# What will really happen if Texas passes the TSA anti-groping bill? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 21, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-really-happen-if-texas-passes-the-tsa-anti-groping-bill/586310 "2011-06-21T17:05:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-really-happen-if-texas-passes-the-tsa-anti-groping-bill/586310/101 "2011-06-29T17:52:52Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > **Gruman** , > > Please give your answers. So far I can only infer that your answer is that the level who should be entrusted to make a decision is whichever one gives an answer you agree with. States should comply if you agree with the decision, whether or not they do, and not comply if you disagree and in each case they are correct to do so. > > **Magiver** , you in one breath complain about the cost, and then suggest a method that has been documented to cost much much more and still can’t guarantee anything. I didn’t complain about cost and there is no documentation that the Israeli system is much much more. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-really-happen-if-texas-passes-the-tsa-anti-groping-bill/586310/102 "2011-06-29T18:41:44Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > **Gruman** , > > Please give your answers. So far I can only infer that your answer is that the level who should be entrusted to make a decision is whichever one gives an answer you agree with. States should comply if you agree with the decision, whether or not they do, and not comply if you disagree and in each case they are correct to do so. My answer is that _neither_ should have the power to unilaterally grant the TSA this exemption from the normal laws, without probable cause and without even demonstrating that it achieves the supposed goals of the exercise. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-really-happen-if-texas-passes-the-tsa-anti-groping-bill/586310/103 "2011-06-29T21:56:54Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I don’t know where the author came up with the cost difference but further down in the article it’s pointed out it’s not a cost comparison between airports. I have a slightly different reading of what that article said about comparing apples to apples, but I’m not going to bother. But you do ignore the statement that immediately follows the caveat in that article, which says that multiple reports find that Israeli security costs substantially more than US security. So, the question remains: do you want to “substantially” increase the TSA budget? My guess is that no, you want to cut government spending in this time of Obama spending too much on everything, blah blah blah. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-really-happen-if-texas-passes-the-tsa-anti-groping-bill/586310/104 "2011-06-30T01:30:03Z")
**Magiver** , sorry if I misconstrue a comment about “expensive security theater” as a complaint about cost. :rolleyes: There is no question that Israeli style security would cost much more; it requires a much more highly trained labor force and is much more labor intensive. [The JPost puts it this way:](http://blogs.jpost.com/content/israeli-security-american-airports-not-so-fast) > [@](#): > > Replicating the Israeli model in the United States would easily cost $40 billion a year - and possibly many times that. That would wind up being more expensive than supposed big-government boondoggles such as the Troubled Assets Relief Program and the auto bailout, and it would wipe out Republican promises to cut spending. … In a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, Israel uses profiling, background checks and extensive interviews to filter out the highest-risk fliers, who are then subjected to searches of luggage and person more invasive than anything the Transportation Security Administration has conjured. The air security argument has been about whether Americans would prefer Israeli-style profiling to the current system of body scans and pat-downs. But this overlooks a more fundamental problem: The Israeli system, even if it could be scaled up, is out of our price range. **Grumman** , Okay, you want decisions made by those who would make the ones you think are correct. Fine. That much I understand now. I do not get however how you think that the TSA has an “exemption from the normal laws”. They do not. I could understand this argument if such searches were required in order to vote - we have a Right to vote; but there is no more Right to fly than there is a Right to come into my house. Personally I agree that these recent efforts are mostly theater of little efficacy, but I see little to get up in civil liberty arms there. They are just a stupid and poor use of resources. I understand that the concept of someone grazing your junk or seeing a cartoonish image of your unclothed body really bothers you, me, I just feel sorry for the poor sap who has to look at, or graze, mine. And even Texas has figured out that fighting it at a state level is idiotic. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-really-happen-if-texas-passes-the-tsa-anti-groping-bill/586310/105 "2011-06-30T07:44:18Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I have a slightly different reading of what that article said about comparing apples to apples, but I’m not going to bother. > > But you do ignore the statement that immediately follows the caveat in that article, which says that multiple reports find that Israeli security costs substantially more than US security. So, the question remains: do you want to “substantially” increase the TSA budget? > > My guess is that no, you want to cut government spending in this time of Obama spending too much on everything, blah blah blah. To start with, I didn’t see anything citeable in the article regarding costs. Beyond that, the current TSA system is a joke at taxpayer expense. It is nothing but knee-jerk security theater. First it was the shoe-bomber who got by that triggered everybody taking their shoes off and then it was the underwear bomber who got by and triggered searches of people with depends and colostomy bags. Meanwhile a passenger boarded a plane last December with a loaded gun in his computer bag. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-really-happen-if-texas-passes-the-tsa-anti-groping-bill/586310.md?page=5)