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U.S. Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read
boarder8925 writes "Be careful what you read when you fly in the United States. What you read is being monitored by airport screeners and stored in a government database for years. 'Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd packed for the trip. The breadth of the information obtained by the Gilmore-funded Identity Project (using a Privacy Act request) shows the government's screening program at the border is actually a survelliance dragnet."
I swear those books on kitten huffing & freedom hating are purely for research on my next acting part in a play!
My work here is dung.
I only read Catcher in the Rye.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
"Chuck, have a look at this one."
"So he's reading something on a laptop, is it a document or the internet?"
"Use the higher magnification, it's a website."
"Ok, I see it now. Something about Patenting a knife and fork... he's typing something."
"Looks harmless enough."
"Oh, my god, he's making some reference to life in Soviet Russia! Security security move on I-424, Victor section!"
"Code yellow! He's obviously some kind of subversive."
"Wait! There's something about a Beowulf Cluster, sounds like a cell!!!"
"Code Orange, Code Orange!"
"Holy sweet mother of Jesus! He's welcoming his new overlords!"
"CODE RED!! CODE RED!! Take that m**********r down!"
[NO CARRIER]
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
A copy of the Anarchist's cookbook, poor man's james bond, 1984, and the catcher in the rye.
Flying is a pain for me though, no idea why!
Dresden Files, Harry Potter, Arthur C Clarke, and Bob Mayer
whoop-de-fucking-do.
It might expose some government employees to some good books.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
Go Go Gadget editors!
Someone steals the text of the actual article (not unusual, I know), instead of providing an actual summary... but leaves out the hyperlink that's actually IN the stolen text for the Identity Project referenced in the article.
Why bother with editors?
America will never recover from the past 7 years' descent into police state. Those records, and the system that extracts them from us, will last indefinitely, regardless of any trumped up "counterterrorism" needs.
But at least we can slow the descent into an evil empire. Go out and vote on November 4, 2008. And if you voted for a Republican sometime in the past dozen or so years, but haven't learned to change your ways, stay home.
--
make install -not war
I had to fly commercial on the day they reopened the skies after 9/11/2001 (I think it was the next Monday, can't remember the exact date).
The events of the past week made me decide it was time to re-read "The Satanic Verses." I took it on the plane with me and made sure to hold it prominently in the waiting/boarding areas, etc.
Nobody hassled me. Too bad, I wanted to make a big "Don't Taze Me, Bro" scene.
In other news, be careful what you post on the internet. Whoops, I mean our beloved Government is there to protect you from yourself. Amen.
I'm going to start carrying stuff by Greg Palast, Noam Chomsky, and Thomas Homer-Dixon when I fly from now on!
alternative book covers
..Slashdot so I guess I'm on the watch list.
http://www.rense.com/general79/wdx1.htm
Soon this will all be a faded memory as the government will require everyone to board planes like this
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Tinfoilhatbait and overlordbait
The game.
whoop-de-fucking-do. ..... And You don't care if they look, 'cause you've done nothing wrong......
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.
You will be baked, and there will be cake.
I travel a LOT, sometimes internationally, and I've always been paranoid enough to print my own book covers. I own a print shop, but I'm sure anyone can crank out their own book covers for under $1.00 at work or at home.
My typical book cover usually says "Word of the Day" with other harmless jargon under it, and on the spine. When those morons/monkeys (not ad hominem attack, the employees really are morons) go through my bags, they only look at the fake cover.
Better than what they do normally - just take books, etc. from your luggage and keep 'em....
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
...an economics student reading both Adam Smith and Karl Marx? divide by zero error?
A copy of The Constitution and The Bill of Rights
I would like to share a very uncomfortable moment I had related to this....
:)
I was returning from a trip abroad to England and Sweden. On the way back I was reading a copy of the Phillip K. Dick story "The Man in the High Castle". For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a story set in an alternate world where the Axis won WWII, and American is evenly divided between the Germans and Japanese, along the center of the country.
The cover art on this particular printing was an American flag where the start had been replaced with Swastikas. As I went through customs I was pulled aside for a little of the ole' extra screenin'. (Damn you again, full beard and being under 30!)
Things were going smoothly until he came across the book, at which point things became extremely hostile and many questions were repeated until I started to explain that the book was sci-fi, and about a postulated alternate universe. I think as soon as I said 'alternate universe' his eyes glazed over, and he began to loose interest in me and I was let go. So based on this article, I guess the government knows I'm a PKD fan. I hope Space Nixon doesn't get word of this, or I'm in real trouble. I'll probably just end up informing on myself to the government anyways.
It would be nice to know what the feds are looking to find based on what people are reading.
It I'm completely against all of this "to save your freedoms BS". So I would like to know why they even think this is necessary.
This sounds like another solution looking for a problem much like putting RFID chips in passports.
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
So how long until the TSA is collecting so much data at airports that other law-enforcement agencies start looking through their database? When TSA screeners rifle through your luggage, is any of that admissible in court? If they're secretly watching what you're reading, even outside of checkpoints, is that admissible too?
Is it worth all this invasion of privacy, for events that happen exceedingly rarely? And if terrorists target a bus in the U.S., will we start having these checkpoints everywhere?
the rest of us about 'freedom' and 'democracy' as your country clearer has neither.
Cheers.
Thanks for the tip.
Next time I fly, if I want to read The Audacity of Hope I'll be sure to enclose it in a dust jacket from We Will Prevail.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
"...perhaps a selection of DIY PDF pamphlets which you print out yourself and carry through security, with titles like 'These Security Measures Aren't Doing Much For Your Public Relations, You Know' and 'Could You Work Harder At Making This Screening Process More Efficient And Effective Please?'
Sort of like a bug report."
And then:
"Here's a selection of DIY pamphlets:
[Link]
Why not make your own, print out some open source book you've been wanting to read? A flight, and the necessary long wait in a security line, is the perfect opportunity."
They just report on what is notable. If I had a pair of rainbow coloured shoes, no doubt that would be reported as well. It's just a mess of pointless beaurocracy. The morons on the ground are following orders to report what they find. The paper pushers store it because that's what they do with paper once the finish storing it.
It's not that sinister. It's just the government being its usual inefficient self.
The last time I flew I took with me my copy of 1984...
