Slashdot Mirror
How Has Post-9/11 Legislation Affected You?
goldspider asks: "I hope this is received in the spirit it was intended in. In a recent Reuters article, the Internet as a whole has been referred to as 'collateral damage' of the U.S.-led War on Terrorism, because of the perceived loss in privacy and online rights as a result of post-9/11 legislation. I am curious to hear about some specific examples of how this legislation has personally or professionally affected the everyday lives of Slashdot readers."
...so it hasn't really, sadly enough to say. But I think the even affected everyone on the continent in some way or another.
"It's here, but no one wants it." - The Sugar Speaker
So I guess that you could say that what used to just piss people off is now considered domestic terrorism. Some people OBVIOUSLY overreact to situations and play on the emotions. I would really like to seem some legislation against PROFITING on 9/11.
I live a few miles from the Canadian border. I've been searched at least 20-30 times since September 11 going across to the Casinos in Windsor.
I'm sick of people saying "Oh, it doesn't bother me because it makes me feel safer." It DOES bother me, and NO, it DOESN'T make me feel safer. If someone wanted to get across the border with explosives or something, they're gonna do it and these stupid spot checks aren't prevent it.
My journal has hot
It's even worse when they say "So?"
Like everyone else, there's the delay...
But, unlike most people, I use an insulin pump. Most security people aren't keen on seeing someone with a small mechanical device and tubes attached to their body. Also, the insulin, needles, lancet, etc all get a good look through. I get stopped and have my bags inspected pretty much every time I go through. It's made me use air travel as a last resort.
Well, I work for a computer security company which was just aquired after a great year of sales after 9/11. Certainly the company would still be doing well, but perhaps not quite as well if people weren't directly interested in security.
Thus 9/11 directly influenced my bank account, and likely many many other people's, albeit not in the same direction.
I can't think of anything that has directly impacted me as of yet, but there are things about the past year that are very disturbing.
The biggest thing is that the government appears to be milking the 9/11 event for all it's worth in steps, releasing little tidbits of the story and new footage or new suspects found every time it wants to pass something through the houses without causing too much trouble with the public. Whip the public into a patriotic fervor of such levels that they willingly give up their freedoms in the name of staying safe and 'free of terrorists'.
Examples would be the Citizen Corps program that Bush started, it's effectively eastern european 'secret police' all over again, call in your neighbor for suspicious activity and get them put on surveilance and possibly carted away. Also the 'Patriot Act' and a few other bills that are aimed at increasing the governments power over individuals, all in the name of 'freedom'.
So have I felt any solid effects of anything since then? No. Can I see a picture start to form the way they've been manipulating (or attempting to) the public to push forward an agenda? Yes.
As far as the net goes with regards to 9/11...I have seen no changes whatsoever.
/. is viewed as a radical site--yikes)
Here's the deal for me:
I don't download music, movies, or software that isn't free, nor do I download porn. (Shocked silence should ensue here I guess. Why look at porn when you have a beautiful woman at home?)
I don't (moral obligation, lack of caring, whatever you want to call it) do activities that could bring me under suspicion of any government agency. (unles
Anyhow, to use a phrase from the late, great DA:
I'm mostly harmless.
So, my access has stayed the same. I guess I am just a boring person.
Yeah, I read the article too....*shrugs* the only thing that has caused me concern has been my apparent need for penis enlargement and breast reduction surgery..at least there are people in the world that think I need both, and want me to make lots of money out of the kindness of their hearts.
Sent from your iPad.
Though this is a small percentage, it does hurt the people in the recieving end. The economy has made things worse when few people who lose jobs blame it on the H-1Bs.
There was a restructuring in my company and now the message boards are full of hate.
I guess the general hate level of the people has increased and also the economy is not helping.
God Bless America...
As an airport security worker, I feel as though my obligations have multiplied ten-fold. My responsibilities - especially morally have also greatly increased.
The only upside to 9/11 for me has been that people now respect me for the job I try to do much more, previously people griped when being security checked but now very rarely does this occur.
But there are a minority who judge me as though I am poor at my job, especially in light of the current security breaches (check UK news sites) of people managing to smuggle the same weapons as used to hijack the planes on 9/11 on to aircrafts now.
This despite the fact I do the job as I always have done, believing I am protecting the people - working as hard as I possibly can to make sure the tragic events never occur again.
Worst, there's a great possibility that none terrorist knows where Portugal is, so we're pretty safe, I think.
Invisibility kicks ass, Portugal is a stealth country!
Cirruz
Let's see...My father is a capitain with USAir. My mother used to work on wallstreet. Many of her friends still worked in the towers; 53 people from her old parish died. Our president turned out to be a facist. airport scenes of the USA look like those from movies such as 'Spy Game' and that Russel Crow movie about the hostage negotiation gone bad. I'm starting to feel like I live in East Germany.
I am curious to hear about some specific examples of how this legislation has personally or professionally affected the everyday lives of Slashdot readers."
I'm sorry, but we've done too much to "commemorate" September 11. What's done is done, and let the dead bury the dead. We should not brand Arabs as guilty and evil. Bush did a poor job handling 9/11. He has killed too many innocent lives in Afghanistan. Iraq should not be an American target. Why don't we just...
*** Knock *** Knock *** Knock ***
"Hello? Yes, how can I help you? Yes, I am loyal to my country. What? Hey! Where are you taking me?!?"
---
How has it affected me? I'm worried about what I say in public; that's how it's affected me.
There have been no changes that signficantly impact anyone one slashdot, unless one has serious ties to Islamists.
GASP! What is that? How can it be?
Outside of one alarmist Retuers article, the reality is that for 99.999% of people out there (which leaves approxamitly 2500 people left in america) there has been absolutly zilch change, with the exception of the fact that our airports are not the second most secure (we have a long way to go before we hit the level that is El-Al) and border crossings take longer.
(And don't give me the argument that Europe's are better. No they are not. I was there, I was scared at how easy it was, and this was a week after Reid decided to prove how lax security was).
Reality Check... 99.99% of slashdot probably constists of white males/females who are athiest/christian/jewish/hindu/moderate islam, which are viewed to be infidels by certain people. Reminder. THESE GUYS WANT TO KILL US. Plain and Simple. Ignoring the rhetoric, it comes down to that. Frankly, if they catch a guy who has been spending time in Afganistan in the company of the Taliban or Al-Qeda Lock him up for a VLT (Very Long Time).
If you find someone who is of obvious leanings, has home videos of other peoples kids and Disneyland and plans of the local radation generation, make friggen sure that said individual is not going to cry "Allahu Ackbar" and take a plan into either a) the sea, b) A building, c) a nuclear reactor...
I am sick of having Joe Idiot Security guard poking his stick or whatever through my gear bag. If the TSA kills my PDA while doing their "search" I want some BUTT! Some may think oh is that all? YES! I paid lots of bucks for my gear and some idiot poking through my bag with a stick and possibly breaking stuff because they think they might find something bad is idiotic. Also, if we are going to do security, then do it the same in every public building. When I went to the Smithsonian, in one museum(American History Museum) I got a stick poked through my bag. In another(Air and Space Mueseum), I had to pretty much go through an airport treatment. Bag in xray and walk through metal detector. Are the Air and Space things more important? Also I am sick of having to remove my laptop from my bag. Does that and other "additional" security make me safer? No it makes me feel paranoid some idiot will drop my laptop on the way to swab it with that thing. Also, I noticed another item has hit the electronic devices ban on airplanes. You can no longer have a GPS device active on a airplane (even though every aircraft probably has one too). Things have changed security wise but has their actually been any security studies done to see if it proves it? I don't think so. At least they won't ask those stupid questions any more (Anyone ask ya to put stuff in your bag, have your bags ever been out of your control....that deal). I mean they were asking those BEFORE 9/11. Let's do something. Let's have the FAA do a study on both PED's and security. Let's see if a GPS, cellphone, radio, laptop actually do cause interferance to the avionics in a typical airliner. Let's see if having your 2 inches of recline during take off and landing makes you safer. Let's see if your tray table being up during take off and landing make you safer too. Let's do something we should have a long time ago...a scientific study before we do policy. It can't be any worse then what we do now.
Gorkman
You think internet interests have been hit hard by post 9/11 legislation, trying being a private pilot these days. Despite the fact that this heinous act was conducted with big planes, its the little ones (like the Mooney I own) that are the first ones to be singled out when it comes time to hand down more restrictive measures. Three days after the attacks, the commercial airliners were back in the air. We had to wait a month, and then we were so awash in new and constantly changing regulations that it was impossible to keep up. Imagine taking off for a two hour flight and having the rules change while you're airborn. It was not unusual for a flight to be legal when you took off and illegal by the time it was over. The onslaught of new rules has been so bad that the FAA will run out of 4-digit numbers with which to label them. Yes, we are rapidly approaching federal notam (notice to airman) number 9999, at which point they will have to start numbering them at 0 again.
Remember when they announced they were restricting general aviation flights over nuclear power plants? You know what the official notice from the FAA said? The notice said we were forbidden from flying within 5 miles of a power plant, but then gave us nothing better than a vague description of where those plants were located! So we were told we had to remain clear (and if we didn't we would be intercepted by fighters and possibly shot down) but not told the locations we had to remain clear OF: just city names and vague directions, like "15 miles northwest of Anytown, IL". Even the pilot briefers we called on the phone--the very FAA representatives whose purpose in life is to tell pilots about notams--didn't understand the notices. Depending on who and when you would call you would get a different story about what was legal and what wasn't. And the ATC folks were just as confused. The tower at your departing airport would say your flight is okay, but the one at your destination would declare you in violation of some temporary flight restriction.
Many aviation related business went bankrupt and many more are teetering on the edge as a result of this. The airlines are bad off as we all know, but the small airports are in worse shape. And we are constantly under a cloud of threatened onerous increases in security for our airports: in most cases they are security measures that make no sense at all. Imagine owning property but being subject to a security check before you were allowed to go out to it.
Lots of folks just gave up flying, some temporarily and some permanently. I'm happy to sacrifice for my country, but the sacrifice should have some value. Most of what I've seen in the way of GA restrictions has been meaningless and senseless. And it's not really the restrictions themselves that bother me, but way in which they have been handled.
Mooney Guy N4074H
This is almost a flame, but I'd say that from the comments I've seen so far, NO ONE has been really affected. The liberal/civil liberties/privacy types say they've been affected, but if you read further down their comments, they'll all say the same thing: "I worry about our government more than I did before". Not "I got jailed for being a member of an Al-Qaida spin-off cell", and not even "my phone is tapped 24/7 because I read Slashdot and use Linux". In short, those American citizens who are saying they are affected by the laws are "comfortably concerned citizens". Although I'm sure some unscrupulous government droid will use these laws to an evil end, no one seems to have been seriously affected yet.
