‘Embarrasing’, ‘unfortunate’ … it’s our TSA

The time is long past for a "fish or cut bait" discussion about the TSA in its current grotesque form.

It infringes upon our liberty for no good and effective reason. It is the legacy of a nation cowering in the face of worldwide terrorism and it is time to stop.

This is not to say that airport security -- as well as any kind of travel security -- isn't worth paying attention to in a dead-serious, American fashion. Nor is this to say that terrorism is at an end -- the assassination of our ambassador to Libya at Benghazi shows that. But what we are doing to our travelers with the TSA is just obscene.

Consider this case in which a 17-year-old college student was subjected to a pat-down. Pulled aside, the agent pressed against her stomach and darnit, wouldn't you know it, the agent "accidentally" pulled the girls blouse down exposing her bare breasts to a myriad of fellow travelers.

Luckily for her, she is the niece of a U.S. representative, who got more than a little pissed about it. It took two years for him to extract official documents from the most bureaucratic TSA, but he did. The agency now says it is "embarrassed," but called it an "unfortunate accident."

The guilty agent was sentenced to one more training class to learn how to pat-down a 17-year-old coed without stripping her naked.

Most of us are not the nieces of a politician. All of us, however, can identify with this episode and demand a better solution.

The way to start is to e-mail this to your U.S. Representative or U.S. Senator and ask them for a better way.

We as a people are better than the TSA "solution." Don't tell us this incident was an "embarrassment" and it was "unfortunate." Those are the words our government must start applying to the TSA.