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Obviously, no one reading anything in an airport cares if anyone looks, because they're reading it IN AN AIRPORT. The security guard walking past you probably has a better view than the camera. Unless you use custom book covers to obscure what you're reading - which, if you're paranoid, go ahead, I'll only get worried when they start disallowing that - then you obviously have no problem broadcasting your reading preferences to the world.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
...on the day that the Senate just voted against restoring habeas corpus.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
-b.
Actually, I thought the ability to travel freely within one's own country without passports or border check was a very fundamental right of a free people.
At least that's what they taught me during the fifties... when Soviet citizens did not have that right but U. S. citizens still did.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Why would that bother them? Not even the President cares about them any more, they are just a goddamned piece of paper after all.
Correction: flying is a contractural business arrangement between the airline and the passengers.
That 199 other people like the fact that my 4th Amendment rights have just been violated doesn't diminish the fact that my 4th Amendment rights have been violated.
If the airline wants to hire screeners and make screening part of the contract to be a passenger, fine.
The feds muscling their way in to allegedly do so is in no way an enumerated power granted them.
The illusion of security makes security worse.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
... of Ann Coulter's latest book and Atlas Shrugged.
Come on. What kind of bullshit is this? Wouldn't it be easier to be "classified" as "safe" just by carrying the right book?
Radical Muslim extremists could just walk through security with a copy of the Torah while wearing a kippah/yarmelke.
Don't get caught with the Bill of Rights, Security Edition.
I highly recommend this inspirational book.
P.S.: Fuck Bush
"Female IIS edition of Playboy"
...sometimes I get real pissed off about this stuff. But other times I just say "fuck it!" I mean really, what do I care really about if some government peon wants to jot down in the big brother database that I'm reading Muscle & Fitness on my flight? I mean compared to the C4 bomb hidden in my MacBook, it's really of little consequence. ;)
[Note to all federal eavesdroppers: THE ABOVE IS A JOKE! CHILL OUT! I'VE NEVER EVEN BEEN ON AN AIRPLANE BEFORE!]
Sugapablo
Isn't there something about not impeding the ability to move freely about the country? While yes you're NOT forced to fly a drive from Cleveland to L.A. is quite impractical especially if you must do it every week.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
"Amendment IX:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
So, as far as the government is concerned, it is a right. Just like the Constitution does not specifically enumerate a right to breathe, or think, or take a shit.
Now as for the relationship between you and the airlines, you do pay for the privilege to fly. I think that is pretty clear.
"Dear Bookseller, it begins. Last week, President Bush signed into law an antiterrorism bill that gives the federal government expanded authority to search your business records, including the titles of the books purchased by your customers...There is no opportunity for you or your lawyer to object in court. You cannot object publicly either. The new law includes a gag order that prevents you from disclosing 'to any person' the fact that you have received an order to produce documents...because of the gag order...you should not tell ABFFE that you have received a court order... you can simply tell us that you need to contact ABFFE's legal counsel."
That is a letter from the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) sent to its members shortly after the PATRIOT Act was signed into law. The PATRIOT Act gave the federal government powers to search records of any business selling books and any library. Then they slap a gag order which makes it illegal to tell anyone for up to a year.
It just sickens me to have to be paranoid about the things I read, or having to avoid using a credit card when paying for a book.
Any terrorist who reads on an airplane isn't going to be reading a book on bombs, explosives or how to be a terrorist. If a terrorist were dumb enough to do that, it sure as hell wouldn't be in english. This is just another example of the government amassing data on ordinary citizens all in the name of national security.
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
Bullshit. You can trout that nonsense out when it comes to driving because driving actually requires some form of responsibility to keep you from slaughtering everyone else on the road.
Flying, unless you are the PILOT, doesn't.
Along the same lines, it's a privilege to live in the US. After all, you could flip out and kill everyone around you any minute now. Maybe we should just commit you now and skip the whole surveillance.
things with swastika's on them are illegal.
Good grief, Government recording what people read on planes? Blatant lie. It looks like they just have a generic comment section the border agents can use to put in whatever the heck they feel like mentioning. And, being human, you end up with some odd random comments mixed in. What's next, some dingbat agent puts in some comments on some attractive woman's posterior and we'll have a Slashdot article proclaiming the government is profiling women on their attractiveness? This is the kind of thing that gives privacy advocates a bad name.
Remember, this isn't about liking her. This is about poisoning their databases. For the best effect, purchase it on your credit card with the highest balance.
When they start cross-referencing those databases, the poison will just confirm itself and become "fact".
Here's the silly thing. Everyone looking all of these nickel and dime privacy issues always forgets that the Dept. of Treasury has everything. I knew a guy whose son worked at the IRS, and he would never fail to pull his Dad's VISA transactions and comment on where he was at in the store. So, the IRS knows everything you've bought, how much you make, how much you are worth, AND, the Dept. of Treasury also knows if you have any dangerous things, due to gun checks, etc.
If that were not bad enough, every major corporation has similar information, if they want it. Those little convenience cards at supermarkets, for example, allow the likes of Joe's Market to sell the knowledge that middle age men who buy a certain kind of beef on fridays also prefer a particular magazine.
The privacy thing is so out of hand, one has to wonder if we would wind up being an overall better society if we just made all this information public. That way, no one could have a monopoly.
This is my sig.
The problem is nobody really knows what is significant. So, they are scooping up whatever information they can find with the hope that someday there will be an important correlation.
Could this be used for other purposes? Probably not, because of the volume of the information and what it is going to take to really get down and start mining it.
The biggest single problem in the US today is there are indeed terrorists and we have had some incidents blocked. But almost no information about what has been blocked has leaked out. So everyone thinks it is all nonsense. As some people have mentioned, it would be the best thing all around if 3 or 4 indicidents were not blocked and successfully killed hundreds of people. Better yet, if a bunch of foreign nationals got blown up at the same time. Perhaps people would realize there is a problem and we're not anywhere near as isolated as we were in 1850.
So when would all this collected information be of value? After something big happens. What if it doesn't? What if everything is successfully (and secretly) blocked in the planning stages as it has been so far? Any program like this would be considered foolish and pointless, and invasion of everyone's privacy for no gain whatsoever.
