"Strip Search" machines can't see through belts or pockets?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy travel. I actually enjoy flying too, for
the most part, but security is just getting stupider and stupider.

Last week I had a flight to one city for a couple days, another city for
another couple days and then home again. This resulted in going through
security six times for five flights due to border crossing and inability
of one airline to have airworthy equipment on hand.

To start with, in Canada they have a magical mat of randomness, when you
step on it, it directs you to the appropriate line indicating whether
you get additional screening or not. However, since Canada still has
some of our basic freedoms we're permitted to leave the screening area
at any time, so if you don't like what the mat decides you're free to
depart and try your luck later.

That being said, I'm not so sure it's actually anything resembling
random since the one and only time I saw it indicate "red" in the 100+
people I watched go through security was when a devote Muslim named
"Hussam" (apologies if that's misspelled) wandered through. What are
the odds?

The most interesting part was security in PHX, which had the new
scanners. They can apparently measure my penis, but for some reason
they can't see through belts -- Someone wanna explain that one to me? Or
better yet, I should hit a bondage website and order some leather
underwear if I want my privacy.

So even after removing my shoes, belt (and jacket, if I hadn't
accidentally left it behind in PHX... Ooops) to enter a machine that can
see through my clothes, they still decided to feel me up just for fun.
No, I wasn't flagged for secondary screening, it just turns out that the
machines can't reliably see through baggy pockets either -- And yes, the
pockets were completely empty, not so much as a piece of paper, but I
still got a quickie right there in the airport.

With that in mind, I'm wondering what all the fuss is about? Given that
the machines apparently can't see through belts or baggy cargo pant
pockets, what exactly can they see? Or is this just more theatre?

Sure, there are some valid concerns about the amount and type of
radiation since unlike medical X-Rays, the energy being used here is
specifically tuned to not penetrate your skin, so your skin may actually
absorb more energy total even though less energy is used, but honestly,
that concerns me less than the money, time and lack of any real security
that we gain.