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Comment by Irregardless | Hacker News Reader

*Slightly non work-safe image at the top of the linked page (full body scans of men and women).

Also, one category of TSA agents not mentioned in this piece: Those who seem to revel in the public's disdain because they can easily make a traveler's life hell if the mood strikes them. For example, the agents in this breast milk incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XhnZlmLGK8

Any job that grants authority over other people probably attracts this type of employee.

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What kind of country do we live in where a link to images that are taken by the government of its own citizens have to be labeled "NSFW?"

It's surreal.

Although the police may take photographs of murder victims, it is generally not appropriate to view mutilated bodies while at work (unless you're a cop, etc).

I do think it is a bit silly to want to call the pictures from the scanner NSFW, because they're clearly in the context of speaking about the TSA rather than for any prurient reasons. If I wanted to see fuzzy outlines of genitals, I'd grab a pencil and sketch them myself.

Well, anywhere with a nationalized pornography network would qualify, though that might well be nowhere. Some places with a nationalized health service could qualify...

Although patients generally have the choice of treatment and can usually opt out of parts of their care if they want - travelers have to be screened if they want travel.

I wasn't at all saying "nationalized health care is precisely as bad as invasive TSA screening." I was solely playing with how the parent comment was worded.

>>"Any job that grants authority over other people probably attracts this type of employee"

Ah, but is it the employee seeks out this position because they are predisposed to exert control over others, or do they exert control because of the position they are put in, ala the stanford prison experiment[1] (situational attribution v. dispositional attribution)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

Does it really make a difference? The two are indistinguishable from the POV of the victim.

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