But let one incident happen and the newsmedia will be all over the government for "not doing something." Today the criticism is for doing seemingly pointless things when still nobody can figure out what would be (a) acceptable and (b) useful. Would El Al style interrogations before boarding a plane produce useful results? Probably not - we're not looking for hijackers now. What we are certainly going to see is some kind of different attack vector. What would be useful to know about the (dead) perpetrators of that event? I don't think anybody knows.
The other approach that doesn't have much favor in the US government right now is to treat terrorism-related attacks like a tornado. It just happens and messes up a lot of stuff but there isn't anything that can be done about it. As far as I know, no government is taking that attitude - certainly not UK, Germany or Israel where attacks have ocurred. Would this work in the US? Sure - until the first attack. It is difficult to play the role of standing up and saying "it just happens" to a crying mother/father/brother/sister on TV. So incredibly difficult that no elected or unelected member of the government is ever going to do it.
and speed the collapse of our society. The quicker we piss off everyone, the quicker we can purge the system. In market terms, we are long overdue for a "correction" in our political system.
Because everyone knows that terrorists read "How to make a bomb explode for dummies" just before entering a plane...
Could someone please explain to me the logic after this ?
Will this mean that they will stop selling Tom Clancy's books in the airports shops?
There's a big difference between sharing your choice of reading material with a couple hundred strangers in an airport you'll probably never see again, and having your choice of reading material noted by authority figures who then log it along with their impressions of you in a permanent database of questionable merit for the Department of Homeland Security.
Additionally, it seems this procedure also applies to books in your luggage, which you may have deliberately chosen not to read in public.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Not entirely true (think: job responsibilities), but we'll let that slide.
What I cannot overlook is the assumption that the other 199 are going to be glad that your civil liberties got violated. After all, next time it may be them, and one thing I've seen a lot of is that people who were once quick to claim these kinds of ridiculous abuses are necessary for the "war on terror" got pretty damn irate when they were the one being singled out for further evaluation.
Now, give me one good reason why tracking the books someone reads is a good thing. So what if its a book on explosives? I can think of many non-terrorist people who have very good reasons to read such titles. Same with chemistry texts, religious histories, country histories, biographies of subversives, etc. The only way to understand a subject is to learn about it. You can't honestly be suggesting that government start dictating acceptable knowledge. Intellectual monitoring = thought police, and that is not something the founders of this country ever wanted to see.
Contrary to what this administration would have us believe, disagreement does not equal terrorist.
P.S. Before the red staters get up in arms - I'd be equally pissed if a democrat did this.
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
A copy of the U.S. Constitution. Makes good reading on any flight, domestic or foreign.
If you believe half the things in the Anarchist Cookbook then you are probably just a teenager looking for trouble anyway and having the T.S.A. confiscate your book before you try and make "fire fudge" or whatever and end up blowing your thumbs off, is the best possible ending anyway.
If anything, that book would have lessened any scrutiny (as it was banned in many Islamic countries, and the author received death threats from Iran).
You might as well have been flashing around the King James Bible.
Although the both work for Homeland Security, their roles are different. When you enter the country at the airport you don't pass any airport screeners (unless you transfer to another flight). If you take a domestic flight you will never see any border inspectors.
That collection is likely to drive security people nuts, yet those are must-read books for anyone who wants to have an informed opinion on the current wars.
Heck, about a year ago, I was coming back from a trip to San Francisco. My wife and I were waiting in the departure lounge for our plane. She went off to the bathroom and to look in the shops. I got bored just sitting there. I'm a student pilot, so I dug out my big red Gleim "How to Fly a Plane" book, and my ham band handheld radio, with headset. I tuned into the ground control traffic, hoping to get some experience with a big airport's procedures, and commenced reading my book. When my wife came back, she looked shocked, and asked me if I knew what I looked like. She told me to get that radio off and put that book away before the TSA sees you and things you're a terrorist. I hadda laugh...
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
The breadth of the information obtained by the Gilmore-funded Identity Project (using a Privacy Act request) shows the government's screening program at the border is actually a survelliance dragnet.
Isn't that, you know, sort of the entire point of a screening program?
Ok, that part? Not cool. Teach me to RTFA.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
It is a privilege to fly. However, it is a RIGHT to be free from UNREASONABLE SEARCH... regardless of whether you are flying, walking, driving, or sitting like a lump of bituminous.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
...but the government knowing you read Linux Journal and playboy on your business trips really isn't that big a deal.
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Convenience is the enemy of privacy.
There is help available, brother:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
I was reading a 2600 article about breaking into secure and staff-only areas in an airport while waiting at the gate to board my flight. I was given no trouble with my reading materials whatsoever.
Truth be told, we were given more grief at customs regarding the wax-encased gouda in our suitcase than the bubblewrapped bong in my carry on.
you can go out, discard your tin foil hat, stop preaching at people as if everyone who does not agree with you is an idiot or duped, get a good dose of proportion into your cup of reality........and then go for whom the heck you think will do the best job, and voice your concerns with perhaps a touch less alarmism and hyperbole...
"The illusion of security makes security worse."
Is it really an illusion? I know everyone brings up the 9/11 hijackers in answer to such a question, but we're talking about measures taken after, not one's in place back then. In other words how many plans have been foiled by the new measures?
Yep, and it's a privilege to drive a car
and it's a privilege to use buses and subways
and it's a privilege to have electricity
and it's a privilege to have running water...
So at what point does a privilege become a right when we are talking about being a functional member of society. Do all our 'rights' guarantee us is living in a shack outside of town? (ignoring of course the privilige of property ownership.)
I'm not saying it's a right to fly...but where do we draw the line?
* We dance where angels fear to tread *
Just to try to clarify some things:
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/highlights/cbp_responds/facts_automated_targeting_sys.xml
While the ATS was started in the 90s, reading between the lines it appears it was originally much smaller in scope and has been expanded a lot since then, especially once DHS was created. I also don't think it ever specifically came up in any bills when it was established. The only references I can find in THOMAS are from 2002 and 2005. Much like Total Information Awareness, I don't think this is something that's usually put in a bill but is rather the prerogative of the administration to create programs in various bureaucracies.
Anyone who carries anything into an airport that they wouldn't want to be spread out on a table in view of passersby either doesn't understand how airport security operates or is rolling the dice and taking their chances.
