The Terrorist That is Harry Potter

[Rowne]

That's exactly how I felt, hare.

I did drop out of this though primarily because when security is involved, logic isn't always something that's at the forefront of the human pysche and I've never liked irrational bouts of insecurity.  Today they're worried about small piles of paper, what next?

I'm telling you, before long it's going to come down to complete cavity searches.  They don't think a terrorist would stash something in certain bodily crevices?  Oh, they would.  So that means a rubber-gloved security officer must de-pantsu and fondle every would be passenger!  It's not happening yet but I bet it will.

After all, if we're not going to do cavity checks for small objects, why bother to search bundles of paper for them?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Brun: Yes, I read all three of those.

Some 12+ years ago, no less.

*shrug* I have, back in NZ, something like 300 or so books waiting for me to get back to them. I can probably provide a list of most of them, if you want.

Oh, and this is a list of the books I've read this year. Last year, something like 160+, that I recorded. This year is going slower, probably because I'm reading the forum instead... :-)

[Damaris]

Oh, Rowne hon.  They've already been doing that.

At least a year ago, they caught women trying to smuggle explosives on a plane by utilizing a very *ahem* sensative area.

[Rowne]

I think it's officially time for ...



It's all so absurd.  It really is.

[EvilIguana966]

The airport security has surpassed the point of absurd and entered the realm of ludicrous.  The question is just what can't be used as a weapon in some way or another.  The answer, as always, is not to keep adding more layers of annoyance to our domestic lives but to tackle the problem as close to the source as possible.  In other words, blow them up first. 

[Vidar]

If Bruce Lee was still alive today, would airport security try to confiscate his arms and legs? I'm pretty sure those could do more damage then any Harry Potter book. 

[bill]

No, Bruce Lee is cool, and would be allowed to skip the line.

[Rowne]

Of course, the only thing they could do with a human weapon such as Mr. Lee is temporarily disable it.

I can see it now, the year is 2050 and people are being sorted into pens so they can be injected with drugs that will knock them out for the appropriate duration of their flights.  They are then sorted once again and stuffed into crates with some kind of airflow support system and sealed in.  Only then are they allowed on a plane.

This is because any conscious human is a dangerous entity and one that shouldn't be allowed to travel through the air.

It'll happen, you'll see!  And they'd do it to Bruce Lee, too.

[Zedd]

I'll have to make sure i have iron skin or super abilty hold my breath for a long time

[Rowne]

And when they get bored of that?  Forced stasis!  We might not have the tech yet but as soon as we do ... you'll see.  They'll be shipping us around in fridges.

I've never had a high opinion of any state though, it's all the crap they've pulled in the past, to be honest and the crap they keep pulling.  That's why I find myself leaning towards anarchistic views.  If that kind of society could really work, I'd jump on that bandwagon right away.

[Hilary]

I've never had a high opinion of any state though, it's all the crap they've pulled in the past, to be honest and the crap they keep pulling.  That's why I find myself leaning towards anarchistic views.  If that kind of society could really work, I'd jump on that bandwagon right away.

I agree. I wish we could just start over, no countries or anything... one big happy sharing family.

Aren't I funny?

Blast from the past.

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

My mom's a librarian... there is no dusty part of that place that has not been explored by me. They had a huge, dimly lit back room filled with stacks of old books that were too old and worn to keep on the shelves for patrons, covers falling off and such. I'd just sit in there and read... it was great.

[Anara]

oooh! I love finding old books to read in librarys although I'm so picky that I rarely find one that I want to check out. Has anyone every read the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons? I love his writing.

With regards to airport security; good grief! I've been on looooong plane flights before and I don't know how I would have survived without books and my gameboy. I'm planning to go to Germany next year which is a 13 hour flight and if they don't let me take at least a book or two on the plane I'll go crazy with boredom! Do they expect people to just sit in their seats and do nothing for the whole flight?

[Alondro]

Anarchy would be a complete failure.  It would quickly descend to absolute chaos and inevitably lead to biosphere collapse as everyone fought to get the most resources for themselves; unles of course if you wiped out 90% of the Earth's population first to get the numbers of humans down to a reasonable level.   

The whole problem with airline security is the political correctness.  Yes, 99% of the terrorists who've either tried of succeeded in carrying out attacks are Arab males between the ages of 18-45, but we're still going to strip-search 88-year old white ladies from Alabama because we mustn't use racial profiling!  That is what we call 'stupidity'.

Oh, and for all those ranting about over-reacting to terrorism, you've obviously forgotten a little chapter in history called World War II, in which Franklin Roosevelt had virtually every person of Japanese descent put into internment camps after the attack of Pearl Harbor.  That was just a wee bit more extreme a reaction than this case, and certainly racist.  Radical Islamic extremists declared war on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.  They have declared war on every country's independence and rights since then with their violent outbursts every time they feel offended.  They have declared war on Israel with multiple declarations that it should be wiped off the face of the map. 

It's time to stop this pandering to the so-called enlightened intellectuals, who sit back in their universities and mansions and never touch the real world, and realize that there is a group of people out there who subscribe to a fanatical religious belief that they must bring about Armageddon to bring back the 12th Mullah and Jesus' return.  It is a splinter sect of Islam so violent and savage that all other Muslims are terrified of them because they do not hesitate to use any means to exterminate anyone who does not obey their interpretation of Islamic law.  The current president of Iran is a member of this group.

This is nothing like the Communist fear nonsense, in which two conflicting systems of government were vying for the top position.  This is a conflict in which one side wishes to eradicate everyone who isn't like them and who won't obey them.  Many of their group have said this openly, or did I misinterpret the Iranians dancing and cheering in the streets after the Trade Towers fell?  Or the radical Islamist in a Midwestern state who said, "It's too bad they didn't kill more."?  Get your heads out of the sand and start seeing what we're dealing with.  You're all so worried about Bush and conspiracies and V for Vendetta as a model of our future under Conservativism.  Well how the hell do you think it will be if radical Islam takes control?  Where all females will be forced to cover their faces or be stoned, shot, beaten to death.  Where education will be restricted to only the upper eschelons of pure Islamic blood and the rest will be programmed from childhood to serve.  Where every other belief, every other opinion, every attempt to protest will be exterminated savagely.  Where homosexuals will be executed without question.  Where wives have their faces doused with sulfuric acid if the husband even thinks she might be cheating on him and then faces no reprisal, for women are considered little better than possessions.

That is the model of radical Islam.  That is what they do.  That is what they have done over and over in the countries where they've seized control.

And people think they can be reasoned with.  Well, self-delusion knows no bounds.