Re: Friday's warning

[Jacob E Boucher <jbuchr@xxxxxx>]

On Wed, 12 Sep 2001, Gareth Livergood wrote:
<SNIP agreeable knife stuff>

Too true.  While I'd never try to fly with my Gerber LST clipped to my
pocket (blade about 2.5" long, lockback, composite handle) a Swiss Army
knife, Leatherman, or other "utility" knives are carried every day by
millions of people in the technical world.  Half the computer people I
know use them on a daily basis.  And yet, they're just as lethal as my
Gerber in a pinch.

And while it is true that American air security is lax compared to
European and Asian countries, it is also true that the US didn't suffer
from airborne terrorism for many years, and most US airport security
focuses on drug trafficing intervention.  If you don't have a duffel bag
full of coke, you're probably not going to arouse a lot of suspicion.
This *is* the world's melting pot, remember.  Scruffy-looking,
swarthy-skinned Arabs and Persians ride our planes every year...because
they're American citizens, just like any blue-eyed, blonde-haired cornfed
boy form Kansas.  After a while, an airport security official just isn't
going to suspect anything when someone of Middle Eastern descent walks
through - they see it every day.  Heck, looking at my old senior-year
college photo, *I* look like a terrorist, and I'm french-canadian.

Not to mention that Americans *demand* freedom.  We hate getting pulled
over for speeding tickets, even when speeders kill thousands every year.
We hate Saturday-night sobriety checkpoints, even when drunk drivers kill
thousands every year.  And we hate being hasseled by airport security
guards just trying to do their thankless jobs, but once something like
this happens, we cry out for them to be fired.  Before now, I highly doubt
there would be any way Americans would tolerate a level of security found
in foreign airports, when a lot of Americans think giving police officers
submachine-guns in their trunks is one small step away from America
becoming a facist police state.

Hmmm, can't think of anything else at the moment.

Jacob.

-- 
Jacob E. Boucher
PAGE OF THE DAY: If You Run, You'll Only Die Tired... 
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