Of course, in the event a banned book is found, I think it is policy to never imply ownership. Always "the book", never "your book".
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
I don't care if they know what I read. I'm just relieved to know that they are protecting us from gay foot-tapping Senators in airport restrooms.
I definitely agree in regards to carry-on luggage. I once actually saw the girl in front of me have her luggage searched, and the security guards pull out a flour bag... and pull a pair of handcuffs out of the flour bag. I was really embarrassed for the girl, but seriously? Did you think the guard was just going to say "hey, everyone carries flour on an airplane, right?" Things like that go in checked luggage, where at least if someone goes through it by hand they won't do it in front of you and the world. However, I do think that recording the contents of people's checked luggage (beyond anything illegal) is an invasion of privacy.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Dam right Blowhole, lots here agree with you, you go chick!
check again - the answer is 42
-10 + 50 + 1 + 1 = XLII
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
I once had a screener (really contemptuously) ask me "so, you like science fiction".
Japan has recently announced a policy change regarding entry at border crossings for Non-Japanese citizens which will go into effect November 23, 2007. This policy change will affect ALL non-Japanese citizens arriving in Japan regardless of travel purpose, duration of stay or previous entries (except for those traveling on diplomatic or special government related clearance).
All travelers will be fingerprinted and photographed upon entry through Japanese Immigration. Travelers who refuse to be subject to fingerprinting and photography will be refused entry and immediately deported or possibly detained.
.. i travel a lot. for fun, i brought along some reading material and didn't keep it hidden -- it was a book on the koran. sure enough, i was pulled aside for a 'random search'. bear in mind i'm a white male with a pony tail, and typically dress .. 'down'.
still, made me happy that people were paying attention.
-- build a man a fire and he'll be warm all day. set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Hey look at that idiot, he must be going to buy some expensive junk...
and these schematics for the radar in the jet, well, see, I'm writing an article for Popular Science........
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
They didn't like my bag going into the airport on my flight from JFK to Israel. They pulled out quite a few things ... now that I think about it, they pulled out all of my books and laid them flat for re-scanning in the x-ray machine. I hadn't even considered the possibility that they were recording it to see what a long-haired multi-racial man with tons of electronics was reading. Then again, the Israeli airport did the same thing, so maybe I really did have some configuration of travel bits that looked weapon-esque.
Both times, they claimed it was the mass market paperbacks in my bag that threw the censors. I just assumed the books were so dense that they couldn't get a good read of the foil-covered pills I had underneath them, but this article is triggering my paranoia.
Purposefully posted AC.
Damn guess I wont be able to read the lastest version on this during my next flight to the US.
When we get to O'Hare, we all go through security without incident. Except me. I set the metal detectors off. I panic. What could I possible have on me that's metallic. Oh. Fuck. So they bring me over to the side and start wanding me in front of my family. Of course, the wand always goes off when it comes within proximity of my pocket with said prophylactics in it. "Son, please remove any items from your pocket", says the security dude. Reluctantly, I toss the condoms out of the pocket on to the table, in front of my entire family (my brothers, dying from laughter this whole time knowing what was in my pocket).
Who knew condom wrappers contained metal?
(posted anonymously in case I run for office some day)
I'm just going to use electronic books.
and to be sure, I'm going to encode with rot13. twice.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
"One report about Gilmore notes: "PAX (passenger) has many small flashlights with pot leaves on them. He had a book entitled 'Drugs and Your Rights.'""
Gee, that's not important in the least, no sir, no transportation of illegal substances or under the influence...yeah, no way important....
It's not like our government has ever stooped to recording embarrassing information about prominent people!
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
...lecturing the rest of us about 'spelling' and 'grammar' as you clearly have neither. ;)
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
It is always good to have a fan.
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
I had an acquaintance (buddy from school) that worked for the TSA.
His jobs before that in order were
1. Fry cook (fired)
2. Fry cook (fired)
3. Mobil Lube Tech (fired)
4. Convenience store clerk (fired)
5. Fry cook (fired)
6. Drywall hanging (way too hard for him hence, fired)
And finally, a TSA screener.
Take that for what it's worth.
After my last experience with airport "security", I have come to the conclusion that it is in fact all just a smokescreen. My experience is based on that fact the many people how handle luggage are able to steal from it (I got a mobile phone stolen from me, a charger and a data cable), that fact tells me that security isn't good at all. If they terrorist wants to make a strike, he would do so with a luggage of some innocent passenger. If they can steal from your luggage, they sure as hell can place some stuff into it too.
If anyone has seen a Sony Ericsson W300i phone in Netherlands with this IMEI number, send me a message.
Stolen Sony Ericsson W300i IMEI number: 359988006567039
Checking what people is reading is nothing more then sign of fascist government, that is on top of that paranoid and stupid (hence, Bush & Dick Chaney and co).
Just look at few items from my 2004 reading list when I was flying to and from New York on business:
I, Robot
Animal Farm
1984
The Gun Seller
Nope, nothing possibly free-thinking, radical, or possibly suspicious in that collection, no sir-ee.
I read them on the MARTA train, I even read them on the plane. I'd even read them at my gate, where I sometimes wait and wait.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
The little flashlights had cannabis leaves on them, and the book was a pro-legalization book. Now, this was a border guard, not a TSA drone, and part of their job is to keep an eye out for potential drug smugglers.
YRO? Where's the online angle in this?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
...slashdot, where rationality means nothing.
Funny the summary didn't mention the flashlights were stamped with pot symbols and the book was called "drugs and your rights". Yeah, no reason to note that; no reason whatsoever...
Well, you can either have one side in a huffy because you're recording racial data, or you can have the other side huffy because they have no evidence that you aren't profiling against Middle-Eastern men.
Pick your poison.
This site has nothing to do with tech, and is just a liberal fear-mongering cry-baby safe house...
It shows how much of a whiner you have become if you drink the liberal slashdot koolaid...
It's crap like this that made me chuckle last week. A buddy at IRC said his fellow was taking an "extreme holiday", visiting north korea, syria, libya, venezuela, kuba, mexico, USA in that order. USA is the only scary part of that trip and that tells a lot about the land of the free.
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
...at something that -might- identify a terrorist. I fly on a regular basis and the TSA guys I see are always too busy watching my tits. (FYI: me == CoderChick)
Arabic 101
Koran
Quack, quack.
