Leave it to Americans to inject their obsession with bodies and sex into questions of national security.  The TSA has given you a choice at the airport: get scanned or get patted or get in your car and start driving.   Of course, most of the public outrage centers on what the scan might reveal, while most of the jokes deal with the supposed pleasures of a stranger’s gloved hand on your inner thigh in a public place.  Under the luscious glare of fluorescent lights no less.

My heart does ache for those with implants and ostomies who are now having to put their personal dignity on the line just to board a plane.  Theirs is not some imagined intrusion.  But my mind says, aren’t the rest of us going down this road too far?  Can we really buy the sense of security we once thought we had?

This is going to be one of those “it’s easy for me to say” observations.  Maybe we would be just as “safe” with a lower and less intrusive level of security.  Even if we were not as safe, maybe we could learn to live with the increased risk of terrorism, as European nations have done for decades.  It would be interesting to do a pilot study, no pun intended.  Let’s invent an air carrier called “Libertarian Air”.  Flights on Libertarian Air would take off and land at their own terminals.  Their passengers would be subject to pre-9/11/01 inspection standards.  Luggage scanning would adhere to current standards, but carry-ons (including liquids) would be handled pre-9/11/01.  Libertarian Air employees would be screened like any other airport or airline worker.

So here’s the question: Would you fly on Libertarian Air, all other things being equal, including price, service, pilot and crew competence, and so on?  If you had a choice to fly  one of two airlines, each charging $350 for a round-trip ticket to the Bahamas, one of which requires you to take off your shoes and get a full-body scan or pat-down before boarding, the other which requires neither and allows you to bring your own food on board, which would you choose?  Would Libertarian Air survive?  Would its passengers?