The Terrorist That is Harry Potter

[thegayhare]

Harry Potter A Terrorist?

British author J. K. Rowling says she won an argument with airport security officials in New York to carry the manuscript of the final "Harry Potter" book as carryon baggage.

Had security agents not relented, she said on her Web site, she might not have flown, she said in a posting.

"I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't — sailed home probably," she wrote.

The author had participated in a book reading for charity on Aug. 1 with fellow writers Stephen King and John Irving. Security was drastically tightened after Aug. 10 when British police said they had intercepted a plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners.

"The heightened security restrictions on the airlines made the journey back from New York interesting, as I refused to be parted from the manuscript of book seven.

"A large part of it is handwritten and there was no copy of anything I had done while in the U.S."

Eventually, she added, "They let me take it on, thankfully, bound up in elastic bands."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

yay for making life harder, whilst not actually any more secure.

DHS makes me wonder if they've done -anything- for actually making flying on a plane any safer or more secure...

[Rowne]

I don't know how many people think the way I do but terrorist, a long time ago, actually meant more to me along the lines of some person or group who'd create terror.  Now whenever I see the word terrorist, most of the time my mind aligns it to 'corrupt administration or beauracracy using the buzzword of the day to get away with whatever they like'.  I'd say that the ongoing restrictions and removal of rights are creating more "fear" in the people than the actual terrorists ever could.

In this way, the terrorists themselves have already won.  In spades.

I appreciate the irony.

[Tapewolf]

I don't know how many people think the way I do but terrorist, a long time ago, actually meant more to me along the lines of some person or group who'd create terror.

Indeed.  Communism used to be the in-thing, now it's terrorism.

I was going to point out that the increased restrictions have most likely had a detrimental effect if anything, but you've almost done that for me.

[Zedd]

That sounds hard

[GabrielsThoughts]

Yeah, well the American government  is slowly desensitizing its Citizens for when they finally drop the boot on us.

[bill]

Which is going to have to happen fast, given the rapidly approaching midterm elections.

[Vidar]

Don't you know that the Harry Potter books are the work of the Devil? 
All you heathen sinners should go to every bookstore you can find right now, and burn every Harry Potter book you can find, just like they burn the evil satanic checker board at then end of this chick tract! 


BTW. If you take this post seriously, go get your brain examined. 

Also, if the next US president is going to be as big a lying, scheming buttmonkey as the current one, Europe is not going to be happy at all. The whole 'secret foreign anti-terrorist prison camps' thing the european union was not informed off put a really big dent in the trustworthyness off the USA. See if we help this president out again, if he invades another country. 

[bill]

Europe has it's own issues right now, with Islamic folk going nuts over the Pope. For the record, it must be said that I can't think of a more glamourous job than being the Pope. Seriously, can you one-up "Yeah? Well, I'm the Pope. B*tch."?

[Rowne]

Indeed.  Communism used to be the in-thing, now it's terrorism.

I'm actually glad that the Western World (primarily America) isn't yelling 'Commie' anymore because to be honest, that made me twitch.

They did it, why?  Well, Russians were supposedly communists.  I didn't see them as communists, they pretty much ran a corporate state, almost capitalist with everything state-controlled.  It sure as hell wasn't communism.  It wasn't really though because people honestly believed the Russians did practice communism, it seemed to be just a slur towards Russia in general and that's bad.  Very bad.  The whole commie thing was just so wrong on so many levels.  It pains me to remember it, to be honest.

I didn't mean to go off on a rant but that's something I tend to feel passionate about.  It just seems that there are some people who'll put their complete hate into whatever buzzword their state comes up with.  Yesterday it was commies (grossly inaccurate), today it's terrorists.

Whilst I don't agree with the actions of terrorists (at all), it's exactly as you've said, the nations of the Western World are just making things worse, not better.  It'll bring about mass hysteria eventually, I'd think.

It's that kind of thing that scares me because I see a new World War in it, people can only be pushed so far before revolution ensues.

(Edit: Oops, errant quote tags.)

