The latest TSA abuse outrage

Well, maybe not the latest because of the age of the incident, but it doesn't seem to have been widely publicized at the time.

Yeah, I know. Everyone's sick of hearing about TSA enhanced pat-downs and such, but this story is a bit different. This seems to have occurred in February of this year so it took place before the junk-touching policy went into effect, and in fact has nothing to do with junk-touching or full body scans. Rather, this is about the mindset of some TSA security screeners who, out of pure spite, wield their petty authority over a citizen with the audacity to challenge them to follow their own published policy.

The video below weighs in at over 11 minutes, so here's the gist of it:

A new mother evidently pumps her breast milk while away so that she can feed it to her son upon her return. Armed with a printed copy of TSA's policy, she asks that her breast milk not be x-rayed and that TSA follow their alternative inspection policy on medical liquids, which applies to baby formula and breast milk.

Thus challenged, the TSA screener sets her belongings aside and confines her to an inspection holding area for nearly an hour, resulting in the young mother missing her flight home.

Here's the clip:

Now, here's what the Transportation Security Administration's own web site has to say about breast milk (emphasis theirs):

When carrying formula, breast milk, or juice through the checkpoint, they will be inspected, however, you or your infant or toddler will not be asked to test or taste breast milk, formula, or juice. Our Security Officers may test liquid exemptions (exempt items more than 3 ounces) for explosives.

Now maybe, just maybe, the TSA screeners here gave her a hard time about it only because she wasn't actually traveling with her baby. Maybe. But that doesn't negate the petty vindictiveness of the TSA employees shown here.

We'll end up thanking Obama

No, seriously. You! Yeah, you...stop laughing.

Think about it. For years now, conservatives and libertarians have been grumbling about the expansion of the federal government and the concomitant erosion of personal liberties. But it's been a gradual process, sort of a death by a thousand cuts, and a large majority of the American population either didn't notice or shrugged it off. If Big Government had a throttle control scaled 1 to 10, the lever's been generally set at 2 or 3, with occasional forays up to the 4 or 5 range.

But Barack Obama has grabbed that throttle control, slammed it up to 10 and is pushing it past the detent into full afterburner. And suddenly, people are starting to notice. And they're pushing back.

The backlash is just now starting, and the 2010 mid-term elections will be just a sneak preview of things to come. By 2012 or 2014 the sentiment against ever-expanding government control over everything will be undeniable, and we'll have Barack Obama to thank for it.

Britain's ever over-reaching state

On the surface, this is merely appalling. On closer consideration it reveals a terrifying presumption by the state that children are better off under control of the state than of their parents.

Baroness Morgan said: "I'm sure the vast majority do a good job. However, there are concerns that some children are not receiving the education they need.

"And in some extreme cases, home education could be used as a cover for abuse. We cannot allow this to happen and are committed to doing all we can to help ensure children are safe, wherever they are educated."

Baroness Morgan is Britain's "Children's Minister", a scary title if ever I heard one. Can you imagine a "Secretary of Children's Affairs" here in the US? Well, actually, as of today maybe I can. But I digress.

No evidence or examples are offered up, just the possibility of such "extreme cases". And you know that when it's "for the children", legislators of every stripe will fall all over each other trying to be the first to pass new laws.

With NEA-friendly Democrats oozing into every nook and cranny of government, look for home education to come under further scrutiny and control here in the US.