glimmer of good news?

A week ago, The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg suggested "an idea you might try to make the day extra-special. It's a one-word idea: Kilts."

Think about it -- if you're a male, and you want to bollix-up the nonsensical airport security-industrial complex, one way to do so would be to wear a kilt. If nothing else, this will cause TSA employees to throw up their hands in disgust. If you want to go the extra extra mile, I suggest commando-style kilt-wearing. While it is probably illegal to fly without pants, I can't imagine that it's illegal to fly without underpants.

If anyone was planning to fly in a kilt, read this report about the Scottish Tartans Authority calling commando kilt-wearing "childish and unhygienic." (Sounds like sour grapes to me...)

Meanwhile, Nate Anderson expresses concern at ars technica that "given the TSA's penchant for trying to stop the last terrorist attack, we're more than a bit concerned about what happens when a miscreant decides to smuggle a plastic explosive onto a plane by stuffing it in a body cavity." USN&WR reports that the TSA is "isn't planning to take the next step toward body cavity searches:"

"We're not going to get in the business of body cavities, that's not where we are," says TSA Administrator John Pistole. [...] "Even if it is a body cavity [bomb], you still have to have an initiator, you have to have some external device to cause that initiation," he said. "There's got to be something external that you can then initiate the device and that's what the advance imaging technology machine will pick up: Any anomaly outside of the body."

Are suicide bombers less committed to their goals than drug mules? I suppose that we'll find out.

update (11/23):
In a more-exposed-than-a-kilt- vein, Violet Blue writes about Furry Girl's exploits with the TSA. Although the website of activist/exhibitionist Furry Girl is still swamped with traffic, it has been mirrored here. She writes about her efforts "to use my own body as a medium to protest against invasive security measures, and in a humorous way that upends the expected dynamic:"

The TSA wanted to feel me up or see what I look like without clothes. I get it. I'm a sex worker. My main porn site gets about 3 million unique visitors a year, and clients pay $4 a minute to see me naked on my web cam, so the TSA's interest in me came as no surprise. Normally, I would charge for such a service, but this one was on the house. Duty, country, sacrifice, patriotism, all that.

For my voyage, I donned a see-though chemise and sheer panties under normal clothes. My nipples, crack, and pubes are all plainly visible though this ensemble. The TSA needed to make sure that I wasn't concealing any errant Al Qaeda operatives in the folds of my labia, after all. [...] As far as I know, I am the current record holder for the nearest-to-naked a passenger has gotten at a TSA screening. I look forward to having that title stripped from me.

She asks, "Remember the children's tale of Brer Rabbit?"

It's time to beg not to be thrown into the briar patch. Put on your sexiest, filmsiest underthings, opt for a grope-down, have fun with it, treat it like a performance, and fake an orgasm in public next time you fly. You'll gain self-confidence, amuse and inspire other passengers, draw attention to the sexually-invasive nature of the modern airport security process, and make government employees look more predatory and inappropriate while feeling up strangers. Protesting in such a way won't change TSA regulations overnight, but it adds to the dissent and public conversation, flips around a demeaning dynamic, and for bold travelers, getting this transparent just might be the only way these days to enter an airport with a smile on your face and your dignity intact.

And hey, at least I'm not one of those public embarrassments who wear their pajamas, a blanket, and an inflatable neck pillow to the airport. For fuck's sake, people! Have some sense of propriety.

Have a backbone, too!

update (12/8):
There is some information on actual commando-style kilted men here.