Of course, a paranoid way of looking at things might be that the reason no one has said anything is that the people affected are either trying to keep a low profile or already are in a top-secret federal prison somewhere....
There's no sig like this sig anywhere near this sig, so this must be the sig.
I am reminded of the Communist Trials, the stupidity of which we look back upon now and laugh at. In one airport run, I had to stand and watch both a girl who could barely see over the table on which her items were being rifled through get wanded, as well as my 80-year-old grandmother get "randomly searched" while sitting in her wheelchair. Upon seeing such unwarrented hysteria, I realized the terrorists had won.
Yes, but on the other hand, whenever anyone suggests that searching granny who was born in the US in 1932 might not reveal a terrorists, and instead suggests that it might be a good idea to make sure Sulyiman does not have a 10-pack of razors in his bag is immedatly called a racists.
The problem with Americans is that we assume that absolutly everyone is like us, there are people out there (Aidid, Hussain, et all) who have serious kill the big devil (the united states) and little devil (Isreal) reflexes, and don't mind turning WMD's on their own citizines to make the world a safer place for them.
It's a huge issue at Clemson University. There, tailgating for football games is a way of life. Up until 9-11, most people would go to the game, then go back to their tailgate spot during half-time (who wants to watch a band?). We'd drink and eat more, then go back to the game. Well, Clemson outlawed pass-outs (funny name, considering all this drinking), which means you can no longer leave the stadium and return, unless of course you buy another ticket.
This isn't all that important to the quality of life, but it's a good example of an institution making a profit oriented rule and hiding it under the false label of increased security.
~ now you know
Not sure who the orginal author is as it was sent around at work...
As the anniversary of 9-11 approaches, Americans and ditto-heads alike are converging
to reflect upon the tragedy and its consequences. So let's review the state of the nation:
Bin Laden is still at large
The anthrax killer is also still at large
Halliburton and Carlyle are still making money from war
Saudi Arabia is still an evil influence
Ashcroft is still shredding the constitution
Bush the lesser is still an idiot
The Clintons are still being slandered
Gore is still being demonized
The economy is still going south
The religious right are still insane
Cancer and AIDS patients are still being criminalized
Corporate criminals are still getting off
Health insurance is still grossly expensive
Drug companies are still raping the elderly and disabled
Star Wars is still a Bad Idea
Mother Nature is still NOT HAPPY
Right wing shills still claim to be patriots
Mass media is still supine
I just thought I'd mention this one since it was a great article.
There was a letter to the editor in this quarter's issue of "2600."
In it, this guy was talking about how he was pulled off a plane just before it was about to leave the gate because a flight attendant saw him reading an article in 2600 about vulnerabilities in "Passport." She claimed he was reading a terrorist pamphlet.
The story of course ends with this guy being rescreened after talking to a few spooks and being let back on the plane. Of course, he said his flight was something like 2 hours late at this point.
Screw the new laws, I'm more worried about the new public attitudes that are letting this kind of shit go down without so much as a second thought.
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
First of all, legislation after 9/11 has affected everyone here the same way that ALL legislation has affected us: by expanding government. The only way to pay for an expanded government is by raising taxes (at some level, either income taxes, payroll taxes, tariffs, sales taxes, or other government added fees).
This means less of MY money is available to spend on what I want to spend it on. Government steals from me to give to their friends (whether its defense contractors, or just the typical pork barrel recipients).
I read EVERY bill which passes through my Congressional Rep's hands (they're all visible on the web) and I have yet to see any bill yet that really "protects" us.
Now, my tax dollars are going to be used to help out Dubya's oil buddies when we go to war against Iraq, a country which has shown no provocation against me personally, neither through threats nor transgressions.
This is the biggest loss I think we all face. The loss of the right to use our hard earned dollars in ways WE INDIVIDUALLY want to. I could care less what my fellow Americans want to do with their money, but when they steal from me for their assinine programs, that's when I start getting angry.
Maybe soon I'll be saying "Costa Rica, here I come!"
Now, which is more difficult to bare? The inconvenience of the search, or another 9/11 style attack?
Definitely the 9/11 style attack. I constantly live in fear that terrorists will smuggle a Boeing 757 (fully loaded with jet fuel) into the US from Canada in their car trunk. They'll then go to a public library, and after checking out books like "How to Blow Up Big Buildings with Commercial Airliners", they'll rent out a fleet of crop-sprayers over the Internet, using PGP. They'll tow the 757 to an airstrip using this fleet of crop-sprayers (conserving the 757's fuel for a really big explosion). They'll then suspiciously mill around the plane for a while in plain view of the neighbors with signs up saying "Die America" and "Kablooie Empire State Building". After a while, they'll take off and ram into the Empire State building.
Fortunately, the federal government has forseen this chain of events, and taken prompt action to stop the terrorists at any point.
(My apologies: I couldn't manage to somehow work in a number of federal stupidities like the uncomfortably KGB-like and extremely expensive Office of Homeland Security and the stupid regs that made an aircraft attendant make my father break the apparently deadly file off his nail clippers in his toiletries kit.)
May we never see th
Every newscast seems to have a nightly "War On Terrorism" segment -- complete with a waving flag, Shrub's face, and dramatic music -- when nothing of any real import has happened that day. Pure sensationalism. Even bloody NPR (which I still enjoy, in spite of their narrow-minded stance on low-power radio) gets on my nerves these days with worthless coverage.
Look, shit happens all over the world. It just finally happened to us. Sure we may get a 15-second blurb when a crowd full of people are mamed in a bombing in Ireland, but someone dared to bloody the nose of the world's "greatest nation" and suddenly George Bush scratching his ass gets a 5-minute segment on ABC News! I sometimes wish Mr. bin Laden would humble this country again because most people still don't get it.
What has had far less conspicuous coverage is the fact that that Shrub Jr. and John Aschcroft have siezed far too much power than is comfortable than most people. The popular media doesn't want to appear anti-patriotic. Just look at what happened during the entire Bill Mahr (sp?) incident!
It's sad, really. If bin Laden's goal was to attack the heart of the USA (it's freedoms), then he succeeded extremely well. The ironic part is that he coerced us (that is, the US itself) to destroy some of those freedoms on his behalf.
Sure, I'm agitated by the short-sighted legislation sucking away our rights, our myopic foreign policies, go-it-yourself tactics as a nation, etc... But, you know what? My actual life is unchanged. No one I knew died in the terrorist attacks. The lesser freedoms haven't had an inkling of impact on what I do. I don't feel any more safe (the security changes are pointless). I don't feel any less safe either, though. I don't even feel more patriotic. It's just the same. Maybe I'm lucky?
BRB, John Ashcroft is at my door with a one-way ticket to Camp X-Ray...
The Triangle Mac Users Group meetings are held at the EPA building here in Durham. ~50(?) Mac geeks toting around laptops talking in a small conference room with a projector. No big deal.
Now, in order to get into the visitors area of EPA building where the "theatre" is, we have to fill out visitor cards with our name, address, phone number, etc. Then we have to fill out a check-in sheet with the guard (with our name, address, phone number, etc).. This isn't too bad, but a bit unusual for 50 people having to fill in to talk about their hobby.
The clincher is we've got a 3rd peice of paperwork to fill out now: Our laptop information. Brand, Model, Serial Number, Name, Address, Phone number, etc. Of course, no one has their serial numbers memorized, so it's time to bust out the laptop bags.
I can somewhat understand since it's in a "government" building - but this is a bit overboard for a hobbyist group meeting. It's worse than going to the airport - picture 50 geeks in line to fill out 3 peices of paperwork, and only 1 of them brought a pen!
Enough ranting now I guess.. I'm gonna have to recommend we meet in McDonalds next time or something.
(What, you didn't feel like cattle before 9/11? What airline were you flying? :-)
Actually, I don't think they even make the airlines feel safer. I think it's marketing/PR. Something so the cattle can feel safer without actually having to do the work of making it safer.
Consider that we've got all the hassles and expense of idiots (oops, those "idiots" are now federal employees, and therefore immune from getting fired even Abdul gets on with a handgun because the federal employee was too busy fingerfucking your grandmother) in the name of security, but most of the measures that would really improve security, such as the installation of certain types of equipment at certain locations, and/or the use of certain technologies to better identify people who might present risks to aircraft, still haven't been taken.
All the hassle. None of the security. And since you can't guess whether it'll take you 15 minutes or two hours to get from airport entrance to your flight, there's a significant chance that if your trip is 500 miles or less, it'll be faster to drive it than fly it.
> The cost and hassle and privacy violations required to fly make me glad I have a car that will go 300k+ miles in its lifetime.
Amen to that. My cutoff is 18-24 hours. I used to love flying, but now I'll gladly spend a day on the road to avoid it. Fsck the airlines. I'll drive.
Odd. You support an organization that conscribes lawyers to conduct iconoclasm of religion, an institution or civil right expressly protected by the Constitution. What is your fax number?
Here's an example of how law enforcement is using the USA Patriot Act: A few months ago, the FBI obtained my significant other's name, address and bank information from his ISP then specifically instructed the ISP not to inform him, in violation of its own privacy policy. This would not have been possible before the USA Patriot Act. This information led to a search of our apartment and the seizing of our computers (which have not been returned even though it is two months past the return date specificed in the warrant). Why? Well, the investigation has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism, cyber or otherwise. The USA Patriot Act was invoked because the MPAA filed a complaint with the FBI for alleged copyright violations.
I'm SO glad this law is being used for its intended purposes. People who have no problems giving up their civil liberties in the name of "homeland security" are sadly mistaken if they think law enforcement has either the ability or desire to restrain themselves from misusing/abusing their new powers.
i don't fly anymore, because i will not cooperate
with the systematic destruction of constitutionally
protected human rights.
i also encrypt almost all of my email now, since
it is much more likely to be snooped.
finally, i'm planning on leaving the country at
the end of the year.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
I can no longer mail anthrax. This has effectively killed off one of my favorite pranks.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
In May, I travelled to Honolulu for a conference. I flew directly from Auckland to Honolulu. At Auckland, on the way out, I had to go through two sets of metal detectors and x-rays, as well as a search of my carry-on luggage (although that may have been because I was carrying a plastic poster roll). When I flew from Honolulu back to Auckland, there was just a single metal detector and a single x-ray, and no-one searched my poster roll, which I was still carrying. In short, the security for international flights in New Zealand was much better than in Hawaii.
For an Arab in the Middle East, some aspects of the internet have become frustrating. My credit card no longer receives the smooth transaction process pre-9/11. Half of all the purchases I tried to make through paypal, 2checkout, amazon, and several other vendors have been cancelled due to a "high fraud risk" because my credit card is from Saudi Arabia.
