Bikini Body Scan

If you haven't noticed yet, I am very interested by the TSA body scan controversies out there. Here is a link to a funny clip in which a woman wears a bikini so that she can avoid being patted down after the scan.

Cyber Monday

Today was the best Cyber Monday of the year, I just managed to get $400 Stuart Weitzman shoes for $100! My mother was a little angry that I spent that much on shoes, but I explained that I am really just doing my part to help out the economy. Hunt down those deals before they disappear!

Mayor Villaraigosa Supports Body Scans

Mayor Villaraigosa gets a full body scan to show his support for the procedure.

Tragedy Strikes Again

Nineteen year-old Elizabeth Seeburg committed suicide after being sexually assaulted by a Notre Dame University Football player. She filed the assault report with the St. Josephy County prosecutors, and weeks later, did not find the justice she was searching for. After noticing that her case was going nowhere, she decided to take her own life by overdosing on anti-depressant drugs. Other bloggers are criticizing Notre Dame University officials for refusing to disclose the name of the player, and allowing him to play in the USC v. NDU game this Saturday. 

 

This tragic story raises the question of what could have been done to prevent Elizabeth from taking her own lif? Campaigns like the, “It gets better project,” have been put into place to promote awareness for hate induced suicides. This campaign asks everyday people to post videos with words of encouragement for those who may be struggling with accepting, or having others accept, their sexuality. However, there is no such campaign in place to prevent rape by college football stars. 

It is sad that someone must die before the football programs at universities will even think about having any rape education for the athletes. Even if the football player is prosecuted (which already seems unlikely), it is not likely that he will lose his scholarship or even be kicked off of the team. Justice needs to be served for this young girl, and if the athlete cannot be properly prosecuted then the next best thing is to bring about awareness. Perhaps what happened in the situation is that the football player did not understand the concept of consent. Awareness programs and classes could have helped the player gain a better understanding of what constitutes rape. The small effort of finding someone to teach this class could have saved the life of young Elizabeth.

Gender Wage Discrimination

Whenever I sat in the break-room of my minimum wage job, there was always a poster that I couldn’t help but notice. This poster said that for every dollar a man makes, a woman only makes seventy-seven cents. Are those twenty-three cents really a big deal? I could probably find that much money on the ground while I am walking from my car to work. I’m sure some federal or state regulation mandated that this poster, or a similar one, be present on the walls of every break-room in America. Nevertheless, I always sneered at it because I didn’t think that it was that big of a problem. In all honesty, none of us were getting paid enough for the amount of work that we were doing. However, just because I have not yet experienced any gender-wage pay discrimination, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.

While gender discrimination seems to be a problem of the past, it still remains a prevalent issue today—especially in the higher ranks of large businesses. Unfortunately, it is still true that women earn less and receive fewer promotions than men who have the same qualifications. Blogger Nancy M. Carter presents several strategies which can close the gender pay gap. Firstly, she suggests that women find mentors and sponsors. Mentors are important because they can give you advice as you make each small step through the company. Sponsors on the other hand are even more important because they have the pull to make things happen for you, even if they don’t have the time to hold your hand through every decision.

Secondly, Carter suggests that women learn how to market themselves. If a woman can have her accomplishments acknowledged regularly, others will notice that she is doing well. This recognition can go a long way in terms of raises, bonuses, and even promotions. But, if you don’t make those accomplishments known, then you cannot expect to receive the benefits associated with them.

Lastly, she sends out a word of advice for the younger women. Carter urges young females not to be afraid of dreaming big. This really resonated with me because my motto has always been, “reach for the moon because if you miss, you’ll land on the stars.” I think that the message behind this motto is important for young girls everywhere who might at some point face discrimination or a lack of support. Nancy agrees by stating that girls must realize their true potential before others will even take a second glance.

The gender wage gap is not a part of the past, but is also not something that must be accepted as a truth by women. Women need to understand that success will inevitably follow if they can find a mentor, learn to market themselves, and dream big. The first step is believing. The next step is never accepting no for an answer.   

Black Friday

I am happy that nobody got trampled this year! Hope that everyone found some great deals. 


I think that because of the recent economic crisis, stores have been beefing up their deals in order to draw more customers in. I did a little black Friday shopping (but I definitely was not one of those people waiting in lines at 3am in the cold), and there were some amazing deals. But, I didn’t actually walk away with a ton of stuff. I wonder what kind of damage the general public was responsible for. I left the sales and “great deals” about $250 poorer. 


One site estimated that the average black Friday shopper spends $738.11. That is a huge amount of cash! Those numbers (which have almost doubled since the recession first began) drive me to wonder if there really still is a recession in the US. Are we riding out the tail end right now? Hopefully.

My Black Friday Purchase

This was my Black Friday purchase. It is a BCBG chiffon dress that retails at $395. I got it for $90. Doing everything I can to help boost the economy (and be fashionable).

