Dirty Bird,

Your original post implied a degree of complacency and conformity that was clearly troubling to those who read i.
That lead to the profanity-laced attacks. Let me parse for you a few of your statements that raised ire.

Atart with the subject line "This belongs on the comics page." The comics page is reserved for things that are funny. Using pliers to remove metal from a women's breast seems like sexual torture. Obviously, torture isn't funny.

You Wrote:
"In today's climate of miniature objects and powerful explosives, I'd prefer checking out anyone who rings the bell to giving some bimbo or manbo a pass. Too much is better for me than too little."

--You may not have meant it, but you explicitly connected the body-pierced woman in the article and bimboism. Whether or not you believe this, people like Dantefurlough interpreted what you said to mean "only slutty bimbos wear nipple rings." Please re-read your comment. Is that really not a credible interpretation?

--I am not up to date on the latest miniature explosive devices, but I am pretty skeptical of Hollywood films. Given that Iraqi terrorist IEDs are fairly large and the shoe bomber needed several minutes to attempt to ignite his shoe, I am thinking that making a dangerous weapon out of a nipple ring is more the realm of "Mission:Impossible" than reality.


You also Wrote:
I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant experience, but it you choose to disfigure your body with metal, I guess you have to expect to set off the alarms. I'm sure my plate and screws in my ankle will result in some bells going off the next time I fly. I'll deal with it. I certainly don't want some TSA employee deciding I'm no risk and passing me through.

--Again, you explicitly state that one should expect to set off alarms if you "disfigure your body"with metal. "Disfigure" is a loaded term in this context and sounds judgmental. Combined with your earlier reference to "bimbos and manbos" it really sounds judgmental.

--I also am not sure that I want under-educated people to constantly err on the side of caution. Isn't that also a recipe for disaster? The removal of any autonomy - even for supervisory level TSA employees - is troubling to me.

I wish there was less knee-jerk profanity in these sorts of discussions but some of what you said sounded very "blame the victim."