Last month, I tried e-mailing a friend who goes by the name of Jamal Bin-Laden (not related at all to the terrorists, he's not even Saudi Arabian). He replied not to MY e-mail but to a forwarded e-mail from my Bahraini ISP. Apparently they blocked the e-mail because of his name, read the contents, and when they saw I was only asking him to bring back some tiny M&M's from London (I'm addicted!) they forwarded it to him without even bothering to cover their tracks. There goes online privacy for you.
And on a related note, I had to cancel my post-grad plans to study in New York after all my Arab friends there came back. Let's just say people weren't very nice to them.
While this might have nothing to do with American legislation, it's somewhat ironic to see how 9/11 effected everyone negatively, Americans & Terr^H^H^H^HArabs alike.
May the victims of 9/11, the starved to death children of Iraq, and online rights all rest in peace.
now, let me preface by saying that i'm not usually prone to nutty conspiracy theories and such.
having said that: how come the pentagon (y'know, the *other* 9/11 target) has not been so much as mentioned in any mainstream news media since, oh, about a year ago? i can't even remember how many people had been killed there.
don't you find that a bit strange?
someone tell me i'm insane (and then tell me why).
I hope every airline (except for maybe SouthWest) goes bankrupt, and then we can start the airline industry all over.
I am a mulatto west indian-american. I kinda look Middle Eastern or Pakistanian. I have been stopped everytime. Apparently I fit a profile on how my tickets were bought also, online.
One question. Why the fuck is everyone feeling fine 'cause spot checking is instituted in this non random fashion that I always get checked? I mean what the fuck. Now it's no longer driving while black but flying while brown? CHECKING THE SAME PEOPLE OVER AND OVER ISN'T SECURE!!! And it makes people feel like shit.
Thank you Bush, thank you America, for making your own citizens feel unwelcome. jackasses..
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
... is whether we see a post from "Wakko Warner" ever again...
Funny how my measly and tossed away vote for Nader kept Al Gore out of office. Funny to think in a stae with three whole E.C. votes that has always voted about 80% Republican that I'm at fault because Jeb Bush and the Supreme Court gave the election to GW.
Pull your head out of your ass, pal.
I voted for the candidate that I actually liked an drespected. Not for the lesser of two evils. I suggest you do the same, or just shut the fuck up, yourself.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
The car is the way to go. Another recommendation: Books on tape. I got a CD of William Gibson reading "Neuromancer"- it never gets old. The miles just fly by even when you are only going 65...
Now if only I can find a way to drive the wife and I to Ireland next summer...
oh and P.S.- I work in the air traffic control industry.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I haven't heard the latest, but the last I heard one of the Math professors here at Iowa State was not allowed back into the country thanks to Mr. Ashcroft.
Dr. Maria Axenovich went to Germany this summer to visit her husband's parents. She and her husband took seperate flights back. He (a German physisist) was let back into the country. She (a Russian graph theorist) was refused entry. Apparently she had been flagged as a security threat because she had done some consulting for a few biologists on campus on how to organize their data. Thus, foriegn Math professors who colaberate with Biologists are now bio-terrorists. If they visit the in-laws they are not allowed back into the country.
Her lawyer asked to see the law stating that she had done anything wrong. Apparently it is secret, and they don't publish it. Sounds like the same b.s. that happened to Erdos during the cold war. Hopefully they get everything straightened out, and Congress starts prosecuting Ashcroft for abuse of power.
bash-2.04$
bash-2.04$yes "Don't you hate dialup connections?"| write USERNAME
I've traveled by plane a few times and fortunately I'm not particularly attractive so the security guards haven't felt a need to select me for a random groping. So, though the baggage scanning is noticebly more thorough, no big difference there.
As for my personal life outside of airports, I haven't been effected at all to my knowledge. Of course, for all i know the FBI has been gathering evidence on me, and I'll be held as an illegal combatant.
Oh wait, that won't happen to me. I'm white...
I think most of the reason people are okay with the idiocy our government has unleashed post 9/11 is that they assume that none of it will effect them personally and so it doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is that most immigrant communities are more loyal to this country than those of us who were native born. Why? Because they appreciate the difference that little things like a constitution, due process and opportunities make because they didn't grow up with those guarantees.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
I went through airline security recently and it is a joke. And absolute joke. I've concluded that it's just a placebo to make most ignorant people feel better. Why? Well here are a few things.
When I was bringing my bag on the airline, I was checked 3 times. Getting onto every flight and my connecting flights. Somehow I triggered a "possible terrorist" flag and had people hand check my luggage. Maybe it was my scruffy beard?
Anyways when they checked my carry on luggage they ran it through an Xray. They made me take my trekking poles out to see what they were (they are poles for hiking). They didn't care about the pot that showed up as a big grey cylinder in the middle of my pack.
For my carry on luggage I had a camera lens in a 1Liter drink cooler. It was in there because it's soft to keep it from getting damaged. They never opened it up. I can think of all kinds of stuff to put in there... They never once checked the carry on bag itself. Couldn't something be hidden in the liner of the bag?
Coming back I had to have my checkon bag checked again, but this airport didn't have any xray machines. They had to hand check everything. I gave the guy my bag, he opened it up and saw a backpack filled with stuff. He asked me "Is this all hiking gear?". I said yes and he just zipped it up and put it on the belt to go into the plane. Luckily that backpack has 75liters of gear in it and not explosives. I was thinking on the whole flight back:
"Sir is this all camping gear in this backpack?"
"No it's approximately 75Liters of C4."
"Hmmm let me check my manual here... explosives, dynamite, C4. Sorry sir but you can't bring C4 on the plane. You must be an Al Queda terrorist?"
"Why yes I am, I guess you caught me. Take me in."
If a terrorist wants to bring something on the plane, it's going to get on the plane. The people who setup these security checkpoints are either:
A. Ignorant.
B. Setting up a Placebo
C. Making a boost in their political career.
D. All of the above.
You choose.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
I used to send back "stuff" in the credit card companies pre-paid return envelopes...
You know, left over pizza, cinnamon rolls, dead batteries, etc.
I cut it out after 9/11.
I haven't flown in a few years, so I don't know how much flying has changed.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
When people are scared, they make stupid decisions. How many people sat down after 9/11 and thought, "Gee, I guess this kind of thing was bound to happen sometime, and nothing we could have done would have stopped it."
Not many, I assure you.
The rest of the bozos just cowered in their homes (in view of the TV of course), and asked their respective governmental leaders to save them from the foreigners. Of course, does it matter that the US is a country of foreigners? No. Who cares about the melting pot anymore, someone knocked down a building!
I have yet to be convinced that any of the "patriotic" legislation of the past year has done the good it promised. As long as people continue to live in fear, we will continue to have laws that reflect this.
"If you trade freedom for security, you have neither"
How true, how true.
One thing I've done (that I'm kind of scared I've crossed the line) is put bad stuff on my address lines 2 and 3 for my domains.
For instance, on my main domain address line 2 and 3 are something like:
WARNING: DO NOT DELIVER
THIS MAIL MAY CONTAIN A DEADLY VIRUS
So now when register.com sends me fraudulent letters trying to trick me into switching my domains to them, this is theoretically printed on the envelopes.
I'm wondering who would take the fall if someone threw a stink over this? Me for putting it on my address or them for sending the mail?
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Maybe we could get the f'ers by tying spam to terrorism... ooooooh!
It's increased the amount of time I spend reading Slashdot every day as the stories mount.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
When googling for the word "Palestinian" I came across a text ad which read:
Rebuild Palestinian HomesYou can oppose the Occupation
by helping us to rebuild homes
www.rebuildinghomes.org
My reaction was to click... and then instantly to reconsider. The phrase "oppose the occupation" was slightly charged, and related to a cause that those in power in the US seems to have a strong opinion about. What if there were a carnivore-like system between me and the link? What would my government assume about me? This all happened in an instant, but the fact of the matter is these thoughts should never have to enter my mind. Upon looking at my instant of hesitation, I knew that we're starting down a slippery slope.
Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
Read my comment here and let me know if I can get in trouble:
Other comment
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Case in point.
I was on an Amtrak train to Washington, DC. I walked down the corridor, down the steps, onto the train. I hung out in my chair, and when I was asked for my ticket, I said, 'I'd like to buy one please.' We were already well on our way, and I'd bought tickets before on the train, not a big deal, there's like a three dollar surcharge or something.
Nope.
I was informed that I needed to get off of the train in Wilmington, purchase a ticket, and wait for the NEXT train to come by. This made me kinda late, and extremely irritated.
I asked why I had to get off of the train.
I was told that company policy had changed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, I had to present photo ID, buy a ticket, and get on the train, I'm not allowed on the train without a ticket.
I was already on the train. It was already moving. It was already about 30 miles out of Philadelphia. Let me make this point very clear. I WAS ALREADY ON THE TRAIN.
I said to the guy, 'I'm already on the train. It's already moving.' He said I still needed to get off the train at the next stop, buy a ticket, and wait for the next train.
I looked him square in the face and said, "Let's say I was a suicidal bomber or a terrorist, and I wanted to kill people or blow up the train. I could do it if I wanted to, because I am ALREADY ON THE TRAIN."
"We don't like to hear things like that, sir."
Sigh.
I was already on the train. It was already moving. I sure hope everyone on that train felt safe.
Emmett
The so-called "security" procedures have put me completely off commercial aviation unless there is absolutely no other option available to make the trip.
While Al Gore and other prominent political and social figures have been repeatedly pulled aside for multiple searches, 1 inch long nail clippers and 3 inch plastic doll rifles are confiscated, loaded handguns, fake grenades, and lunatics who have been flagged at EVERY airport they've used in the last year get on planes with no problem.
I fly for a living but I feel more threatened by the knee-jerk reactionary measures put in place than I ever have from enemy fire. No joke.
Write your congressmen and governor and tell them that the random and senseless harassment at the airports needs to stop. Search EVERYONE, and let people keep their pens, plastic knives, toy doll guns, and nail clippers. NOBODY is going to EVER hijack another plane with a knife, the crew and passengers will guarantee that. So lets stop harassing people and stealing harmless items.
There are other harassing techniques going on as well. An airline pilot was required to drink from a small flask in his personal baggage before he was allowed to board. As the liquid was alcohol he was transporting home, his choice was to pour out a harmless drink or drink it and cancel the flight... Are we now afraid the pilots will resort to liquid chemicals to hijack their own planes? The madness needs to stop, and only the voices of the passengers to their political leaders will make the difference.
A friend of mine's fellow student had applied for and received a scholarship to spend one year at a US University. Because he is of Iran origin (but has lived in Germany all his life) and has a name similar to one of the terrorist's names, his visa application was turned down without discussion. So much for his scholarship.
McCarthy, et al.
I believe the quote I'm looking for is "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
While Sen. McCarthy had good intentions -- protecting America from the Communists -- stomping on the Constitutional Rights of Citizens in the process is not an acceptable method.