Imminent Storms

Having grown up in Chicago, I knew that the ground wouldn’t stay dark for long. The first snow of the season is always fun because it is the kind of snow that doesn’t stick to the ground. It is the snow you see in movies—the snow that elegantly lands on the main character’s oddly pink tongue. It is the snow that doesn’t take half an hour to scrape off of the windshield of your car. I like to refer to this snow as the “convenient snow.” Even though I really hate snow in general (mostly because of my slippery driving experiences), I have to admit I was kind of hoping that there we would have one of those convenient snow storms while I was in Chicago for Thanksgiving break. 

We were not so lucky.

Nevertheless, I was still curious as to when the first snow of winter would occur. I googled it, mainly because I was curious to see if there was even such a forecast. Apparently, it is a question on the minds of the masses because there were about 50 Yahoo! question inquiries. NBC Chicago informed me that the first snow typically comes at about mid-November.

Flight Delays

As mentioned earlier, I go to school at the University of Southern Calfornia in Los Angeles, but am originally from Chicago, IL. On Wednesday I was finally released from school and headed to the airport to catch a direct flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. I checked out the weather before leaving for the airport to try to determine whether I would be faced with any delays. The weather looked fine, and it appeared as though a large storm would pass just in time for my flight. 

Despite my high hopes and optimistic attitude, it did not…or did it? Through my research (most of which was done with my small understanding of the color coding of the real time weather maps on weather.com) I found that the rain storm would not have affected my flight time at all—which would have arrived in Chicago at 9pm, well after the end of the storm at 7pm. Why, then, was I forced to wait in the airport for 2 hours after my departure time in order to avoid a storm which I knew didn’t exist? Because I had plenty of time (we were forced to wait on the run-way for 45 minutes, and the person I sat next to was less than fragrant) to ponder this question, I was wondering why it is that even after a storm has passed, that it is still not safe for planes to fly through. Are there remaining clouds that have not cleared after the storm? What is so unsafe about those clouds?

In addition to the aforementioned questions, I had one other large misunderstanding. Typically when flying from Los Angeles to Chicago the wind flows in your favor. As a result, it is shorter to fly from LA to Chicago. When flying from Chicago to LA, it takes an additional hour more to finish the trip, probably because the wind is no longer flowing in your favor. Regardless, it usually takes 4 hours and 30 minutes to travel from LA to Chicago. However, because our flight had already been delayed two hours and people were starting to get frustrated, the pilot told us that he would try to shave off any extra time as possible. He ended up shaving off an entire hour and a half and we arrived in Chicago in only 3 hours. He was able to reduce about 25% of the trip length! That is a lot of time when you are sitting next to the world’s largest man who just happened to forget to wear deodorant today. How is it possible that flight time can be reduced by that much? If it was possible, why can’t the airline companies reduce the total flight time in aggregate? Why does it always take 4.5 and hours to get to Chicago when this pilot could make it in 3? I would prefer shorter flights, all the time. 

All of these questions led me to wonder, what are the airline companies keeping from us? What are they not telling their customers? How quickly could a plane potentially fly across the country? Why is there such a variance in flight times? Most importantly though, why don’t the airlines tell the whole truth to their customers? When I pay $500 for a round-trip ticket, I expect some answers. Unfortunately, all of the airlines that I have flown do not provide any answers.

Delta: Free Internet

Delta is providing free in-flight internet starting today! I am so happy that an airline is finally doing this. I think that by providing internet and other services like movies make passengers happier. And when passengers are happier, it makes the flight-attendant and pilot's jobs that much easier.

I also doubt that providing a service like this costs Delta very much money per flight. But it would be a great way to draw in some new customers. I personally would definitely pay more for my flight if I knew that I would be able to get 4+ hours of work (or maybe just internet browsing) done while on my flight. Thanks again Delta and I hope to fly with you soon!

Domestic Abuse

One of the stars of the 16 and Pregnant series I posted about last month is being faced with domestic abuse charges. To read more, click here.

Profiling: Latest Security Meaure?

In a recent post I discussed the importance of profiling when it comes to airport security. We all know though, that profiling is not considered politically correct in the US. But it has been suggested that racial profiling would have prevented the Fort Hood shooting.

Are American's really throwing away the lives of innocent people to honor an inexplicable desire to be political correct? At first glance, profiling seems fundamentally wrong, but also could have prevented many tragedies like 9/11 and the Fort Hood shooting.

To save the lives of innocent soldiers and plane riders, I think that profiling needs to be brought back. Forget about being politically correct, and try instead to save lives. Sure every once in a while you might wrongly profile someone, but in the long run it would be beneficial for society.

Body Scanners: Privacy vs. Safety

Because I am heading to the airport again tonight, I decided to do a little bit of reading on the new body scanners. If you have watched the news at all in the past few weeks, you know that it has sparked numerous controversies. 

Karen Cummings refused to walk through the scanner. Instead, she had to receive a pat-down from a TSA officer which she described as “unnecessary” and “unpleasant.” 

