Friday, January 08, 2010

Pornography by way of U.S. Government and two clicks of Photoshop

Need another reason to hate Transportation Security Administration (or as I call 'em "Thousands Slacking Around")? No thanks to the new "backscatter" virtual strip search machines that Janet Napolitano wants to put into more airports, the United States government will soon be the world's largest producer of pornographic images.

Here's a pic that's up on Drudge Report right now, showing a woman in one of the scanning machines...

And if you've got the nerve for it, here's what one dude was able to produce with three clicks of Adobe Photoshop.

(With the same image, I was able to produce an identical photo with two mouse clicks inside Photoshop, in less than 20 seconds.)

Our British friends are already noting that the machines violate child pornography laws over there. And there is some speculation that the electromagnetic waves used in the backscatter devices can destroy DNA and potentially cause cancer.

I say: let's see Janet Napolitano and everyone else associated with the Department of Homeland Security walk through these machines dozens of times on live television, as a good-faith demonstration that there's nothing for us to worry about. With all the resulting images being broadcast directly from the source in high-definition video.

What sayeth y'all?


Scott K. said...

It's fake. Somebody just knows how to use Photoshop to scare people. You can buy the original photo here. An altered image like this violates the usage agreements of the stock photo. Which means that Drudge is technically should be in some legal trouble right now.

Not only that, but scanners can't pick up hair follicles.

Daniel de Gracia II said...

I don't like it. I don't like it because the TSA can say "Unless you step in this scanner you can't board the plane" but on the other hand, if you take a picture of an *NSA* building, now they confiscate your camera. So basically the government can take naked pictures of you and scan you but when it comes to us asking them for a little transparency the answer is NO, SLAVE! "Executive privilege! National security!"

I for one think the founding fathers would freak if this kind of thing was going on in their day. This is totally dehumanizing. If we make it a regular accepted practice to say the government can bodyscan you, that opens the door to one more intrusion after another. Fourth Amendment anyone?