One does not toss aside the Constitution simply because it gets in your way.
Yes, Communism was a real and dangerous threat. So, in his way, was Sen. McCarthy and the House UnAmericans Activities Committee. They both violated the rights that they fought so hard to protect.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I got my license last july. But since I live near Seattle, I was unable to fly for months because the class B airspace over the area was extended to the ground and required instrument clearance.
I havent flown as Pilot in Command since.
I did however cross the country with my brother who is a commercial pilot, and we both got lots of flak by airport security for just being around the planes (our own plane!) by the FAA security guards. It is quite unpleasant to have to explain to every block-headed idiot in a uniform that yes, that is my plane, yes, I am a pilot yada yada yada.
In order to get a pre-flight briefing, you are required to listen to a statement about suspicious people and terrorism. Its is stupid and inane and a real grind to listen to day in and day out.
When planning our flights, we have to pay special attention to TFRs (temporary flight restrictions) or we can lose our licenses. There are several in the Seattle area which have never been lifted since Sept 11; visual flight rules cannot fly into these areas. This is a total joke since the terrorists planes were jumbo jets flying instrument rules, and those are still allowed everywhere.
Post-9/11 legislation has not effected me at all.
For all the sound and fury (as illustrated in that AP article) the current laws are really nothing the US hasn't been through before in other times of war. Any law can be abused or misused by those in power, but we seldom hear about the far more frequent times when they're used to good effect.
Obviously we have to watch very carefully for abuse or overzealous enforcement, but it's counterproductive and simpleminded to automatically assume that the people who are sworn to protect you are all evil fascist pigs out to lock you up because you post mean things about GWB on Slashdot.
In other words, I'm not happy that these measures are necessary, but I'd rather trust the FBI with expanded survelliance powers than trust that a madman with a bomb or a live culture of smallpox will play fair and only plot their actions where the FBI is allowed to listen in.
Violence and militancy are no exclusively Muslim. Look at the Christians in Northern Ireland. Nothing divides us into hostile groups of us and them more than religion. All the atrocities in human history have been committed in the name of a god or religion. Religion is poison. Everyone should listen to "Imagine" by John Lennon, and think about what he was trying to say with that song.
How ya like dat?
Saddened because we blatantly refuse to accept any responsibility for the attacks...
Saddened because we were not nearly as 'patriotic' after the Oklahoma City bombing - one of own did that, right??Saddened because our civil rights are being thrown away for a thin veil of 'security' when anyone can tell you that you are not any safer today that you were a year ago.... It is just as easy today to buy weapons of mass destruction, hijack a plane, buy forged documents, illegally enter the country... nothing has changed except for your lack of freedom..
...we are from the government - we are here to help...
Are you asking how this has affected us in our daily lives besides:
The truth is, I am not really afraid of terrorists. I would certainly have a better chance of getting struck by lightning or winning the lottery and probably a better chance of experiencing both in the same day. I am afraid of government, though.
The US government has been keeping records since the Social Security system was put in place. Everybody in the US has a primary key. IBM designed a similar system for the Nazis, and look what they did with it. What has IBM been designing for the US government since the 1930's? I am sure I do not want to know.
When I was a child, I was taught that only people under oppressive socialist/communist regimes had to worry about their government spying on them. Now it seems, everybody has to worry. The entire industrialized world is now spying on its citizens, and these governments are looking to broaden their surveillance and information sharing.
The government and the news media (the real terrorists) have drastically over estimated the threats posed by terrorists. As a result, the economy is in a slump. Jobs everywhere are scarce, and Linux has been directly affected by that ;)(ie. software projects canned by corporations, etc.)
So, are you asking besides all that how this has affected me? Hmmm... Well, I have felt threatened since that day. A close relative of mine was fingerprinted at work (which means that she is now a criminal so far as the government is concerned, see above). I have postponed (indefinitely?) travelling to the US. I suppose I could also say that I have experienced a true witch hunt, just like the ones they told me about in school.
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
...why in the hell you can still bring lighters on a plane! Well I'll tell you why...it's because fuckwad dumbya let himself get bent over by the tobacco lobby! His devotion to our safety is underwealming! Yeah, like he really gives a shit!
Personally, I'd like to go back to the old way where you could bring nail clippers and plastic rifles for GI Joe figurines, but that would be asking the Americans to embrace logic and hell will freeze sooner than that!
You're using her as bait, Master!
Did this REALLY need to be posted the day before Sep 11? No mention on /. of the brave firefighters who perished that day, or the other thousands of innocent people who died. Just someone griping because they think someone is going to take their precious internet anonymity away. Jackass.
,potentially, there death in Iraq, and no we cant discuss it because it's september 11?
Ok dude , where to begin.... First of all, I lost a cousin in S11, and he was a NYPD cop. So does that mean that we should not discuss the issues? Better just rally round that ol' flag huh? HOLY FUCK! What are we thinking? The president is FUDing to the *MAX* about sending young 18 year old boys to
Keep that line of thinking AC , big brother loves YOU!
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Canada has its share of problems. Not the same problems as the US, but they do plenty of things to their people that a truely free socity would not do.
Some of the things are different, so I cannot make a judgement of which country is worse, but for me, nice as the country is, their problems are worse than ours. (too bad, they got some beatiful girls up there who have made the opposite decision)
I just looked through this entire thread, and the worst thing anyone could come up with is longer searches at customs. So who's being hysterical here? Not /. posters, no sir, definitely not them...
If it ain't broke, you need more software.
Actually, not all of them did openly. Several refused to answer the pertinent question "Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"
Still, anyone labeled a "Communist" was blacklisted. Pressure was exerted on filmmakers, studios and others and those so labeled frequently never worked again. Careers were destroyed, not on proof of criminal activity, but on expression of political belief. Political speech was supressed and persecuted.
I'm not talking "the advocation of the violent overthrow of the Government and Constitution", but expressions of sympathy or even simple ambivalence.
"...when that expression presents a clear and present danger to the continued prosperity of the United States as both the body politic and the people, actions such as McCarthy's were totally justified."
Where in the Constitution does it say that? Until Congress declares War -- which didn't happen then and hasn't now -- or you are a convicted felon, the rights of Citizens are not set aside for convenience.
The Government of the United States is stronger than that. Unlike China, the U.S.S.R. and others, we tolerate dissent and are not threatened by it.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
The biggest problem for me is that about once a week I go to a rehearsal that is in a building in downtown Boston that's close to the Hancock building. For those not familiar with it, this is one of the tallest buildings in Boston. For the past year, barriers have blocked all the parking spaces for the blocks around the Hancock, and the result is an even more serious parking shortage than usual in the area. It's a good deal for the commercial parking lots, though.
Cute story: I couple of months back, I was walking past the Hancock, close to a small group of people who were obviously from out of town. One woman asked why all the barriers were in the street. A man replied "They're to keep people from flying planes into the building." Without missing a beat, another guy said "Looks like it worked!"
The Onion isn't the only gang to manage to find humor in the situation.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
While I can't blame legislation for the changes I have gone through, I can blame rumors and paranoia. At work, all non-office people have to pass through metal detectors, and be frisked, and wanded if the detector goes off. This was allegedly for "more security, but really, they are assuming that everyone but "the suits" is a thief. At work, they tell us every day how us lousy drones are lucky to have a job. The desk jockeys seem to think any chimp could replace those of us who actually work for a living. My wife was treated in very cruel fashion at the Social Security Administration by security for bringing in her purse. The sign that said "no packages" did not imply tat a lady's purse would be considered a package She needed to get a social security card with her married name on it. That security pig got off on rifling through her belongings, and accusing her of being illiterate, bringing in a "package." Since that day, every security guard thinks he's a real cop, and every real cop thinks he's god almighty. Last October, kids weren't allowed to have any Halloween because of absurd rumors about poisoned candy. It made me sad not to have trick or treaters coming to see my cool haunted front porch. They had loved it in 2000. Now not a day goes by that I don't here that absurd rumor about poisoned Coke or Pepsi told to me by a stranger, co-worker or relative who actually believes it. Since that day, we have been living in a state of siege, and America has been the land of the fearful, running scared. Freedom has been just another marketing buzzword. All the jingoism and flag waving that people call "patriotism" does not console my grief for the over 3000 dead, the kids who weren't allowed to have any Halloween, or the simple liberties we have lost. These things rub salt in my wounds. Far too much of the joy in life has been taken from us all. The terrorists have successfully terrorized us, and continue to. I could go on forever about how rumors, paranoia, crass attempts to make money off of our grief, and false patriotism have upset me, but that would be just too much to read. I think I will leave the idiot box turned off tomorrow.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
Sorry you've been scared so much, but as a solution, I highly recommend trying to grow a spine!
A couple of weeks ago, a man was arrested for taking pictures of police cars in Philadelphia. You can read about it here.
When I was in highschool 12+ years ago, I had a history teacher that went along as a chaperone on a school-sponsored trip to East Germany and the USSR. He relayed a story about one of the students on the trip starting to photograph a police officer and getting in a lot of trouble because of being perceived as a spy.
We thought that was shocking, then, that a country could be so totalitarian as to prevent photographs of police officers.
I'm in comp security. Every day the sky is falling and I couldn't be happier.
Also suffering from ignorance, I don't know if the same info applies to a regular H1 (or if it's even really relevant), but thought it was interesting nonetheless.
Why the hell is the grandparent post modded as flamebait?
Just flew into San Francisco this afterneoon and got searched *four* times. Now, there is nothing stange about that, becuase I flew one-way and had a lot of connections (got searched at each connection). The strange thing is this: I make a really spicy Habenero sauce, and just for fun, I carry it in a sealed medical waste bag complete with the biohazard flowers and multiple warnings not to open it. Didn't faze the inspectors one bit... Now my sewing kit, on the other hand, that instantly got them into a tizzy and it had to be thrown away.
So, in case you were unclear on the concept of safety in America:
Tiny sewing scissors with a blade capable of possibly cutting paper in about three-four tries - DANGEROUS
Mysterious biohazard bag containing unidentified red goo - NO PROBLEM
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Political speech, short of advocating the violent overthrow of the government, has never been considered "treasonous" by any court in the U.S.
Belonging to the Communist Party was a way of saying you were dissatisfied with the then current system. It was also, in some circles, fashionable. However, the vast majority of the members were "marching and chowder" members -- all talk, no action and there for the free drinks and wings. Hardly treasonous.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
You forfeit your citizenship when you take up arms against the US. I, for one, am quite glad that Abdullah al-Muhajir is in a military brig with all access to his terrorist friends denied.
If he committed treason, put him on fucking trial for that. Until he's convicted in a court of law, he is not a criminal. Innocent until proven guilty, damnit.
