact, I believe that using the “big scary words” only contributes the hysteria and doesn’t allow people to focus their efforts on getting these rat bastard things removed.
So, dial back on the rhetoric and let’s fight this thing on the merits.
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About brock
Brock is currently the Executive Editor at Atlantic Media Strategies and former Chief Washington Correspondent for MSNBC; he is the founder/creator/editor of CyberWire Dispatch, the Net's pioneering online journalistic news service. Previously he was the Director of Communications for the Center for Democracy & Technology, a non-profit, Washington, D.C.-based public interest group working to keep the Internet open, innovative and free. The views expressed here are his alone and do not reflect the opinions, attitudes or policy positions of his employer(s) past or present.
Smile When You Touch My Junk
Nine words. That’s all it took to make John Tyner an instant, iconic Internet all-star. Tyner, for those living in a cave for the last few days, casually tossed out an ultimatum to a TSA screener that was about to give him a “pat down.”
“Touch my junk and I’ll have you arrested,” Tyner said; celebrity was a step behind.
He has become a cause célèbre for a growing nationwide protest against “full body scanners” that the TSA is intent on installing in airports throughout the U.S. The scanners — for those of you living in a cave the past few weeks — render a reasonable facsimile of your naked body for anyone was a TSA monitor to observe. (If the prospect of seeing that or begin seen by that excites you: go away. Now.)
Now, I’m all for the protests, the angst, the concern over a government body instilled with groping capabilities. However, I refuse to be sucked into the emotional screaming match that insists on calling this “sexual assault” because it clearly isn’t. Humiliating, yes; uncomfortable, surely; a crime? No.
In fact, I believe that using the “big scary words” only contributes the hysteria and doesn’t allow people to focus their efforts on getting these rat bastard things removed.
So, dial back on the rhetoric and let’s fight this thing on the merits.
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About brock
Brock is currently the Executive Editor at Atlantic Media Strategies and former Chief Washington Correspondent for MSNBC; he is the founder/creator/editor of CyberWire Dispatch, the Net's pioneering online journalistic news service. Previously he was the Director of Communications for the Center for Democracy & Technology, a non-profit, Washington, D.C.-based public interest group working to keep the Internet open, innovative and free. The views expressed here are his alone and do not reflect the opinions, attitudes or policy positions of his employer(s) past or present.