Going through the security checkpoint at DIA, the TSA gent peered over the conveyor to look at my shoes.
“They’re sandals,” I told him. “All rubber. No metal.”
“It doesn’t just look at metal any more. We suggest you take them off.”
No word on what it might be trying to detect, or whether those who go through without taking off their sandals will be strip-searched or what, but it wasn’t worth any further hassle, so I took them off.
Perhaps if we all came to the airport dressed in large, transparent plastic bags …
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Do you notice how they use language in a strange way? They say “we suggest”, but what they really mean is “do it our way, or we will make things really unpleasant for you.” Sounds like blackmail to me.
I don’t believe that the walk-through thingie can detect anything other than metal. I think they were feeding you a load of BS. There are technologies that can do that, but I don’t think they’ve been installed yet due to privacy concerns. In other words, we won’t need to go to the airport in big plastic baggies, because the tech they’ve got waiting in the wings can see right through your clothes. I’m sure it’s almost a wet dream for the TSA goons, who will be able to ogle every woman who goes through the system as if they weren’t wearing any clothes at all. What do you want to bet there’s a way to save images in the system for later perusal, and that some TSA goons end up with collections of images of the beautiful women who go through the system.