And you know what, I don't give a fuck if it means that some guy who wants to blow up some buildings is walking around on the streets if the alternative is to debase everything that this country is founded on.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I walked into a Sears after 9/11, and saw a patriotic set of underwear being shown proudly there. There were usa-flag boxer shorts, etc, and the big kicker of them all, a USA-flag thong.
What hath the terrorists brought us?
I'm VFR only and not much has changed for me. Granted, I do live in the middle of the boondocks and the only towered fields nearby are 3 class D airports within a 40 mile radius, which I never have reason to fly to, except one occasionally. I pretty much mostly only fly to uncontrolled fields. I've flown my little Cherokee almost 200 hours in the past year, mostly just for fun, but also for a few long cross country trips, so yeah, I've certainly done more than my part to help out general aviation.
No further comment required.
Evil is the money of root.
Of course, once you arrive, there are the usual announcements about "Please refrain from smoking until after you've left the state of California", but that's a separate problem
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Out of 612 messages by whiners, ACLU fanatics, AC's, young punks who enjoy there freedom too much, some rational people, and a bunch of...well, assholes. Let me be the first to say that IT HASN'T AFFECTED ME AT ALL. Oh, wait. I had to wait in line an extra 90 minutes at EWR last month. I'm going out on a short limb here (b/c I know the answer): If you were magically warped back to 1941 and lived in NYC durning the mandatory blackouts and air raid drills, you fucks would be the ones who refused to turn out your lights b/c it's your freedom to keep your lights on? It's a damn shame it couldn't happen b/c sometimes I'd just like to see the bombs dropped on ya'll. Darwinism at it finest.
We study the past to predict the future. Things will return to normal. Stop your bitching.
Wait until the fucking Communists come back.
I think the time has come for us to do what we really have been needing to do for about a year now. Turn our fucking backs to the terrorists, the government, and all the other fucking assholes in the world and start enjoying our lives.
WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE SOMEDAY. It doesn't make a difference WHEN. Sure, mod me flamebait if you don't get it--I'm capped.
These god dammed masses with their red white and blue turbans and stupid laws and talk and bombs and patriotism can blow it out of their ass.
I DON'T CARE, and I have a basic human right to not care.
No laws, no amount of bombing, fighting, security equipment, idle talk, posting of messages, crashing of planes into skyscrapers, nuclear weapons exploding and destroying the world will EVER solve the problem of terrorism.
THE ONLY THING WE CAN DO is to turn our backs and say "fuck it."
Cool! Amazing Toys.
My uncle finally got cancer after smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day for 25 years. He had thyroid cancer, which is one or more tumors located near your thyroid gland (in your neck). This was discovered shortly after his mild stroke. He ended up getting a tracheotomy (they punch a hole in your throat and you breathe through a tube) after the surgery, and had what he calls a "nuclear drink".
While down in the states, he lost his traech (the tube that sits in the hole), and didn't notice until they crossed the border on the way into Canada. He and his wife decided to go back to the U.S. to find it. While driving around late at night, retracing their steps, a cruiser pulled up and armed guards jumped out of the car. They rifled through my uncle's truck, throwing things out, and finally stopped at the window so my uncle could explain he had cancer and was taking a "nuclear" drink. The troopers were carrying some kind of geiger counter that had picked up his medication. They let them go.
On the way back to Canada (for the second time), they were about to drive away from the booth when an armed officer comes rushing out out of the customs office screaming, "stop that car!" The fallout from the medication had set off the sensors in the customs building. They had a bit of explaining to do.
So yeah, if you have anything that even remotely decays (some home appliances, like smoke detectors, may even have traces of radioactive elements), be prepared to be seized and searched.
Only in America would we have personal liberties taken away under the guise of fighting the war on terror, or am I wrong? Surely, I am. Video game ban in Greece, anyone? There are other countries that pull this shit. America is not alone. Anyone that's reading this from Canada, a European Union country, or any other nation, really, thinking that your shit doesn't stink, wake up.
But here's the real question: Why? What incentives are there for the leaders in OUR government to take away personal liberties? Do they get more money? Do they feel safer? Do they feel as if they're "doing something" instead of standing around "ignoring" an issue? It really boggles my mind. If someone can answer any of these questions for me, you'd earn my utmost respect.
The thing that really blows my mind is how we have so many new laws as result of the attacks on 9/11. I don't feel any more secure due to them. So why were they enacted? I certainly don't feel any safer knowing that murder is a serious crime if I'm walking around alone at night in a seedy part of a town I've never visited before. And I don't feel any safer knowing airline passengers can't carry toe clippers onto 747s.
There are two things I have learned from these attacks. Not only have I firmly cemented my anti-racist core, but furthermore, I have found, for lack of better words, that I am a "Logic Elitist." What's this, you ask? I have a strong hatred for those who can't backup their reasoning with sound, logical conclusions and reasoning. I hate stupid people.
We shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. -PJ O'Rourke
...and I don't live in NYC.
Of which are you more afraid: of what you say in public or of death from above while you're just minding your own business?
If you chose the former, you probably don't live in NYC.
Let me put it this way: If I choose the latter, I may as well be dead. I would be sacrificing one of the fundamental rights that this country was founded on: the pursuit of happiness. I absolutely refuse to live a day of my life where I am paranoid about dying from sunrise to sunset. No terrorist will make me fear my life. They cannot take that away from me.
My problem is when my own country tries to take the same principle away from me when that is the foundation of the country. A country that tears itself apart so that others may not have the pleasure of doing so is no country at all.
Im 43 years old, my Dad is 75, the only people who have passed laws in the US limiting my freedoms are do-gooder liberals that have no made it crime to speak and think what you will (hate crimes, and they only apply to white people) my property rights - they can take from me at will and build a parking lot on it in the name of "community"- they can also tell me what i may or may not build on it, grow on it , etc.
They decide what moral lessons my children will learn (not anymore though, they are in private schools)they decide who I MUST commune with, they destroy property values by condeming property and building "low income housing" on it, then moving a bunch of free loaders in.
They have passed laws effectively removing the natural right to protect my home and property by declaring it a no loss situation because i have insurance. They tax me at ten times the rate of other people simply because I'm smart enough to know how to make money. they'll tax me when Im dead on money they taxed while I was alive so they can "even out' the balance between me and some moron who won't get out of bed in the morning, oh yeah, love those democrats of the farmer/labor party -
Hell, it is no ILLEGAL to pick up a rock in a National Park, and the list goes on and on forever. But if your a poor victim "of the state" we'll let you out of Jail early and then you can go and rape/murder another child somewhere.
Yes, I was surprised when I saw that it was modded to Funny, because I was being downright serious. Anyway...
I think the best speech you can give fits the same guidelines. Be serious, though with a humorous overtone. Remember, though...Slashdot has always been about free speech, because America is suppose to be founded on the same principles. Rosa Parks wasn't upholding the "American rights of the 1950's" when she got on that bus. She redefined them. Don't be afraid to do the same thing.
Your a godamn fool, it was clinton and his left wing politics that could have locked bin laden up twice and didnt - he was too concerned with gettin his rocks off to be bothered with that.
You dont even see that 1984 is all about whats going on in the public schools in this country, they are progressively dumbing them down - go visit a private school and be amazed at the difference in education - those kids actually still have to read and get tested on the Constitution. Do you really think it's an accident that the top schools in this country are private ? it wasn't always so, but it is now.
All your being taught is how to pull the ballot for Democrats, period. THe sad thing is, now the republicans are into the same give away politics, take from the "MAN" and give it to you, 30 years we still could see that for what it was "vote for me and Ill set you free" dude, they have legislated away your right to think, Im not a racist, but any one used to have the right to say anything they wanted- except for the "fire" in a crowded theater test, all else was allowed, even saying "fu*k you" to a cop - which actually went to the SUpreme court, not anymore, thanks to do-gooder liberals, that's now considered "hate speech" ALL SPEECH IS PROTECTED BY THE CONSTITUTION- unless your a liberal, then you must control it.
AND that, oung man, was what the book 1984 was all about, dumb the masses down so they cannot think critically anymore, reduce their vocabulary and reduce their ability to think, and control their speech, make it "politically/culturally" incorect" to speak your mind, and thus control your thoughts.
Anyone who wants to turn a nail clipper into a weapon is going to do it before they get on the plane. And just because airport security is lax enough to allow one kind of weapon through is no excuse for laxity about other weapons.
I'm not selling anyone's freedom. I'm not arguing that U.S. airline security is good. I'm not fooled or lulled into a false sense of security by anything that's going on at U.S. airports. Airport security here is still nowhere near what it should be. (See the post directly below about El Al.)
I am, however, arguing for the freedom to fly without threat from terrorism. I have absolutely no sympathy for the original poster who whined about his dad's nail clipper. Are you people so pampered, so isolated from mainstream American reality, that you equate a ban on a small cosmetic tool as a threat to the republic?
If you are willing to die so you can carry a nail clipper onto an airplane, you're foolish beyond belief.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
This doesn't mean that the military or police can't shoot you to protect the public if you're in the process of shooting people or waving around nuclear weapons, but it's illegal for them to do so except in clear and present danger, and if they can arrest you without killing you, you still have the right to a speedy and public trial with full due process, with none of the kind of Star Chamber secret trials or military kangaroo courts that helped motivate our predecessors to throw out the King. If you're a US soldier or actively in the Militia during a war, they may be able to give you a trial that's speedier and more public than you'd like before shooting you, and it might be argued that if you're planning the terrorist attack, there's a war or public danger even though the rest of the military doesn't know about it yet. But if you're a civilian, that still doesn't apply to you.
There's some ambiguity about whether being a citizen of one state makes you a citizen of all of them, which the 13th Amendment tries to address, and there was an amendment that may or may not have been ratified in 1819 that would revoke citizenship from people who accept foreign titles or (without permission) foreign government employment, and there are some civil rights you can lose as a penalty for some crimes (or until 1870, by being a slave or politically incorrect color), and the 14th Amendment distinguishes between privileges of citizenship, which can be abridged as a punishment for crimes, and equal protection of law, which applies to everybody within the states' jurisdiction.
There's an Ask Yahoo question asking if anyone's been tried for treason in the US. It gives a rather incomplete answer - details about Aaron Burr and John Brown, and also about a German-American who was imprisoned for treason in 1947 for non-violently helping his son, a Nazi spy who was executed. There's been lots of other press about the topic of treason since Johnny Walker Lindh got caught. Aaron Burr was acquitted; Tokyo Rose was convicted and jailed, later pardoned by President Ford.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
This was moderated Funny for some reason. I don't find it funny at all, just depressingly true and insightful. :-/
Having said all that, I do know that these wackos are in the minority in most of the countries they come from. I've had many Saudi and Bahraini friends who had no animosity for the USA. But they still preferred their own country and lives over our own.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
They'll just be killing each other
off for other reasons...