Bill: I'm King Arthur, King of the Britons.  Back from the dead to save Queen and Country!  Aside from that, no.  No I can't.

[bill]

The cold war, however, spawned McCarthyist humor, which I happen to be a fan of.

[Rowne]

The cold war, however, spawned McCarthyist humor, which I happen to be a fan of.

Actually, so am I.  As satire, at least.  The Japanese Beetle did plenty of that, some of their strips had me giggling helplessly.  Especially their skit about the elections, I'll never forget that.  Oh Japanese Beetle, how I miss thee.

[bill]

Ahh, MST3K.


(Work saftey instruction video)


Narrator: "There, however, is a larger story behind most work accidents."
T.S.: "Communism."

[LigerJet]

I think this occurence was more the fault of idiot airport security than any actual policy.

[Rowne]

That might be but under normal circumstances that wouldn't be acceptable behaviour, would it?  The customer would complain about bad service and harrasment by the company and the idiot responsible would be sacked for not knowing policy better.

However, in this case I'd imagine that instead the line would be "Better safe than sorry." since it is national security they're talking about and all, the customer can't really complain if security is doing all it can to keep their passengers safe and secure and that this is an ideology supported fully by the Government.  Et cetera, et cetera.

My point is that different circumstances yield different results and I'd bet that such idiots are getting away with a lot more mistakes now than they could normally under the guise of security.  If this paranoia wasn't there, then they'd have no excuse to abuse.  As it is, they do.  And they most likely will.

[LigerJet]

She did complain and they fixed it.  Sometimes mistakes happen.  Sometimes people have stupid moments.

[bill]

Actually, rather than the "paranoia" line, I'd think the rationale behind this was to follow protocol and proper procedures no matter what.

[LigerJet]

But stacks of written on paper aren't banned.  Is it possible that this was security hired by the airline?  I'm not sure if airlines hire their own security or not...I've never actually flown on an airline.
No, I'm not trying to white-wash what was going on.  I'm just playing devil's advocate.

[Brunhidden]

ask yourself if theyd stop someone who was carrying a copy of 'Mein Kampf', the koran, or sun tsu's 'the art of war'.

okay, i can almost understand when certan people fly off the handle and think that anything in any way related to pagans, norse runes, languages from far away or long ago, goats in any form, and a good dozzen random animals MUST be in some way satanic. but when they think that waving a stick ans speaking PIG LATIN is satanic i loose all faith in whoever is the spokespeople for modern religion.

really, how many people whove read it even notise that a family in england (one of the countries thought to have been 'civilised' the longest) treats a member of thier own family in a way that even hairy people in loincloths and painted faces would consider barbaric and cruel? did anyone really even notise that the level of escapeisim the books offer is roughly on par with taking a hit on a bong and completely forgetting that your going to be analy raped by the IRS, your boss, fifty in laws, and the royal canadian mounties in about five minutes?

nah, people mostly either fantasize about turning people they dont like into newts, think its satanic, or write shouen ai about professor snape. (eeegh, the pictures *shudder*)

under this logic, yes, i can see how it would be banned on an airplane. its somewhat more dangerous then toenail clippers AND hand sanatiser combined, and we all know that you can blow up a whole city with those.



however this does remind me of several years ago, my sister and i had a bit of an argument. she is a teacher for the emotionally disturbed, mostly autistic children, and was a strong supporter of harry potter books as a form of young adult literature. despite many many years in college and being quite literate herself she never read LOTR, which is okay sinse i never really read HP either, and when i claimed that harry potter was just a kids book she didnt believe me.

later that week she rented the felowship of the ring, and the same day she saw it she immediately drove over to my house, litterally ran to the garden i was working in (if you must know, i was picking zuchini. someone we know makes salsa out of it for reasons beyond my knowledge), grabbed me by the shirt and DEMANDED i let her borrow my copy of the lord of the rings books cause she couldnt wait for 2 and 3

i can only imagine the concequences if spider robinson, terry brooks, or larry niven make a big comeback

In this particular lybrary the books were chained to the shelves. while this was a common practice in some lybraries to prevent people from harming particularly old books, here it was to prevent the books from harming the people or possibly escaping into the wild

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Terry Brooks hasn't?

