NSA: Sometimes breaking things is all we have

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

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President Obama on the NSA

[source: unknown]

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A confession: How I slipped through the NSA metal detectors. . .with some heavy metal!

When I was returning home to Seattle from Oakland last week, something happened to me that hasn't happened in eight years. I stepped through the metal detector and it didn't go off! I've been flying around the country a lot in the last few months, and I was a little shocked. I looked at the woman running the machine and she said "OK, you can go." And I almost told her. But I didn't.

You may or may not recall that I have an artificial hip. It is made of stainless steel. And every time I've walked through metal detectors over the last eight years, they have sounded the alarm. But this time, there was silence. I was stunned. And it was so nice not to be stared at by my fellow fliers, gone over with the wand, and then frisked, that I just walked away without saying a word. Now, this hip replacement has more mass of metal in it than any handgun. Therefore, I could have been packing a Glock (far less mass than a prosthetic hip), or any number of grenades. But fortunately, I left them at home this time.

Hey NSA, you might want to check out security at the Oakland airport. For all I know, someone in your organization fiddled with the machine in preparation for a fellow member of their sleeper cell to slip through and do something heinous.

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