Considered harmful.
Few points.
1. Have you read the Old Testament? There's plenty of God-approved violence and atrocities there.
2. Have you read the New Testament? Does Jesus sound at all like Jerry Falwell?
Considered harmful.
Searching for nail clippers? Give me a break.
Before 9/11, we knew that the World Trade Center had a bullseye on it. For years we've known that airliners are targets. We had even heard speculation that terrorists would someday attempt a 9/11 style attack.
Why were the cockpit doors open? If the airlines had taken security the least bit seriously, they could have taken a few pages from the security manual at El Al and 9/11 would not have happened. IMO, the airlines were negligent and are responsible for all losses suffered that day.
"Don't you dare try to bring nail clippers onboard, even though just 1 year ago *we* were stupid enough to give terrorists access to the controls of a 100-ton guided missile."
Why haven't I heard criticizm of the airlines in the mass media? All I hear is how *they* are losing money because of the ordeal. Congress is bailing them out. Where's the outrage? The media aren't talking, probably because airlines buy lots of ads.
... don't forget This Modern World, a pithy look at our modern-day politics delivered fresh to your screen evry Monday.
That is all.
Why do we REALLY care about 9/11? Is it because we've all been brainwashed?
...
Let me simply ask this question? What would make 80% of the general population give up their Civil Liberties, spend houndreds of thousand of millions of dollars, and start a National Holiday?
One would think that something that kills 340,000 to 450,000 people a year would justify such actions. What kills that many people a year? Tobacco does. Not an airplane. Or take Alcohol for example. Just drinking down some old' Budweisers and more kills 150,000 people a year. Listen folks, this is PER YEAR! Sorry, but we are the terrorists here. We condone such activities.
Isn't it a bit odd that all of a sudden the Police can stop anyone at anytime with or without reason to search them? What happens if you refuse? You get arrested, harrased and jailed! Why refuse? In the Constitution of the United States it cleary defines that the population not be searched for unreasonable reasons. I don't find walking down the street late at night a good reason to stop anyone.
Why does 80% of America find it to be reasonable? They have been brained washed by various sources, including television. Heck, most of the United States ACTUALLY BELIEVES what they hear and see on TV Newscasts.
Personally, I watch the TV News for pure entertainment. Most of the time the reality behind the situation is so far off that it makes me actually get sick to my stomach and vomit. You ask "How does he dare to say that?" That is pretty simply, "I get off my arse and check the stories out. I talk with people from both sides of the issues, get their versions. Sometimes it takes a little bit of leg work to get the truth." And that truth is what I need to make my decisions on, not some make-believe Newscast or falsified newspaper article from the Toledo Blade.
You see, the news usually takes all the facts they can find, twists them up to fit local and federal needs. They rarely actually talk about the REAL version of the truth. One hundered thousand people die each year from using the perscription drugs that the government gives to us. What? My facts are talking about what people willingly do to themselves? Might I not be mistaken, but didn't 3,000 some odd people willingly start working for the government and willing work in a gigantic building (duh! Easy terrorist target. Sometimes it's the little things like SIZE that kill us).
Common sense would tell them that this could result in their deaths. Terrorist minds would select a target that it could easily take out and cause the most damage. Heck, they teach you in school that at any moment you might die. It's a fact of life.
Just like the facts clearly show that Caffeine kills 1,000 to 10,000+ people each year. And this is something that we can forsee and prevent, but we don't. What I am saying here is that the Government is trying to take our rights away to give them more control over us, not for our personal safety, but for making money. It is a very sad thing that 3,000 people had to die, but what about the other 670,000 people I mentioned? Why don't we even THINK about them? I wonder
Don't let me even get started on Car Accidents. How the hell are you going to jump into a big peace of steal, go 60 MPH, and then when you crash, call it an accident??? It's a possibility that should be taken in account for before you drive. You'll probably die. One third of the USA population dies in car accidents each year. You will probably die in one before you die from natural causes, or from some terrorists from overseas. How can you even compare 9/11 to this? Why would you sanely support the 9/11 Holiday but let car crashes to continue to happen? I can tell you, you've been programmed since birth.
Fact. The USA has never been to WAR over something that didn't make us money. We have never went to WAR for a GOOD CAUSE. This whole 9/11 thing has just been a TOOL the government has used to scare us into submission.
And, we are scared! Long ago, if someone were to come into your house and try to murder your family, you could defend yourself with a gun and it would be over. Long ago if a terrorist came into your house with a gun trying to kill your family and you shot him everything would be fine.
Did you know that in the State of Ohio, killing someone in self defense will result in you serving jailtime. (hint: If you have to shoot someone, shoot them below the waste. This will make it less of a crime, and you will not go to jail as long for saving your family.)
Now a days our children aren't educated on guns. We hide them from them. They look at them as something like a toy they can't have and want because they can't have. Back in the old days parents were responsible and taught their children about guns and their dangers. And there were a lot less killings. Today we are afraid, so afraid that we let our own Government take away our right to bare arms. The same thing the last Country did before will split and created our own.
Get this, if you get caught smoking marijuana (which has never, ever in history killed someone) you can never own a gun again. So it's okay to carry a gun and smoke Tobacco, that remember, kills 340,000 to 450,000 people a year. What lunacy!
Now how to solve this problem? Speak out, spread the word. 3,000 people in a building dead isn't that bad compared to this other stuff. Instead of spending $5.00 on a flag that does no good, spend $5.00 into cancer research, or laywer fees for groups trying to outlaw Tobacco.
You are waisting your time and money and becoming a slave if you don't change and speak out.
9/11 is not a national holdiay in my book. And I will protest it until the day I die.
[ brakken ]
Get off your high horse. Your orignal comment had some merit, this is just whining about something you do not understand. Apparently you are using a web proxy, why I don't know, that is your bussiness. However, your proxy allows any person in the world to connect and use it, with no authentication. This is what is known as an "open proxy" and they are certianly not unique to the Arab world (most of the ones I find are in Asia as point of fact). These open proxies are very, very, very frequently abused by trolls, crackers, and other asshole out to cause trouble that wish to mask their identity. Hence Slashdot, and many other technically savvy sites, dissalow posting from them to prevent these people from abusing their sites. Most IRC servers will K-line (ban) you if you run one on your comptuer.
So no, they are not giving you trouble because you are Arab, they are giving you trouble because you are using an open proxy. It has nothing to do with 9/11, it's jsut new troll prevention that Slashdot implemented. Not everything that happened since 9/11 is related to it. I installed a firewall since then, has nothing to do with terrorists, just has to do with keeping crackers out of my comptuers.
Stop whining.
It's made me actually figure out, and start using, PGP. Before the recent spate of laws, I was quite content to rely on just being boring to preserve my privacy. But now with so much more money available for intrusive government tapping and much less regulation to stop them, I am being more proactive with guarding my private life.
In this small way, the terrorists have succeeded, I have less freedom and I trust my own government less.
Not just answers, the correct questions.
Great stuff. I'm interested in hearing other people's thoughts!
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
If they check everything, people complain that they checked everything. If they don't check everything, people say, "I could've been carrying *ANYTHING*!"
And you wonder why those security idiots still try so hard. It's because they have no coherent policy, and keep hearing mixed signals from people who have to go through these measures.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
You can find it here. One of the things mentioned is how America becomes devided about the measures taken after 9/11, and about their privacy.
I suspect that you are confusing the probability of a piece of evidence given a hypothesis with the probability of said hypothesis given the evidence. These two numbers are, in general, not the same. In fact, they are often radically different. Alas, it is precisely this kind of mistaken reasoning which has lead to the attitude you display: "better search all those muslims, they might be terrorists!"
If our school system provided better education in the basic principles of statistical inference, perhaps these grim mistakes would occur with less frequency. Alas, for the time being, I expect the pseudodiagnostic nonsense to continue.
-Carter
You're a former penal colony. Who cares what the genocidal, racist country of Australia thinks? Take care of the aborigines before you dare to type a single criticism of the world's greatest country.
;- "The #1 threat to world peace in the world today". The USA is not loved. Get over it. It's tolerated, and only because everyones fucking scared of it. At the moment it's led by a psycopathic nutter who didn't get in on a popular vote, who has signed the death orders of hundreds of his fellow countryman and seems hell bent on Killing any country that disagrees with it. Actually dude I'll give you a hint;- most of the world is terrified of the US and believe the world is in big fucking danger, and that's not from terrorists, it's from the US.
Ok, let's get one thing straight. (1)Like america , Australia treats it's aboriginals like shit. I'm not proud of it, and I hope the fuck you aren't proud of your country ppreceeding over the genocide of the 200 nations. Secondly, FOR FUCK SAKE THE USA IS NOT THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. For instance many defence analysists have refered to the USA as , and I quote
If the USA's Middle East policies were the "cause" of 9-11, what is the cause of Islamic Terrorism in Kashmir, the former USSR, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Phillipines, Sudan, etc, etc, etc?
The problem is ISLAMIC TERRORISM, not the USA defending the Jews that have lived in the Middle East since before there was any such thing as Islam.
Whatever...... Just because theres overwhelming evidence that the US fucked up by installing Sadam Husain & the Taliban into power, it's OK, because USA #1 USA #1
Remember, if it weren't for the USA and the USSR most of the world would be speaking either German or Japanese today.
Oh yeah.. by the way I actually like americans, I just get wild when they put my country down and try to tell the world they are less then them. And I apologise to any americans out there, it's not really the best day for these sort of arguments, but a spades a spade, and I gotta call it.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
I'm not going to burn you for saying this, but I will ask you WHY you think you know it's true.
Think about that one carefully. Who told you, and who owns them?
In any case, the point remains: "So what if Iraq has nukes and chem warfare agents? --Iraq probably had nukes and chem warfare agents during the Gulf War, but it didn't use them because it knew that doing so would open itself up to nuclear and chemical reprival. Nothing has changed since then."
The whole, "they might get nukes" argument is just an excuse for U.S. empire building.
There was an article on the front cover of the Toronto Star today in which the Bush administration admitted that they didn't really care about weapons inspections being allowed into Iraq, and that what they really wanted was a 'regime change'. --Which means that Shrub's demand for "weapons inspections or else" was bullshit. It's all a damned puppet show, right from the airplanes to this stupid war.
Your damned president is a greedy war-monger; this has nothing to do with terrorists, and everything to do with oil and killing all the Jews. (You watch what happens when the Jews declare full-on open season on the Palastinians when the U.S. starts bombing Iraq!)
-Fantastic Lad
It seems even here around EU that they're using 9/11 as an excuse to alter something as far fetched as copyright laws.
And how do they do this? By claiming that money from production of pirated cd's and dvd's benefits international terrorism. That might be but I fail to see how true their claims can be that trading media files off the Internet can support terrorism...