Spider Robinson is difficult to get over the the antipodes. Larry Niven was fairly easy to get, however his ouvre is less easy to get into than, say, Mr Brooks.

.. admittedly Mr Brooks is more for teenagers than otherwise. At least mentally teenagers...

[Nikki]

let me get this straight... they stopped J.K. from boarding because of paper?

How the hell can you use paper to blow up an airplane? WTF!?

[Damaris]

just a minor quibble- Harry Potter was never meant to be a kids book.  It was marketed that way because the publishing house thought it would do better.  She really intended them for adult consumption.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Xze-Xze: "Let me into the cabin or I'll slice this stewardess's throat with this awe-inspiring, hugely lethal, threatening, small bent piece of paper."

... I'm not entirely sure if the folks at security have a sense of humour or not.

[thegayhare]

*strikes  a martial arts pose, his lips out of sync with his words*
"Ha Ha, prepare to face the death of a thousand paper cuts"

[Zedd]

   PAPERCUTS!

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Want some lemon juice? :-)

[Brunhidden]

llearch n'n'daCorna, you actually read all three of those guys? wow

YOU NEED BRUNHIGGIES! *tackle*


yah, every kid and thier power ranger doll has read JK rowling, about half the country has to have read LOTR by now (yet when people ask where we got the name 'eowyn' everyone gives us blank stares when we tell them), and a dozzen other authors pretty much rule the bestsellers list.

but those three? a blast from the past man

spider robinson- the man who believes that all the worlds problems can be solved by sex, drugs, and FOLK MUSIC and a great number of his books involve the world being saved by a specific bar full-o-drunks which have reached an advanced state of enlightened stupor

larry niven- the tolkien of sci-fi, its errie how much sense his books make. in fact, we NEED some of the stuff he fortold back in the 70s and 80s, most notably the fertility board, autodocs, and boosterspice. why dont we have it? theyre all completely within our ability and would save us so many headaches

terry brooks- the man who started it all, he got his start from reading tolkien, but tolkien was never on the best seller list untill 'the sword of shanara' became the first fiction book to be the #1 bestseller and made fantasy mainstream. his visions of a future which looks like a past and making magic something both real and simple ring with a little too much truth



its sad that people now are only reading if its a fad of some sort, completely missing out on the challenge to dig through half a used bookstore or creep through the dusty parts of a lybrary to find JUST the right author

harry potter not for you? feel bad that all the critics and kids are raving about something you couldnt care less about? find your own book, and start raving to others about how good or throught provoking it is

conforming as a form of expression? i dont get it, and that book probably should be banned from the airplane for the sheer reason its crushing other good books that nobody cares about anymore, and starving a few dozzen good authors

While its generally considered true that an artist must first suffer before they can create something truly worthwhile, hitting yourself on the forehead and refraining from deserts probably dosent count as 'suffering'

[thegayhare]

Ohh I love reading

I'll admit I'm a harry potter fan

but I read  the hobbit when I was 7... I still have that creased, folded paperback.

And I'm with you on the pleasure of digging threw a stack of used books for that one that'll leap out at you

I love finding the weird little books no ones ever heard of before

[King Of Hearts]

Small bombs can be hidden in stacks of paper, my uncle used to have a faux bible with its inside pages carved out as a gun case. Way I remember it a pack of C4 would fit just as well.

Also, it must be noted that there are more to being a terrorist than blowing stuff up. Subversive documents, coded plans, propaganda material, all these or more can be just as powerful a tool in the cause of terrorists.

[thegayhare]

Also, it must be noted that there are more to being a terrorist than blowing stuff up. Subversive documents, coded plans, propaganda material, all these or more can be just as powerful a tool in the cause of terrorists.

and all of those would be useless in a plane.  there would be no reason for those sorts of documents to be carried on your person.  It would be easier to simply stash that in your checked luggage