4th Amendment Underpants

I know we Americans are crazy and usually invent the wildest of ideas and products. But have you heard of the latest , the 4th Amendment Underwear? It's men's boxers and women's underwear that have the 4th Amendment printed on them in an ink that is designed to shine bright in those full-body airport scanners. Uh, it's sort of a funny half hearted protest at the stupidity of all those time wasting, annoying, humiliating and totally useless airport searches we all endure thanks to one event (the September 11, 2001 airplane crashes into the New York City World Trade Center) and the stupidity of politicians who want to earn gold stars and votes by "keeping us safe" from terrorists by wasting billions of dollars in pretend to find terrorist airport searches.

So every time the TSA security X-ray officers look at our bodies via their X rays, they are confronted with the amendment that protects against unreasonable searches just as they scan someone's privates. Well, give the person who came up with this idea a round of a plus for being the best capitalist of the day. The underpants have sold out their first production line supply and the maker is rolling in money as a result. Maybe the back side of the underpants should have a something for the screeners to read as well. Maybe "Kiss Here If You Love Terrorism..Or My Ass"?

Humor and commentary pants aside, the saddest part is the TSA's crazy airport inspections do nothing to improve security. The odds of getting taken out by plane bomber on your flight have been computed by the geeks who discover those statistics we all love to cite is 1 in 75 million without ANY scanning (by contrast there is a 1 in 250,000 chance that the Apophis asteroid will hit Earth in 2032 and destroy an entire region of earth). In a nation like the United States that treasures individual freedom is is odd to me that courts here allow this kind of airport search. Right after the policy of airport searches became so oppressive to flyer someone sued to stop the searches and one U.S. District Court judge ruled that random pat downs could not be done because "A generalized fear of terrorism should not diminish the fundamental Fourth Amendment protection envisioned by our Founding Fathers".

He was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court. Hmmmm I wonder if he wears those 4th Amendment underpants when he flies? Maybe we should do a flash naked protest at the airport scan site. Just have everyone rip off their clothes and show that their vital parts are innocent of terrorism. If arrested one could claim they are merely aiding in the search for rooting out terrorists, not being obscene. Insane searches may one day engender insane responses of protest to them.