I wouldn't want to bring a book on an airplane that is too radical. Then again, if I try to please them by reading a book titled "How to be a patriotic submissive U.S. citizen" they might be even more suspicious of me...
"And if you voted for a Republican sometime in the past dozen or so years, but haven't learned to change your ways, stay home."
No, I think I'm going to vote straight Republican just because I like visualizing your reaction.
Beg me not to and I'll think about it.
Otherwise I'm definitely doing it, and it's for no other reason than to moot your votes. Perhaps if you weren't such a rabid cunt all the time I wouldn't care, but I dislike you and your kind (the hyperbolic shout down your opponents kind) and I very much dislike the style of post you make (the has no useful information but lots of insults kind).
So, beg me and disappear forever or I'm voting straight Republican. Yes I am that petty, and yes I am serious.
AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.
Nope, that's why we have a thing called the "Bill of Rights" in the USA. Reasonable search and seizure is looking for explosives and weapons. Unreasonable search and seizure is a fishing expedition and keeping of records about everything. Once the current hysteria about terrorism dies down, the courts are sure to see it that way. And "conspiracy to deprive constitutional rights" is a serious Federal felony (18 USC 241) -- punishable by up to 10 yrs in jail or death if someone dies or is seriously injured. Haven't heard of a death due to airport screening, but it only takes one cop messing up...
-b.
That's why I said go for whom you THINK will do the best job.....consider it a toss up?...well then, why not roll a die...excepting I am betting most that even you would still have preference toward one of the sea of buffoons that loom large.
"Things like that go in checked luggage"??? Screw that. Things like that go where they will maximally embarass and annoy the screeners, customs inspectors, and similar toadies. It's fun to watch a drone lose his voice when he finds a big dildo in your bag, and waves it around before asking/realizing what it is (it adds to the effect if you're male...).
The other 199 people didn't have the balls to complain.
Fixed that for you.
rj
For a sec, I thought I saw "Ru Paul"....
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
With an 8 GB memory stick.
Agent : "What are you reading, there?"Me : "Well, I have more than 20,000 titles here. I'd be happy to list them all for you. There's 'Het Geheimzinnige Eiland', by Jules Verne (#22580), 'Bread Overhead', by Fritz Reuter Leiber (#22579), ...
(hours and hours later...)
Agent : "Is that all?"
Me : "Yup! Oh, and 'The Catcher in the Rye'."
Agent : "One of those, are you? Take him in, boys!"
Or you could use a Sony Reader, too...
"Female IIS edition of Playboy" ./ prefers the "Female Apache edition of Playboy"
according to netcraft.
leave my manual of MS Flight Simulator X at home then.
I had a friend who worked for baggage search (check-in bags) once. I asked her the question we all want to ask, "Anything, ummm, interesting in those bags? Purple silicone maybe?". She said that they referred to those items as "items of a personal nature".
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
"Passenger boarded with copy of 'How to Attack American Cities with Hijacked Planes'. Since it's his right to read whatever he wants, I'm not allowed to be suspicious so I didn't question him."
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
Why avoid using a credit card? Why be paranoid? Why not be proud of what you are reading? Really, the only thing worth being ashamed over are the people that sign crap like this into law and support it.
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
Just remember it is a PRIVILEGE to fly not a RIGHT.
No see I paid for that flight, give me my damned seat. I have am entitled to it. The declaration of human rights guarantees that I should be allowed to cross international borders without hindrance. Whether I do it by plane, car, ship or on foot, it's a right. My documents are up to date, and I have complied with all national laws. I've paid my departure taxes. I am not a criminal. Why do you say flying is not a right?
I might as well say that your breathing is a privilege, not a right. Nowhere in your country's laws does it explicitly state that you are allowed to breathe.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
During the cold war, I could easily see how people with Marxist reading materials could be added to a short list of sympathizers. Nothing particularly criminal but it seems like it would cut the list down a lot. From my own personal experience, the more extreme socialist/communist types I meet in college tended to sort of need to continually prove it to themselves over and over and so they could never get to far from any of that stuff. I don't know if it's a conviction thing or what, now they never were ones to really go out of their way to hide their beliefs either. I don't know, I've always been a capitalist and never felt the need to continually read econonmic theory books.
Terrorists seem to be a different crowd, they need to have strong convictions, or brain washing, do be willing to die but they also need to blend in. If I was plotting a major attack, I'd not carry any Islamic anything with me, in fact, I might carry some porn, eat some pork, and do what I could to not look Muslim, all of which might affect those 70 virgins I'd supposedly get in hell but would greatly aid in blending in and having a successful mission. It seems like a tough road for them, blending in is hard when your views are so screwed up. You really have to believe them but you also have to not let that be known.
I don't want this to sound the wrong way but if tracking reading materials is really that effective, and I want to think that they wouldn't do it or attempt to do it if it wasn't at least partially effective, but is that an effective alternative to sniffing our email and monitoring our browsing habits and listening to phone calls? I don't feel any reluctance providing a list of what I've read over the last five years, I mean I don't feel any guilt, shame, or anything about it that makes me feel that I'd be injured in anyway if it became public. Phone calls, emails, and web browsing on the other hand I feel a bit more sensitive about. That stuff includes business associates, people that I've spoke to about potential jobs (that could hurt my current employment situation.) I've visited a handful of porn sites and my wife would be displeased with that. I've also gone on public chatboards and trolled a handful of times and while it's just sort of stupid and mostly harmless, I'd hate for that to somehow be misconstrued. Nothing illegal but things that would make me feel uncomfortable to have made public and possibly injure some relationships. I'd be all for having the feds look at our reading habits more if that meant they were scaling back on the other domestic surveillance techniques that they are doing. It just strikes me as odd that they keep coming back to it and I'm not advocating giving up some of the academic freedom we have or any sort of red scare type things.
If you think the Anarchist Cookbook is a danger to the public then I have a real danger for you!
I have PC support techs that travel everywhere in the country and one thing they carry is an IDE HD with the standard images of all of the different models of computers we support. This is an amazingly scary source of danger for the American public! (apparently...)
