http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjg8xNdkK5Y

Metal detectors have deterred some crimes. But, clearly, for those who want to, they can get around it. Getting box cutters on a plane was easy enough. There are still plenty of ways.

Getting involved in Middle East politics may have helped stabilize the region, but it has also helped feed anti-American feelings i.e. Iran hostages. It will continue to do so as we support various governments that are merely pretending to tolerate us. We just get hated in degrees by all sides. It’s not helping prevent terrorism. Perhaps, just the opposite. By making us a nice target for everyone’s unhappiness.

Is there any reason to put a tamper proof seal on a bottle of water? No. None. Waste of money and an annoyance. What about the glow in the dark handle inside the trunk of many cars now so you can open it from the inside? When were you last forced into your trunk at gunpoint? Anyone you know?

The fact that there has been no terrorism in the US since 9/11 is not because of great new security. If I had a mind to, I could blow up a lot of shit any day of the week. So could any anybody. Strap on a bomb and go to the mall. Come on! No, the answer is, there are just not many of them and they are very little threat. That goes for McVeigh types as well as bin Laden types. The threat is exaggerated. And it’s cost us billions. And it’s screwed up our sensibilities.

You cannot prevent it. Period. Not with these types of ways. You can ferret out the people making plans. But, taking off my shoes and everyone elses is not going to prevent terrorism. We will simply have to live with it and do what we can. Searching everyone’s shoes is not the answer. That’s just annoying. We can annoy everyone and take away our fredoms and out sense of freedom and be attacked. Or we can live life pretty much as we used to and be attacked.

I feel the same way about the $300,000 a year spent by our school to put a security guard in the building. He is not going to stop a kid from shooting up a classroom if they really want to. He is just wasting money we could spend on education and he is giving dullard parents a false sense of security. If anything, he might be the first one shot, or he may get to shoot the kid shooter after he takes out the teacher and a few bullies. He won’t stop anything. He is hurting our kids.

Nobody is even thinking about them, still. Everybody’s in their little, “I don’t believe in the boogeyman!” phase, and the world simply isn’t like that.

Freedom takes responsibility.

And even if we are responsible (which we aren’t) as a nation, we also cannot ignore the fact that a *gigantic* portion of US travel is by people of other nationalities who are “just passing through.” 

But if we *only* search them, oh, dear God, the Europeans would bitch and we’d be eating Freedom Fries again.

The man asked me if I knew why I was there while he begins searching my body for weapons. I said I had no idea since my pants were falling down having been forced to remove my belt. I thought I had thought of everything.

He said “you didn’t take off your shoes”. How was I supposed to know? There were no shoe removal mandatory signs. Then he detects metal in my wallet and rushes the thing off to be inspected. I’m thinking “Umm, I wanted to keep that….” Turns out I still had a spare key in my wallet.

We have gotten way out of whack in our fear of terrorism. What ever happened to “Face your fears”? Now we’re scared of everything. Stupid. I say let them board our planes and and try to terrorize us. See what we are made of. If they pick a plane full of cowards then the cowards get what they deserve. I want my freedom, you can keep your security.

I don’t think you can equate tamper-proof hysteria with terrorism-hysteria anyway: tamper-proof hysteria was a way to justify the extra cost of getting food & drugs as viable exports.

Terrorism hysteria is a wake up call. Get out in the world — even London. They have a hundred times more surveillance, a hundred times more crime and a solo American can get accosted pretty easily. Though you’re not likely to get “killed,” chances are pretty good you’ll get smacked around a lot if you walk around oblivious — even in that “First World” country.

And I certainly don’t think “that everyone is a dullard that needs to be lead around by the elite…”  On the contrary, I hope, on a good day, that if people start taking the “hysteria” a little more seriously, they’ll open their eyes and realize, “Oh, damn, the scale suddenly increased tenfold — maybe there’s something to all this stuff.”   Maybe then they’ll get a grip on the reality that the rest of the world DOES hate us, and can’t seperate “those people” from “that Government.”

We’ve been complacent for too long.  Nobody’s tried to invade.  Now … we’re rife for it, especially with half the “Elites” saying, “Oh, it’s not that bad!” and Academics claiming, “People are people, and we’re all basically good!”  That’s bullshit.

As far as the political aspects, I see it this way.

One side says, “Hey, you people are stupid, and can’t do anything without getting hurt! We need to take care of you by childproofing everything!”

The other side says, “Hey, you people can make your own damn decisions. We don’t need to get involved.”

The one side decries the other side, “Hey, those people that don’t give a damn about you, they keep bringup ‘family values.’ Buncha Bible Bangers!”

The other side says, “Hey, those people wanna run your lives, and making fun of your religion. Buncha Atheists!”

When it comes right down to it, one side will rule you with an iron fist and childproof your toilet paper given have a chance. The other side doesn’t care what you do — kill yourself, for all they care! — but don’t start interfering stuff.

That’s an unfortunate fact. Neither one cares.

Yet, people keep polarizing this stuff to the point that nobody can have a decent conversation without getting pissed off.

Academics have no clue.  Media just wants money.  Politicians want power.  That’s it.

Last time I had to take my shoes off to get on the plane…

My point is this. One man had a bomb in his shoe and so now, every person getting on every plane has to have their shoes examined. One person put poison in Tylenol in some town somewhere and now everything that comes in a bottle across the entire country has a seal on it. It’s an over-reaction. And it’s pointless in stopping what it aims at. In the case of the shoe bomber, well, maybe that won’t happen again, but what about the hat bomber? The belt bomber? In the case of the safety seal, that does nothing. If I take the seal off and poison something, will you know there used to be a seal there that is gone? Could you not glue the seal right back in place if you wanted? Sure! It only inhibits the unimaginitive. And it only gives a false sense of security to the dull.

If you want to argue that everyone is a dullard that needs to be lead around by the elite, okay. But, I’d rather some of the elite try talking sense. I’d like to see responses in proportion to reality.

Of course, you might get creative. Figure out some really annoying habit of the masses and sabotage it in some way so that there is a scare and people are forced to stop. Maybe we could figure out a flaw in cars that caused cell phones to explode when you drive and talk on them. We only need to find a couple of cases of it happening before all cell phone use in all cars would be banned. No, not banned. Technologically forced not to work. There would be a device in all cars to keep the cell phone from working. And we’d all pay to have it installed, to be “safe.” The government would require it.