Cheryl Wise received harsh treatment after denying a scan. In addition to receiving a thorough frisking, every square inch of her luggage (including her shoes and purse) was emptied, searched, and tested for explosives.

Pilot Michael Roberts refused to walk through the scanners because he didn’t want a stranger to see images of his nude body and received just as much trouble. The TSA officer informed him that he would have to submit to a pat-down instead. He resisted this too because he was trying, “to avoid assault.” A TSA officer promptly told him that he would not be allowed to proceed. The kicker is that he was dressed in his official uniform. He missed the flight he was supposed to pilot, and his employment is currently, “on hold.”

Stories aside, lets review the basics of the body scanners. The scanners use high frequency radio waves which reflect off of the body to create an image. This image sees through the individual’s clothing to see if they are hiding any objects or weapons. As of late, the scanners have been popping up in airports across the nation, and are more prevalent than ever before. The scan only takes about 60 seconds and is a physically non-invasive procedure. Each scanner costs about $170,000.

There are two opinions out there—there are those who support the new security measure, and there are others who argue that the process is a violation of basic human rights. 

An ABC News poll found that 64% of those surveyed supported the use of the full body scans. A CBS News poll also found that the majority, 81% in this case, support the scans. Still others would be more likely to travel by air.

Kristi Gustafson is a blogger who supports the new body scan procedures. She argues that she would rather go through the scanner than watch more terrorists get through the security line. Kristi knows that the scans are not fool-proof, but argues that merely having the procedures in place acts as a deterrent. If someone faces the possibility of being caught, he will be less likely to test his luck.

The scans also provide extra security. Because the scans can see through clothing, they are able to detect non-metal objects. Metal detectors (which were the old ‘gold standard’ of security) can merely detect metals like knives and razor blades. However, we know that weapons can come in other forms—like liquid based bombs. These advanced scanners can find those liquid bombs in addition to metal objects. Ultimately, fewer bombs and knives on airplanes will increase overall safety.

Blogger Patrick Smith is a pilot who finds the airport security procedures overwhelming. He argues that nobody should have the right to see him naked, regardless of their motives. Instead of physically scanning people at the airport for weapons, Smith thinks that police should be responsible for doing background checks on travelers. If the police can take find higher risk passengers before they even get to the airport, then officers won’t need to bother every single person with walking through a scanner. Rather, TSA officers can use their time to scan those higher risk individuals. 

This method would cease to inconvenience the many travelers that have no intentions of bringing bombs and knives onto the plane. Smith also argues that if we aren’t scanning every single person, enough money will be saved to fund this police investigation. 

In accordance with Smith, James Fallows also disagrees with the scans because they violate his basic right to privacy. He starts his argument by contrasting the direct and indirect costs of terrorism. The direct costs of terrorism are the lives that would be lost in the event of an attack. However, there are numerous indirect costs of terrorism, which are not usually considered. The indirect effects include the fear that is induced and the money spent on airport security. Fallows explains that by responding to these indirect threats with heightened TSA procedures, Americans (and American culture in general) are losing their freedom. These indirect affects have not only cost the US its flight freedom, but have also cost them millions of dollars (in war spending, new airport procedures, etc.).

Fallows proposes that instead of spending limitless amounts of money to reduce the probability of attacks to zero, it would be more important to learn recovery strategies. Additionally, Fallows discusses the need for a risk break-even analysis. Politicians and airlines need to determine a level of acceptable risk because it would be far too expensive, not to mention inefficient, to reduce risk to zero. 

While Smith and Fallows both present valid security alternatives which would remove the need for scanners, I still find them necessary because we need to have a procedure which can detect liquid bombs. 

I personally have defied some of the TSA security rules without any trouble. The first time I flew alone, I was at the airport security line reading the posted security signs. One of the signs detailed the rules about carrying liquids through security—all liquids must be in 3 ounce containers and must fit in a quart sized Ziploc bag. Suddenly I remembered that I had forgotten to put my face wash in a Ziploc bag. I quickly took the face wash out of my bag, jammed it into my jeans pockets, and walked through the metal detector without a problem. 

It scares me, and should scare you too, that it was that easy to sneak a large liquid through security. In this scenario, it was innocent face wash, but that will not always be the case.  

At the end of the day, we really need to analyze this issue through the scope of utilitarianism.  

Do the body scanners promote a greater good for society at a minimal cost? In my opinion, the answer to this question is yes. If we can allow a trained professional to view revealing photos of our bodies, then we can save countless of lives from a potential bomber. Utilitarianism argues that this would promote the greater good for the greatest amount of people.   

Smith and Fallows on the other hand, would disagree because it violates their basic human rights, and everyone is entitled to their privacy. But, how important is your privacy? Would you be willing to sacrifice your life and the lives of the people around you so that your naked image is not sent to a professional in a room? Only a terrorist would answer yes to that question.