The TSA in LaGuardia confiscated one of my tech's drives because it looked suspicious: He had affixed an orange DHL "10:30 AM Urgent" sticker on the drive so he could make sure it wasn't overwritten by mistake. Apparently those orange stickers are either a powerful explosive or an extremely efficient oxidizer. (In that case we should all cringe when we see a DHL cargo plane go overhead.)
. . . or maybe the TSA's airport security is one of the stupidest things to ever be seen on this planet.
As a rule: Security is a logical exercise. If it doesn't make sense then it can't be an adequate security model!
(so there!)
Most likely, the security personnel had never heard of the book...and most likely many many fewer people would have heard about it and I wouldn't have read it if it weren't for the fatwa issued against Rushdie...
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
Isn't there something about not impeding the ability to move freely about the country?
Yes, and there's something about not impeding the ability to move freely from country to country, too. Article 13 of the universal declaration of human rights states:
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
The idea behind dismantling the government is that the current government became useless for the people of the country and now stands on the way of any progress at all. I support this idea in principle, of-course implementation is not very clear. Formerly all revolutions ended up creating even worse situation than that prior to them. So how do you dismantle the government?
Another issue is this, what principles would you build the new system upon? I'd think most people would agree that the federals should be given much less power than they have now and that the local governing system should be the most important system. The local system should be responsible for its own infrastructure, but how do you decide what is 'local' in the first place?
Of-course a more fun idea than others is to have a shoot out and divide everything from scratch. On the other hand this will not go well with property owners. Well then, maybe the most important local government should start from everyone's own place of residence. Wouldn't that be fun? If everyone lived by their own laws in their own house and those laws would trump any externally imposed laws. The problem is that there is no way to stop one household from cooperating with other households. Once two households cooperate, they are more powerful than any one single household. That's the problem with people - they like to cooperate while they really should be trying to survive on their own. How do we turn off the cooperation gene once again?
Ok, so given that people will cooperate and form alliances and thus will create the job of a politician, who will become more powerful and will always have more voice than a non-politician, how do we ensure that the politicians don't create the same problem that is observed at this time right now?
How about a meta-democratic system, requiring the voters to display good understanding of the issues they are supposedely voting on and displaying good logical sense and understanding the difference between a faith based and a scientific process of dealing with the world? So these people become an elite really, but anyone can then enter this elite by becoming more informed.
Of-course some masses that are not and are incapable of becoming the elite, will stop trusting this elite, but then who cares about those people right? But the truth is that those people also should be able to make decisions in their own lives, no matter how uninformed and mentally incapable they are.
Maybe different states should have different voting processes, while limiting the feds from real power over the states. Some states should only allow the abovementioned elite to vote, some states should allow everyone to vote, some states should not allow voting at all, etc.
Then, every 3 years or so, the states should get together and look at the results of this experiment and adjust it accordingly to the results.
So this is it, the system should constantly change and adopt, we should only create laws and systems to direct these changes onto the path of progress, efficiency, happiness and such. Maybe it is something like the original intent, but better, because the political systems in each state would have a choice rather than be dictated to the same political system.
You can't handle the truth.
Censorship is becoming America's favorite past-time. The US gov't (and their corporate friends), already detain protesters, ban books like America Deceived (book) from Amazon and Wikipedia, stifle Ron Paul and fire 21-year tenured, BYU physics professor Steven Jones because he proved explosives, thermite in particular, took down the WTC buildings. Free Speech forever, read whatever you want.
Oh sure, if you like that sort of thing, then go for it. :) If you would be just as embarrassed, or are, say, traveling with your mother, it might not be advisable.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Some questions from the TSA application...
1. Which of the following would you prefer for a career?
a. Fireman
b. Doctor
c. Scientist
d. Prison Snitch
2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years career-wise?
a. Managing others
b. Self-employed
c. Retired
d. Testifying For a Secret Tribunal
3. What of the following items should be noted in the threat database?
a. Religious book (not bible)
b. Nail clipper
c. Chapstick
d. Music CD (not country music)
e. Non-US flag
f. All of the above
4. A female academic from the UK is trying to enter the US for a conference. She has a valid visa, letter from the school she is visiting and other documentation. Her name isn't in the threat database but she is sorta Middle Eastern looking. Do you:
a. Note that everything is legal and let her through
b. Professionally and politely ask her to wait until she can be verified
c. Give her carryon bag a hand search
d. Insult her, tear up her documents, give her an extra intensive body search, refuse to explain why she isn't allowed in and accuse her of being a terrorist.
5. Likely threats are commonly identified by which of the following:
a. Non-white
b. Non-US
c. Non-Christian
d. Odd clothes
e. All of the above
I think reality is, things are broken from the top down... Unfortunately, most of us are so concerned about the "big elections", we make the "feel good" attempts to go vote for our new president every 4 years, and possibly go a time or two in-between, specifically to vote for or against some tax measure or issue that's of great personal importance to us for whatever reason.
... but at least you can make an effort to weed out known corrupt ones. (If I don't know better, I just vote out all of them whenever I get the chance. I figure, worst case, I have better odds bringing in fresh, new people for the job vs. letting the existing people stick around, potentially getting more crooked over time.)
Meanwhile, we don't bother with much of the "smaller stuff", when in reality, THAT is precisely where one's vote really counts!
You may have noticed, it's not too often someone comes out of nowhere to take on a high-profile political career as president, vice-president, or Supreme Court justice.
These people "grow into" their jobs, after getting elected first at a local level and working their way up the ranks over the years. By the time they've made all the political connections and accepted all the bribes in a higher-ranking position, your "say so" in keeping them around (or even expecting them to do what they initially promised you) is pretty much zilch.
Where you STILL have control is at the bottom of the pyramid, instead of up near the peak. I know not everyone has time to research all the candidates for judges in their district and so on
Just by going to the occasional city/county council meeting, you're able to have say-so in issues that directly affect things right near your own home and workplace - and you may be one voice out of only 10 or 20 taken into consideration at that meeting.... Not 1 vote out of hundreds of thousands or millions!
They might think someone would brew something up stronger than a stink bomb. They thought so last year, anyhow: you can't bring water bottles or full-sized toiletries on airplanes anymore because of the slim possibility someone might mix liquid bombs back there.
Annoying, that; it means you can't pack more than a single-serve of mouthwash or shampoo.
There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
I do when I'm travelling with your mother. Oh, SNAP!
