The spirit of the Nobel Prize can be extracted from Alfred Nobel's will:
"The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind."

Economic forces are probably one of the major ones that modify the quality of life of every human being in this planet, and have a definite impact on poverty, hunger, health and global peace. I'm a mathematician myself; I know what a "hard" science is and by that logic, mathematics should have its Nobel Prize as well. And I agree, Economics is less hard than most economists pretend it to be. But in any case, that's not what is in question. The fact that Economics is a major agent in the way we understand "human laws" and its effect on humankind, it warrants its place in the Nobel Prizes, I firmly believe.

Ugh, I'm sorry, but I cringe every time somebody says "our founding fathers never intended that". They couldn't possibly foresee the state and needs of the country almost two centuries later, and the social, technological, and environmental complexities of this new globalized world. They were not infallible saints sent from God. We are the ones who have the responsibility of adjusting our laws and systems to cope with the new problems we face.

Clearly something went awfully wrong the procedure...

"Unreasonable" is such a sharp, unambiguous word.

Yeah, right, they get *GROPED*. What an exaggeration. It's just a damn inspection. If you're having those kind of fantasies perhaps you're too repressed or watch too much porn (or both).

If they don't want to get touched, then they shouldn't object to the scans.

The patdowns are not responsible for any deaths. These reactions are caused by the irrational fear and exacerbated prudery of the TRAVELERS.

I have absolutely no problems being scanned or getting a deep patdown. One is in the same situation when you get a physical examination from your doctor. We have no problems with that because we don't want to risk our health. Why can't we do the same for our security?

These officers deal with so many people that I would doubt they would find it pleasurable after the 10,000th traveler. And even if they find pleasure off of it, what's the big frickin' deal? What if I like going to work because there's somebody good-looking in my office? (totally hypothetical, because it's sadly not my case, ha) Does that make me a bad employee? Pff!

You know what pisses me off the most at airports? Not hightened security, but the lack of electric outlets and free (or cheap) wifi. That aggravates me to no end.