I don't mind people selling pirated cd's to get a painful kick in the rear end, but the nice professional people seem to agree that importing audio/video media from outside Europe is also piracy, even if they're very legitimate products(region code breaking is evil etc.). And all forms of piracy, including this can support terrorism. I somehow have a hard time believing that importing a region 1 dvd to europe causes any financial gain to any terrorists. But hey, those politicians do this to protect us, let's not question them at such a difficult time.
Bottom line: whenever the lawmakers say "to fight terrorism", they can do pretty much anything, even when it has absolutely nothing to do with the matter.
When is enough enough?
/. and see that the people who knew exactly what was going on did nothing but document the event in excruciatingly redundant detail.
Isn't it about time all us concerned citizens meeting anonymously over the internet actually [i]did[/i] something besides just talk?
Future civilizations who investigate the catastrophic slide of the US into despotism will be amazed when they come across sites like
I'm up for just about anything, but I would have no idea how to begin. Thoughts?
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
Now I know that if someone will try to bring a hacksaw in San Francisco and cut the truss on the Golden Gate Bridge, he will be stopped at the airport when he will be flying to SFO!
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
To do this would cost money that they weren't prepared to cough up.
So they levied a 7 UKP "security charge" on all flights, this money would then be used to beef up security and not etch into their precious profits.
Unfortunately, despite everyone coughing up this extra money people still managed to get on planes with bombs in their shoes and cannisters full of petrol.
Obviously they're using our money well.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Why? Well back when I was 20 I was in the Marines, and I was against the gulf war. I was pretty vocal about it (freedom of speech) and that got me a lot of flack from the military (that's clear). I got in a discussion with some other guys during lunch and they were telling me "we gotta kill S.H. because he violated this and this international law, yadda yadda". I told them if we were going to kill violaters of international law, we would have to start with Bush for Panama. Clearly a rhetorical argument.
Still, the Secret service was called, and I spent the night in a holding cell until my lawer came. I had to be photographed, psychoanalyzed, get a handwriting analyses, and had my background and family checked. But they had to let me go, becuase I was able to talk to a lawyer and he said "c'mon guys, it's obvious these charges are a bunch of shit". That happened a lot in those days, me getting arrested for a day and released without trial because the charges were just meaningless. They did this to hassle me and to keep me from expressing my opinion to people who might listen and change theirs. Noboddy, and I emphasize, Nobody, really thought I had threatened the presidents life. It was just a charade.
What's changed? Now they don't have to let me speak with my lawyer, and they can keep me indefinately. That has terrorized me!
I'm from a former communist country and this whole thing makes me unconfotable. Not the terrorist, but recognizing the methods the US goverment is using. They just point to a such a familiar direction. Although I believe they will never manage to reach anything near the shit we had here, they still have quite a lot of inertia and damage is getting bigger every day.
.snaciremA eht uoY
Remember, of all the emotions FEAR is the most difficult to get rid of.
Here is my own little experiance of this. Even a dosen years after the communism fell, I still get nervous when crossing a border to a neighbouring country. And now it only takes me showing about enough passports or IDs for all the passingers in my car to the border cop (they usually don't check them). This is a pure remnant from when I was a kid and had experienced border crossings in a tense atmosphere.
Guess who were the people in former communist counties made affraid of before being told to act patriotic and encouraged to spy on each other?
Actually, the Irish problem does have its roots (or some of them) in religious conflict. The Battle of the Boyne (1690), for instance, was fought over whether the English throne should be catholic or protestant.
You cannot explain the bizarre nature of Irish or English history without understanding that there has been catholic/protestant conflict in the British Isles since the time of Henry VIII.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
In the 80's every press article about drugs rose straight to the front page to give me the impression that I'm surrounded by drug dealers. In the 90's every press article about school violence rose straight to the front page to give me the impression that I'm surrounded by homicidal teenagers. There was a brief break in there somewhere where I was scared OJ was going to kill me. Now we're in the naughts or whatever the hell you want to call it, and every press article about terrorism rises straight to the front page to give me the impression that I'm surrounded by terrorists.
It's all crap. One incredibly shocking event later (9/11, colombine... what was the news maker in the drug war? probably stars dying from drugs or the violence in Columbia) and the press does a Gilligans Island bit and they go from a three hour story to a multi-year obsession with the same topic. If you want to see flocking behavior, don't watch the birds, watch the press. Canada and the US had about the same levels of drug use in the 80's, but it was first on the American list of problems and somewhere in the twenties for Canada. Why? The press. Or maybe the Canadians have some good sense.
The ironic thing is that if you're reading for content, reading to try to figure out major trends in the world, the press was more informative about terrorism before 9/11 than after. Before 9/11, genuinely important terrorism-related news was the only news that would make the papers. If you saw terrorism in the news, it was a big deal - the government had thwarted something major or there had been an embassy bombing. World changing stuff. Now, if it has a terrorism angle it's front page material - even if the angle is something like "a man who might be a terrorist might have been caught at the airport. he might have had a nail file. there might be more news at 11." By and large each terrorism story is space filler in a space that has a proverbial "reserved for terrorism related news, regardless of if there's news or not" stamp on it.
It's like wheat and chaff. When it comes to terrorism, the press prints both these days.
Oh, well. At least the fact that our civil liberties are being used like an inflatable sex toy is coming to light. And, who knows? Five years down the road, something else Really Bad will happen and the press will be obsessed with something else. We should have a betting pool on the next big press fad. Personally, I'm predicting it'll be mega-storms caused by climate change. Some kind of giant hurricaine will level a nation to the dirt, and the press will drop terrorism like yesterday's news - which it already is.
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
I used the term "lives" to mean lifestyle and culture. Having lived in the mideast for several years and in the US most of my life I can say that our "lives" are different. Though we have much in common, Saudi culture felt more alien to me than any other place I've been to in my life. Not better or worse, just different.
And like it or not, most terrorist organizations couldn't estist withour some form of government "assistance" wherever they are. So I do point a finger at Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, etc for harboring terrorist groups. I would also point a finger at the US if I was aware of a similar attitude of the government towards a terrorist group. Caveat: My defenition of terrorism basically rules out septratists groups. I'm talking about countries who fail to police their people from harming people in another country.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
You seem to think if Padilla and his Towelheadettes are given a public trial, the attacks against the US will stop.
NOT AT ALL.
What I feel, and you so obviously are unable to comprehend is that if Padilla and any other person charged is given a public trial the attacks against the US by the US GOVERNMENT will stop.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Many of the comments here describe how things have changed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but for the most part the changes have not affected the Internet. Although awareness of privacy concerns online is greater now than it was before, the online world has not changed much.
I live and work within a few miles of the WTC site. During that morning one year ago, I couldn't get in touch with my mother to let her know I was alright. The phone lines were overloaded; the cellular networks too were beyond capacity. I eventually did manage to get the word to her by IM'ing a friend who lived further away, and he was able to call her and pass the message.
Because I had a net connection (one that did not rely on a phone circuit, I suppose I must mention), I was able to keep in touch with loved ones with whom I otherwise would not have.
...that I'm appalled at the unreasoning naivete of posters here who launch venomous diatribes because they can't take a two-inch nail clipper on board an airliner. Put it in your checked baggage, or buy one when you arrive. or trim your nails before you leave, for God's sake! Are your lives so bereft of any sense of adult civil responsibility that you see even the slightest inconvenience as a threat to all your freedoms?
Are you all so willfully isolated, so comfortable stewing in your self-imposed wanna-be geek alienation, that you are in denial, that you simply can accept the reality that there is a threat?
Are you so entrenched in your perpetual adolescence that you think freedom is only the satisfaction of your immediate individual desires? That if you can't have what you want, when you want it, that your freedom is being denied?
In other words, feel free to take chances with your freedom, just don't take chance with mine.
Rolling out citations of all the other ways people die is irrelevant and pointless. If we have the means to save lives, should we not do that? Or do you believe that the deaths of thousands on our highways justifies allowing others to die in terrorist attacks? The same logic would have us ignore cancer research because people die from heart attacks.
During World War II food, fuel and other consumables were rationed or not available at all. I can only imagine how some of you would react to not being able to put gas in your car!
Slashdot asked how 9/11 has affected us all. Well, for me, most of the responses posted here are convincing evidence that too many people equate freedom with fulfilling their own selfish interests, no matter the cost or danger to others. It's all about "me". Screw my social responsibilities.
Right?
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
My argument is that the Constitution is there to *protect* the right to free, unrestricted political speech.
Not just speech that you agree with -- unpopular speech. Popular speech doesn't, by definition, need protection.
SPYING is and was a punishable crime, as are several other activities people were charged with during the 50s. Expressing political views contrary to the views of the majority, or of the government is NOT. It is a protected right of our citizenry.
I'm not sure where you get that advocacy bit. All I'm advocating is Free Speech, specifically free POLITICAL speech -- what this country is founded on. If people then commit criminal and/or violent acts then they deserve the punishment they get.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
And they'd take very little time and more importantly, very little money to implement. From a Congressman's point of view, those are bugs, not features.
Different countries and airlines will imposed dofferent security regimes based on their assessment of the threat t the time you fly. I've flown on domestic flights in South Africa that involved three separate checkpoints on the way to the gate (each staffed by armed military personnel with dogs). They didn't pat you down, but they searched every piece of luggage, carryon or checked. Anything with a semblance of a sharp point was removed, heavily taped to prevent use, and placed in checked luggage. Mideast airlines typically pat everyone down before allowing passengers to board, and baggage is matched to each passenger on the tarmac by the plane.
As for why they want to kill us, I don't really care. Nor do i think "understanding" them will make them change their minds. (Although some of us might change our opinions.)
They're wrong. We're right. If you think they hate us because they find our culture offensive, think again. They hate us because they are medieval fanatics who don't believe in human dignity. There's no more reason to "understand' them than there was to understand Hitler. They are beyond understanding and reason; they have declared war on us and the solution is their destruction.
Almost to a person, everyone I ever spoke with in Arabic countries who launched on a venonmous tirade against America concluded the converstation by asking me to help him get a visa so he could move here. So much for finding our culture offensive. Those aren't Americans lining up at all those overseas McDonald's, you know.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
It has nothing to do with anyone's courage. It has everything to do with selfish, spoiled Americans who would willingly risk the lives of others rather than accept the slightest inconvenience. All that I've seen here is simple whining from children who are stamping their feet because the adults need to impose a few rules.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
You seem to think if Padilla and his Towelheadettes are given a public trial, the attacks against the US will stop.
Of course not, but if they DON'T get a trial, then we have abandoned quite a lot of what we are supposed to be fighting for.
This nation is at war with these bastards
No, we are not. Get this into your head. Only Congress can declare war. They haven't. Therefore, we are not at war with "those bastards".