I enjoyed my last trip to the States in 2001, pity is that I will now never go back since I will not submit myself to this bullshit.
Well said. Deserves to be modded informative at least.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Everyone knows nobody reads that book of their own free will.
photosMy Photostream
IIRC, SCOTUS agrees with you. The upshot is that you can submit to an unreasonable search when you fly, or you can find some other means of getting from point A to point B. The problem is where do you draw the line? Is it a privilege to drive on a federal highway? To take a bus?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Another one reason to prefer travel by ship, train, or car.
And the point where people get fed up and stop letting the people holding government office make vague handwaving gestures in the direction of Scary Bad People and use that as an excuse to curtail freedom.
At Seattle-Tacoma Airport in 2002, I got pulled aside for extra screening and an explosives swab of my carry-on because I had a TI-92 calculator and a copy of Weinberg's The Quantum Theory of Fields in my back-pack.
Next flight I'll be sure to bring a copy of Jihad for Dummys.
And I can't believe I'm the only traveller making this decision.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
Duh, if he's up to Vol 42, then obviously he's already read Vol 17!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Please pardon the pedantry:
There is what one may call "American Christianity". It may bow to G-d alone but it gives excessive deference to the current political adminstration. Obedience to government is overpreached and the second coming is eschewed as something that takes toys away from people, people away from their toys, and challenges the legitimacy of government. Since Constantine stopped the persecutions in CE 312, Christianity became tainted with state power and has remained so to our day (with the exception of some denominations).
To a lesser extent the same exists in Judaism under the Talmudic dictum for the Disapora communties of 'dina d'malkuta dina' - Aramaic for 'the law of the (host) realm is the (Jewish) law'. This came about so that the community would not be viewed as subversive by commanding obedience to the laws of the host nation while preserving Jewish life and practice. Even this has limits. If the host nation compels a Jew(ess) to commit fornication, idolatry or murder, (s)he must disobey the laws of the host country and suffer the consequences thereof. Assimilation does not always work. This doctrine once existed in pre-Constantinian Christianity, but was subsequently lost due to its becoming a state cult with the exceptions listed above.
Now to the point:
How about being seen reading one of the "Left Behind" series of books? Even better, just any Bible with passages that can be interpreted as subversive marked with highlighter. If one is Jewish, Bring a Tanakh w/ both Hebrew and English or a siddur with texts considered 'offensive to modernity' like the destruction of idolatry and the nations abandoning warfare under messianic rule marked with highlighter. If anyone so much makes a peep about it, Bnai Brith will come down on him/her like a ton of lead. No one wants to be branded as a judeopath (antisemite).
Submission as evidence constitutes plaintiff and/or prosecutorial misconduct.
I still care.
None of their business.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Two Suggestions:
1) Use your electronic device to store your books. My now-venerable Tungsten T2 holds a library.
2) Read comic books! Some suggestions: We 3, Kingdom Come, Marvels, Fables (any of the trades).
Yes, you are completely correct. We have no 'right' to use any specific means of travel other than our own two feet.
In fact, by boarding an aircraft, a naval vessel or even driving your own car (all privileged modes of transport), you automatically waive several rights. Airport security in every country that I know of is allowed to search any and all baggage with or without probable cause and with or without a warrant. Airport security also has full discretion to prevent you from bringing any item they deem unsafe onto the aircraft. As an aside, I was once told that not only was I prohibited from bringing a telescoping monopod (like one leg of a tripod, and used in a similar manner) onto a plane as a carry-on, but also prohibited from putting it even in checked baggage. The same is true for naval vessels.
By driving a car, you waive your right to refuse an Intoxalyzer test in most states, and some even require you to give up other search and seizure rights as well when you accept a driver license.
Generally speaking, I agree with searching baggage going onboard a plane or ship not because I worry about a bomb intentionally being put into baggage, but more because some people are really dumb, and some household objects can be very volatile under pressure and after being jostled around. One time I saw some moron going on a hunting trip trying to explain to the security folks that he thought bringing a few camping-size propane cylinders on the plane was no big deal.
Although I'm generally against mandatory Intoxalyzers due to the fact that they really do nothing to prove intoxication, at least police are supposed to have probable cause before subjecting you to one; therefore complying with due process.
I would feel better about these types of searches if no record was kept of non-prohibited items.
We have to find a happy medium between a reasonable guarantee of safety and outright datamining. It would seem that the government has crossed that line.
Message contains 1 attachment: spam.gif
Sadly, I was not subjected to extra-scrutiny security screening on any of those occasions.
I did see a couple of people giving prolonged sideways glances as they walked by.
Take a second, and breath. The article seems to say "airport screeners"; if you actually *read* the article, it seems to be more concerned with Border Patrol and Customs agents.
Why would that be, do you think? Oh, probably because TSA screening personnel see somewhere between 500-500,000 people a day. (Depending on your airport size, of course.) Most of them don't have time to say "Hi!", let alone remember that passenger #689 this hour had a dog eared copy of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", a pamphlet suggesting that Bush is a demon, and an even older copy of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". If passenger #689 is really lucky, the screening personnel might remember that his name was "Bob".
As for being able to collect this data and put it into a database... as a TSO?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I'm sorry, but in the four seconds between finishing the last bag check and wanding Passenger 690 (grandpa with his artificial knees? Or was it that kid that forgot his gameboy in his pockets?) it can be just a little tough to get that info to the guy with the computer four hundred feet down on the left.
Customs, on the other hand? They do things differently.
In any case, the average security worker (if you spend time watching airport checkpoints) doesn't give a damn about you or your property unless something very unusual is going on about it; at which point you'll probably see it on CNN, FoxNews, or CNBC. During the break between OJ coverage, of course. And they generally read about as well as us traveling public types; I've been in line behind people that didn't seem to read the 30 "shoes off" signs along the queue. Let's at least keep some factual perspective here. Even the absurd is not solely the realm of the government.
... the Japanese translator, Hitoshi Igarashi, a mild-mannered academic with no known enemies, was found stabbed to death in his office smack-dab in the middle of a university campus in one of the world's safest large cities. The crime remains unsolved.
