Airport Security and Nipple Rings

I know, lame way to get your attention. This sounds ridiculous at first, but really it makes absolutely no sense. Since the late nineties punks and other "freaks" (that's not a bad word here) have had a very real, yet different paranoia other social groups outside of race or class deal with, based on presumed anti-establishment beliefs. Adult punks (if they're still around -after the age of 21-after all the drunk haze, that is, if they're not straight-edge/sharp) are usually informed and/or active citizens. Those that know what is going on in the world have had to go from laughing at and dismissing the activities of the ELF and other types of nonviolent organizations (such as PETA and the ALF), to denouncing them in every way since around 1998. An effort started in Europe in the later nineties to equate "eco-terrorism" (their word, not mine) with primal fear-driven, violent terrorism. While the vast majority of us have nothing to do with any such organization, it makes no difference when profiling an activist or punk in a public place, literally or digitally. Which brings me back to this: John (my partner) has had a nipple ring since he was in his teens (there's only one because the other was accidentally ripped out by some chick at a show when he was a kid-the thick scar tissue prevents us from repiercing it ourselves). We have gone through metal detectors and flown on planes several times (though he hasn't since 9-11) with that ring on, and never has it ever set off a metal detector. Though, it would actually be comical (or not) to see someone try to remove it and avoid a lawsuit. The low gage rod is from an industrial plant that he worked at in 1998, closed very carefully with a shitload of force. It hasn't come out more than once over the last 10 years. My nose ring or underwires have never set off a metal detector. The only thing that consistently set it off was the overalls which I used to stupidly always unintentionally wear every fucking time I would go to the airport. I know metals differ in rings, studs, and barbells, but I can't imagine this happening on a regular basis. My worry is this is a reemerging of public acceptance of "freaks" as trouble, still completely deserving of public ridicule, or "asking for it" in the name of national security. And that's a pretty large group of people, because it doesn't just include people of our scene anymore (if it ever did).

As if we need any more of that.

Maybe I shouldn't be drunk posting, as these later division rival games (Rangers/Devils, Sharks/Stars) are intense, but I think if I didn't post a little shitty, I wouldn't be posting at night at all until after the first week of June.

In response to the Aravosis query:

Terrorists have used their pregnant girlfriends to try to blow up planes. They've put kids in a car to disguise the fact that it was about to blow up. People like to laugh about over-inspections at airports, but I don't laugh anymore. Your thoughts?

Are we strip searching every pregnant woman or family of four now, or only the moms with big tits or CRASS patches?

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