Do yourself a favor and stop identifying with Islamocriminals and stop bleating about your bloody rights. They are not being harmed.
You don't find it scary that the government can slap a "enemy combatant" label on anyone and hold them indefinitely? Hell, they could come and get me for making this post. Is that right?
If anyone is identifying with the terrorists, it is you.
> If the US is not the best country (remember, most folks speak of the best country as far as opportunity for the common man, not global politics), then exactly which country do you think holds that claim?
Fortunately for you, the UN does a report to answer your very question. The US has never topped it, but its usually in the top 10. It was 6th in the 2002 report.
I think what irks many people is that because the average patriotic american would rather have his guts torn out by a plastic spork than be, say, 6th in any given ranking, it is nearly impossible to get some americans to conceed that they are not the best. Nobody is saying the USA blows, and those that do are simply applying the same blind hyperbole that is found in blind no-questions-asked american patriotism.
If I ran the world, my first priority would be to attempt to purge the #1 or Bust value so deeply ingrained in american culture. Out of 200-odd countries on this planet, 6th is still damned good. Plus, it leaves you with the ability and room to improve and become the best. Isn't it kinda boring just assuming the USA is #1? Why not enjoy being 6th of hundreds, and focus on the challenge and fun of improving certain aspects of the country (most notably wage distribution is much worse in the US than other countries).
"Old man yells at systemd"
"They Government has the option to hold you indefinitely without a lawyer"..those are hypotheticals that come into play very goddamn rarely in the real world.
Doesn't matter. If it happens once (and it has), that's too much
anything that'll help prevent another September 11th/save American lives I'm all for.
So then you'd be in favor of killing ever Muslim in the world? You'd be in favor of abolishing air travel? You'd be in favor of turning the US into a police state so the government can watch every move you make? You'd be in favor of building a huge wall around the US so that no one gets in or out?
Just asking.
Almost... :-)
Telling the world you thing the USA deserved it *IS* protected speech. It is an opinion. Unpopular and stupid, but an opinion.
Sending money to terrorist organizations is a different ballgame. That isn't speech, it is an action that directly supports a crime, and possibly *IS* treasonous as it can be linked to an attempt to violently overthrow the government.
Using speech to plot an attack would also be a crime.
Standing up and saying "I hope you die" isn't a crime. Plotting the death of another, and/or acting on that desire IS.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
As a counterpoint, take a look at how long it took the US to officially enter both of those wars.
I'd not say that, in those two instances, economics was the primary factor, but I'd say they were a major factor.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
In a high-tech world, it's not possible for the marketplace to be informed. It takes too much time for an individual to become informed on just one type of product alone. Each person is an informed consumer in only a minority of areas, but is an uninformed consumer in many more areas. People buy cars, houses, computers, software, food, furniture, and appliances, but nobody can be an expert on cars and houses and computers and software and food and furniture and appliances all in the span of a single lifetime.
Lasseiz-faire capitalism functions to keep a check on corruption only in those environments where the majority of consumers are able to be knowlegable. In other words, products that are simple enough to understand that every Tom, Dick, and Harry understands everything about how they work. Everyone knows how a knife, fork, and spoon operate, so if a company tried selling shoddy utensils for more than they're worth, that company wouldn't survive. Everyone would be able to tell the company is screwing them. The same can't be said for modern high-tech products.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
The ACLU defends the rights of individual citizens to exercise their right to religious speech in their private lives. For instance, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Lafayette-Parish school board in Louisiana because it's dress code violated the religious beliefs of Rastafarian Children. The ACLU also worked to pass the Religious Freedom Bill of 2000 which helped protect an individual's right to worship.
The ACLU is opposed to government sponsored religion and government restrictions on religion. How more pro religion can you get?
The national ACLU is neutral on the issue of gun control because they believe that the 2nd Amendment refers to the rights of individual states to maintain individual militias. The ACLU also believes that the Constitution contains no barriers to reasonable regulations of gun ownership. If we can license and register cars, we can license and register guns.For more information, see the ACLU's position paper online.
Ok, I don't even know where this one came from. The ACLU is opposed to all forms of capital punishment and the practice of capital punishment. Aside from the fact that it is a cruel and unusual form of punishment (in violation of the Eighth Amendment), it is also applied disproportionately to minorities and the poor.There is a whole section on their website about this.
Obviously this is patently untrue. The ACLU supports civil rights for all Americans regardless of race, creed, gender, religion, political affiliation or sexual orientation. You're referring to the ACLU's support of Affirmative Action, which is something quite different. I won't try to convince you why Affirmative Action is a good thing, but I'll just say this: there are hundreds of other forms of non-race-based Affirmative Action that take place every day. Things like networking, and knowing a friend of a friend. Things like being in a certain fraternity or going to a certain business school or belonging to a certain society. Nothing can stop these little forms of Affirmative Action from taking place, so the only solution we have to make hiring and school admissions more racially equitable is to introduce one more element into the equation. And contrary to popular belief, Affirmative Action does not deny qualified people access to jobs or schools.For more, please see the ACLU's section on Racial Equality.
In addition to being a card carrying member of the ACLU, I am also a member of the EFF. I wouldn't pick one over the other because they are both important to civil rights online and offline.
Yeah dude,
and the legislation we have in place is similar to what happened to the Jews. Get a fucking grip.
Dude, this country is still the best in the world, by FAR.
Sent from your iPad.
Five years down the road, something else Really Bad will happen and the press will be obsessed with something else. We should have a betting pool on the next big press fad. Personally, I'm predicting it'll be mega-storms caused by climate change. Some kind of giant hurricaine will level a nation to the dirt, and the press will drop terrorism like yesterday's news - which it already is.
- -
no, it will be another bioterror attack, and thousands will die, millions will be scarred. The press will call for (and get) the destruction of all smallpox samples, and ban science altogether unless it is used solely for making companies money.
Or maybe it will be an asteroid impact, and they'll ban astronomy - because if we hadn't seen it coming, it wouldn't have hurt us.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I still don't believe that the average person in the middle east really cares at all whether or not you can go buy a bear, for instance. They don't want that in their country, but thats a different story. I find it hard to fathom that they want to kill americans because they have the freedom to do things they cannot. The thin line here is the difference between what an american citizen can do in his day to day life, and the will of america to force the rest of the world to adopt that lifestyle. Its not our lifestyle that riles up other nations, its our desire to have them except it in their own countries. And its really non of our business. If it was, then why dont we stop being hypocrites and enforce our will on everybody equally. Are arabs free in Isreal? Are Somali's free in Somalia? So on and so on.
Nobody wants to kill you because you can freely go buy a porn magazine. They want to hurt the bringer of what they see as decadence and evil into their own lands. Its a subtle but huge difference. One that is ignored in the "you will never stop our way of life" propoganda spewed by the mouths of our leaders.
Not to mention they overwhelmingly closer to home facts of our attrocities in their own countries. Supporting and arming the Saudi royal family. Supporting civil war in Afghanistan. Supporting Iraq, then bombing them when they step on our toes. Supporting Isreal, etc etc. Those are things they are faced with every single day. Not you being able to go watch Spiderman uncensored. But your tax dollars going to pay for the methods and means to cause much anguish in their own home towns. If your child was maimed by a US made mine, that would upset you a lot more then your being against alcohol. Do you want to see the citizens of countries where child pornography is legal die in horrendous terrorist acts? Its morally against everything we believe here, yet we dont have militia groups planning terror attacks on them. Yet if those countries were actively attacking your children, you would do something about it, with whatever means you had available. Make no mistake about it, people in many middle eastern nations feel they are at war with us. Not for our way of life, but for our intrusive invasion of their own lives.
Because they aren't stupid enough to let their hate interfere with going where they can make enough to live on?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Although I applaud most of your post, if you were a religious fanatic you might very well be willing to have that 9 year old boy die as a martyr and that bulge under your clothing might be something a lot more sinister than his soon to be little brother or sister. Not all Muslims look "Arabic" and Islam isn't the only religion with fanatics.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Economic factors: the loss of several trading partners.
Had Germany won the land war, which they may very well have, they'd have owned Europe, Eastern Europe, perhaps a good chunk of the Soviet Union, and the Middle East, and a good chunk of Northern Africa. This would have given them a very diverse resource base, plenty of room for industry, and a population that could be...motivated...to be productive.
Thier Axis partner Japan, meanwhile, would have quite a bit of Western SSSR, China, and bits of Southeast Asia. This would mean that Germany and Japan, probably completely separately, but almost certainly by trading with each other, would have everything they could need or want. Not to mention MASSIVE industrial bases.
The US, while itself probably big and diverse enough, geographically speaking, to be self sufficient in terms of agriculture and resources, not to mention having the same advantages in population and industrial base, would nevertheless of felt the sting of losing the vast majority of their European and Asian trading partners.
Had Germany and Japan taken the majority of Europe and Asia, one likely outcome would have been another Cold War, only this time with the US in the position of needing to drive it's economy into the ground just to keep up with Germany and Japan's expenditures. In other words, what the US did to Russia, historically.Besides, I'll also point out that wars are good for the economy in general, especially when they're not being fought on your own soil, or even your own hemisphere, and WW2 is what wound up bootstraping the States out of the Depression.
Now, I'm not saying that the States acted SOLEY out of economic factors. But I do wonder why, if they did it to save innocent lives and stop the depredations of fascist tyrants, they waited so long? I'm not criticizing them for it; it was the right thing, from their perspective, to do at the time, and hindsight is 20/20, blah blah blah. But war ALWAYS has economic factors as a very large part of it's core.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
You combine cynicism and stupidity in impressive amounts.
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
Actually...yuo're wrong....If every country hates us, how come we have 3 MILLION third world immigrants pouring into our country a year?? How come no matter WHERE you go, the stores, the companies and the WELFARE lines are run by Indians, Pakistanis or Mexicans? I wish those countries WOULD hate us.....then the poor kid in the slums can actually get a job at a decent wage rather than competing with a Pakistani for $2 an hour.... :( and fear of middle eastern folk.) and the Indians and Pakistanis, perhaps being a former brit colony also tend to do well here.
I'm not saying everyone hates you. Maybe I needed to make that more clear. People are *frightened* of america. Not hate. The USA has a place in the heart , even for myself, but the govt fricking blows chunks. And over here in Aust, most Indians and Pakistani dudes tend to do pretty well for themselves. Most. Asia is on it's way up. I know here the old Australian fear of asians is fast disapearing (unfortunately displaced by fear of refugees
I dunno what I'm really getting at other than that the US is not the greatest country in the world. Neither is Australia or Brittain, or any of them. It's earth. Thats the best country.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
said by our own Madeline Albright. I hope you're not that callous.
Ceci n'est pas un post