Y’know, John at AmericaBlog is right — these two pieces prove beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt that the so-called ‘authorities’, the government that claims to be keeping Americans safe from terrorist attack, in fact have no such desire or agenda.
Item #1:
How can they give the confiscated airport items to the homeless if they don’t know if they’re explosives or not?
by John in DC – 8/12/2006 12:04:00 AM
I’m talking about the new things they’re confiscating at the airport. They say the products are unopened, but they’re giving them to the homeless in Phoenix. Okay, then how do you know they’re not explosives that you’re handing to the homeless, since you haven’t opened them? Apparently, the airport people, in Phoenix at least, know quite well that the stuff they took off of the passengers in line were not explosives. So why did they take it in the first place?
(snip)
And Item #2:
More evidence that this Red Alert is a wee bit suspect
by John in DC – 8/11/2006 08:22:00 AM
Check out the photo below. Yes, Ma’am, we think you might have highly explosive liquids in your possession that could kill thousands of Americans and blow up an entire airplane. So please pour the liquid out in front of these hundreds of passengers, including that small baby just three feet behind you, and into this large bucket mixed with all sorts of other unknown and possibly explosive (and reactive) liquids, including alcohol, peroxide, acids, and more. Yeah, that would be the smart way to dispose of suspected terrorist explosives.
These guys are either lying to us, or criminally negligent morons. But this is coming off as bad as the duct tape fiasco.
(snip)
Look, anybody with a brain could not POSSIBLY be so stupid as to think they’re actually accomplishing anything by confiscating all liquids, gels, and who knows what else. If they honestly thought they were likely to catch anyone, they would NOT be having people dump it all into common containers, in front of hundreds of others. Nor would they be giving it to the homeless or selling it on eBay, as some of these airports have been doing with other confiscated items.
Seriously — there’s bureaucratic ineptitude and blindness. But nobody is this breathtakingly tree-stump stupid.
There are plenty of catastrophes waiting to happen — or to be made to happen by some terrorist — than getting something bad onto a plane.
No, this is all about symbols. This has NOTHING to do with making those passengers safer. It has EVERYTHING to do with a government desperate to look like it’s actually trying to keep them safer — and so it’s easy to say, "Hey, just give up a little more freedom. That makes you feel safer, right? Lose your property, your expensive perfumes, your cosmetics, your toothpaste and mineral water. Make the torture of flying long distance even worse, by denying you little comforts like computers and MP3 players."
It’s all about symbols, and for some reason, the U.S. government — run by the out-of-control Republican fascists — seems to think that by tightening the screws a little more, they’ll get that empty Fear reservoir to squirt just one more jolt of adrenaline and stomach acid into the American psyche.
Sorry guys. You lost me a long time ago with the phony terror alerts, each one curiously timed to coincide with political needs. Each time, a few more Americans — and other world citizens — wise up to your pathetic attempts to cover lies with more lies.
As John points out, you don’t go dumping potential explosives into a barrel in front of hundreds of people unless YOU ARE JUST ABOUT 100% SURE YOU’LL NEVER GET ANY! And you sure as hell don’t go giving unopened items away or sell them unless you knew all along there never was any danger from that tube of lip gloss.
Meanwhile, cargo still isn’t inspected. Why? Because the cargo shippers and other big companies — which give tons of money to the GOP — wouldn’t like the inconvenience and expense. Mostly, it’s about the money.
But hey, make people waste time taking their shoes off? Take their totally harmless belongings? Do pat-down searches on 3 year olds and 90 year olds? Sure, why not.
They’re only people.
Sheesh. (rant off… and no, I’m not going to get back in the habit of political commentary from the ashram here. But this one really cheesed me. I am simply floored by the cynicism of those who would enact these kinds of brain-dead policies…and for the sheeple who go along with it. Time to say "ENOUGH!")
At anytime there 250 passengers in a plane and about 1000 people near a gate.
There are so many simple ways to bring a plane down or so many smarter ways to make them safe without hurting passengers or airline business.