Sorry, not strictly on topic for the thread but I thought I would mention it. People often refer to the threats against Rushdie, and while they are of course serious I think it is equally important to remember that they did not remain as "threats". (The Italian editor, I believe, survived his stabbing. His name escapes me at the moment, you can probably Google it.)
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
the link was supposed to be on this word in parent: shirt
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Hmmm. Useful link (not):
"Access denied".
I once bought Satanic Verses in USA and took it back home to India reading it in flight. The book is banned in India. But that was before 9/11 of course
Unless you're carrying something like the Anarchist Cookbook, it seems unlikely that additional suspicion should be warranted. Given this time of year, it seems ironic that security would be judging others by the cover (and content) of their books rather than their actual threat, if any existed at all.
This was never about national security, it's all about watching people especially those who have the opposite political views as the watchers.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Better watch that, if they catch you reading Ayn Rand you'll definitely be labeled a subversive. She frowned on and hated big government
FalconShould there be a Law?
I bought this 2600 in the news stand at the airport HONEST!!
And what about that "Blacklisted 411!?
FalconShould there be a Law?
But the one thing I have learned is that any book that is even remotely controversial to the right-wings in this country is best read with a fake book sleeve covering it. Otherwise you will suffer an endless barrage of ignorance, prejudice and hate.
The same thing's true from the left-wingers.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Seems that they dont like external referrers there, a link copy should do.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Nah, neither of these titles would faze this admin, they don't know what either one is.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I thought Laura Bush was a teacher... Ah, she was both. After getting her BS in Education she taught, but then went back to college and got her MS in Library Science. Thanks, I didn't know that.
FalconShould there be a Law?
My question, to the Slashdotters of the US, when does it "become necessary"??? THAT is the real question.
It only becomes necessary to overthrow the government after using the first 3 boxes fail; the soapbox, ballot box, and the jury box. Once those have failed then the ammo box can be used.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Books are intellectual property, right?
Aren't they making illegal copies?
... are they watching us reading this article?
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
(In case you're new here and are actually reading this comment, NT means Nice Troll in this context)
"You are only young once, but you can be immature forever." -www.animemusicvideos.org
The shirt says "I will not submit" in Arabic (I guess) and in English.
The amusing thing is, pro-Iraq war groups promote this shirt, along with a similar one with "Infidel", presumably in this case the message is intended for Arabs.
Ironic really that it can apply equally well worn by anyone objecting to the oppressive violence from either side.
My mind is bombarded by the vision of officials wading through data rich with Krishna literature and "Atlas Shrugged".
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
...airline food and shoelaces"
/laughter/)"
With a big picture of an exploding airplane on the cover.
The book would have a lengthy introduction by Bruce Schneier on Security Theatre. Then, right after page CLXVII, the book proper would start:
"You can't. What are you, some kind of _moron_?"
Seriously. I got peeled off for the big customs rolldown after coming back from Europe one year. During the check, the guy pointed to my UK copy of Cryptonomicon, which features (what I assume) is a japanese Zero flying over a fireball in a shipyard. Customs guy says "Well you should expect it with a book like that".
And I wanted to say "It's about WWII. That's fucking _Perl Harbor_. If ever there was an example of why, exactly, you Do. Not. _Fuck._ with us, it's fucking Perl Harbor. We'll fucking _nuke_ your asses."
Security theater makes people who don't want to blow up planes (and aren't smart enough to do it anyway) believe that the people who do want to blow up planes (and are smart enough) will get caught. Even though no smart terrorist would walk on to a plane carrying "Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering volume IIV: Complex Organic Esthers, Polymers, and their Interactions" along with a 6v battery and a collection of very smelly "play-doh".
We should all wear shirts that say "I'm going to make this plane explode (with
I for one welcome our current overlords in the whitehouse. I am 100% backing the doctorines and policies of our current leaders in office, of whatever country I happen to be in at the moment. I despise all for which their political opponents stand for. My ideaoligies only change when crossing borders, or after elections/coup. :D
He got tased, for chrissakes. Yeah. Great freedom. Stay at a podium too long, get arrested. What world are YOU living in? Try talking to a Russian expatriate sometime about what you can get away with there vs. here. Or just go to my abuse of authority link collection and check out the state of things yourself.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Point noted even though you spoiled it by assuming everyone who's going the political track in public service is on the dole, and I'm certain that if I lobed a similar accusation to members of your profession. You'd be offended too.
This is why we need strict term limits and the elimination of ALL campaign contributions. If they can't accept dirty money, they're not indebted to corporate and private interests. I personally believe that it would solve 90% of the existing problems.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
You are assuming that the security guards know that. I don't think they do. Do you really think they know what the book is about (or care enough to find out, maybe reading the back cover or inside flap, etc)? They will see the word SATANIC and assume something is wrong with you.
Go hug some trees.
And by people who don't like HTML forms.
Rich
funny, but whats the rationale to have u = 2+1?
Free as in mason.
First, term limits are not a restriction on politicians, they are a restriction on people's freedom. If someone is doing a good job in office (difficult concept, I know!), why should we arbitrarily throw them out?
What we really need is a more expressive voting system, instead of common plurality voting. There are more than two points of view in any political system, yet we are stuck with a mere two parties because of it. Give people more freedom and implement Condorcet! The ballot box is the term limiter.
Second, politicians have to campaign, and if they don't get money from private interests, they'll have to get it from themselves (so we become a plutocracy) or they'll get it from government (and I don't think it's wise for government to be effectively choosing who its own successors will be if we want to maintain a democratic system).
Constitutionally Correct
Reduce the power of government, and you'll immediately reduce the number of people trying to "buy" it and the amount of money flowing around for that purpose.
Constitutionally Correct
Why do they need to campaign? Have every major network (ABC, CBS, FOX) carry a series of debates leading up to the elections. Newspapers and other news sources will pull their sound bites from the debates and people can make an informed decision. Campaign funding adds NOTHING to the process other than a back to scratch in future.
You'd trust the media to be completely faithful and honest gatekeepers between the citizenry and the politicos? Pretty soon you'd see legislation limiting press access to only those outlets favorable to incumbents, etc.
Make the candidates get out and work for votes, I say: travelling, shaking hands, kissing babies. Yeah, that's gonna take money. As flawed as that might be, I'd take the method that gives me "direct" interaction with a candidate than one that only allows media-filtered access.
Constitutionally Correct