More Stories from TSA Security Theatre

These kinds of stories will no doubt be reported for years to come.

"TSA forces cancer survivor to show prosthetic breast".

Cathy Bossi, who works for U.S. Airways, said she received the pat-down after declining to do the full-body scan because of radiation concerns.

The TSA screener "put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?' " Bossi told the station. "And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that.'"

And then we have "TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine".

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach.

“One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.”

The security officer finished the pat-down, tested the gloves for any trace of explosives and then, Sawyer said, “He told me I could go. They never apologized. They never offered to help. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened. But I know they saw it because I had a wet mark.”

I have a lot of empathy for the TSA screeners. They get a lot of crap for policies that they had no hand in making. But it is tested when they announce the arrival of an 18 year-old woman to be groped within earshot of her father. And how can anyone in the course of their job screw up someone's urostomy bag, see a man's clothes soak with urine, and just (ahem) wash their hands of it? If I had been responsible for that, I'd be worried that the guy is going to get an infection or something and die. But whoever it was that groped Mr. Sawyer apparently didn't give a rat's ass.

Perhaps when someone dies as a result of a groping at the hands of the TSA something will be done to ensure screeners treat people appropriately. Until such an incident we're stuck with "security theatre".