Comments on: Don’t Drop Your Bookmark in the Shower

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 02:14:20 +0000

Oh and since you mention the rule of law – that was what our elected officials did by creating the TSA and defining thier charter. As to enforcement – they are human (well I think most of them are), and they make mistakes. And if you think this is bad – try reading the Patriot Act – that is a very scary piece of legislation. I guarantee that you will consider that maybe we have moved a bit closer a big brother type state…

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 02:07:49 +0000

I am sorry if you feel that way Liz, but this is the state of affairs since some clowns used pocket knives (which by definition was anything up to and including a 3 inch blade) to crash some very large planes into buildings. The simple fact is that these folks work pretty hard and when they screw up its all over the news, but if they do thier job – you hear nothing. I will be honest and say I am pretty liberal in my views (which I won’t defend here and simply say I didn’t vote for the current set of elected officials), and say that until there comes a time where we can guarantee that I can get on a plane/bus/transportation device and ensure that some whacko is not on there with a grudge or whatever – I am willing to sacrifice my “right” to carry those items.

By: liz

liz — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 23:55:47 +0000

Thanks for the referral.

Tim, this is the United States — rule of law, not of men, Constitution, elections, the whole nine yards. I don’t give a RA what they do in some authoritarian states. And the size of the weapon? Boy, you are d-e-a-d if shot with a .22 in the correct place. The big guns are just intimidation of the citizenry.

And the pocket knife? Why in the name of the Goddess of the Waves should citizens have to surrender everyday tools in the name of security theater?

The woman in question had to pay a heavy fine for an object that would not have been questioned elsewhere. I thought the point of a federal law was uniformity of enforcement.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 22:00:13 +0000

I don’t know but you would be surprised as to what security is like in other countries. Our security has improved immensely and compared to those other places we are still soft. Lets face it – we don’t have armed (and by armed I mean large caliber assault rifles) guards patrolling the airports. The funny part is that these folks see thousands and thousands of travellers a day – I have been in some busy airports and I think they work pretty hard. Yet I still see large numbers of folks that think its perfectly okay to carry a pocket knife through security – those are yahoos…

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:37:14 +0000

the scifi reference is that the airport screener keeps us safer…

By: John

John — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:11:37 +0000

D’oh! I forgot to mention the sf reference! (Lest I be accused of posting something non-sf )

This topic reminds me of the excellent Bruce Sterling story “In Paradise”

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:08:47 +0000

don’t even get me started on airport screeners — putting our security in the hands of those “highly-trained,” “highly-paid,” yahoos? is it just me, or does anyone else not feel any safer. i mean, i swear they’re just going through the motions at times…