And for some Humor...

Originally posted by Ripper
I am a for real TSA security screener at DFW airport. Some of the things we're doing are silly, such as taking tiny pocket knives, etc. The reason that it's silly, is because air travel changed on Sept. 11, 2001. The ability to hijack a plane with a knife, or anything unable to kill all the passengers on the plane, went down with the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.
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It may seem overzealous, but some of these things can be dangerous. A pencil can be used to kill, yes, a pencil, shoved through the nose or ear into the brain. But that's just silly.

Originally posted by Ripper
I, and other passengers like me, will not allow a plane I'm flying on to be taken over without a fight. I may get cut up, shot, or even killed, but you are not flying me into a building if I'm still alive. I would rather die fighting, than passively be herded to slaughter like a sheep. And there are others like me.........
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Hmmm, now that you mention it, this reminds me of a certain incident in Wing Commander. Small world, huh?

Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Hmm, but no one has hijacked any planes since this 'fake' security went into effect, right? For all the ranting about how it's all so stupid and how Mr. So-and-So once snuck a dangerous meally bug into a whojamajigg, there haven't actually been any more hijackings.
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There actually have been aeveral hijackings and hijacking attempts, all of which have thankfully ended peacefully.

Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Maybe the "illusion of security" is all you need to fool people who believe blowing themselves up is the best way towards career enhancement?
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How about this? A nice fat bonus for whoever finds a piece of contraband on a passenger. Like, say, what they would get paid in a week for finding someone with a knife or gun.

Speaking of airports, here's what it's like in Baghdad.

http://www.intellectualactivist.com...70&PHPSESSID=4377aa3f9030ab12be8fa5a6a263981c
 
BTW, I visit a local aviation shop regularly (once a week), and often just look around and talk to the proprietor (yes, the old-skool style of shops... but hey, it's near my work, so dropping by during lunch works). One recent talk was with someone who was going back home in a few hours, and thus doing some shopping.

(If you have to know, yes, they sell the regular pilot supplies, but most of the store is taken up with die-cast models).

He made a mention about wanting to buy a couple of model jets, but his difficulty was well... he couldn't bring the damned thing on the plane! And he couldn't check it in (soft-bag)... I think in the end he had it wrapped up with lots of stuffing so he could check it in, but man... die cast planes are a hazard as well (I suppose you could throw them to knock someone out, but these tend to be made of softer metal)

The only real security I guess we'll get on airplanes is if we're forced to strip naked, put the clothes in a bag that's tossed in the cargo hold, and sit in the seat for the entire flight (well, we can probably get hospital-type paper gowns). And with seatbelts that can only be released by the flight attendants. Longer flights I guess will be supplied bottles if you have to go... although honestly, air travel isn't worth it anymore - it's often far less hassle if you can drive, take a train or take a bus to get to your destination.
 
Originally posted by Phillip Tanaka
It may seem overzealous, but some of these things can be dangerous. A pencil can be used to kill, yes, a pencil, shoved through the nose or ear into the brain. But that's just silly.
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But we're not taking pencils. Or pens. Or Gramma's knitting needles. Or aluminum soft drink cans. Or boots. Or Chuck Norris' hands and feet. Or stinking cell phone charger cords that can be used as garrotes. Or bootlaces. Or whole bunches of stuff that can be used as weapons of opportunity.
 
No, of course not. TOYS, they're actually called in a self defence book I read, Tools Of Your Surroundings, you'd be hard pressed to make these contraband. But that was the big fear, that terrorists would use things like box cutters and the like that they can sneak past security. But on the other hand, the world is so incensed with terrorism that it would be a safe bet that passengers on board would fight back, even if it meant their deaths, like those on Flight 93 did with the threat of a bomb.
 
Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Hmm, but no one has hijacked any planes since this 'fake' security went into effect, right? For all the ranting about how it's all so stupid and how Mr. So-and-So once snuck a dangerous meally bug into a whojamajigg, there haven't actually been any more hijackings. Maybe the "illusion of security" is all you need to fool people who believe blowing themselves up is the best way towards career enhancement?
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Career-Enhancement? How can blowing yourself up have any career-enhancement? To do so would end your life, and any hope of continuing a job...

-Concordia
 
Originally posted by Concordia
Career-Enhancement? How can blowing yourself up have any career-enhancement? To do so would end your life, and any hope of continuing a job...
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So, what exactly do you take to become IMMUNE TO SARCASM?
 
Originally posted by Ripper
But we're not taking pencils. Or pens. Or Gramma's knitting needles. Or aluminum soft drink cans. Or boots. Or Chuck Norris' hands and feet. Or stinking cell phone charger cords that can be used as garrotes. Or bootlaces. Or whole bunches of stuff that can be used as weapons of opportunity.
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Yeah. I think that the really stupid thing that these security people are overlooking is that any halfway competent martial artist is more dangerous barehanded than the average idiot with a pocketknife. Even if you made the passengers strip off all their clothes and wear airline-provided smocks and didn't give them ANY loose items in the cabin to use, it's still quite easy for a would-be hijacker to grab somebody's throat and threaten to snap their neck.
 
Yeah. I think that the really stupid thing that these security people are overlooking is that any halfway competent martial artist is more dangerous barehanded than the average idiot with a pocketknife.
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Well, you can't stop someone from boarding a plane just because they're THE GOLD NINJA. That's ethnic profiling.
 
Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Well, you can't stop someone from boarding a plane just because they're THE GOLD NINJA. That's ethnic profiling.
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True, but my real point was that somebody who wants to be dangerous doesn't need to have weapons in order to be a threat.
 
Yeah, take most of the people on Usenet for example. They're dangerously stupid.
 
Originally posted by Ghost
Maybe his Sarcasm-o-meter is broken!
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Someone broke mine at some point a couple of years ago... I can't quite remember who it was... possibly Meson?
 
Originally posted by Phillip Tanaka
But on the other hand, the world is so incensed with terrorism that it would be a safe bet that passengers on board would fight back, even if it meant their deaths, like those on Flight 93 did with the threat of a bomb.
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"Fuckin' A, Bubba." Gus Grissom, The Right Stuff.
 
It's not the "Career" part that's enhancing. You see, everyone who's intelligent realizes that blowing yourself up is *NOT* the way to promote your cause. However, the people that do aren't rational, and are doing it for either glory/martyrdom, or money for their families.

You can't argue with irrational people. It's impossible.

As for martyrdom, they believe in dying for their cause (see irrational), in the belief that more people will follow their cause because of it. But money is also a good one - after all, $20,000 is a lot of money to an Iraqi civillian, as in "set for life".

Just like Saddam (is he dead? If not, he looks too good for a guy in the mid-60s!) and all his doubles. Having a son that looks like Saddam is a godsend to the family - it means a step up from the dreary life most Iraqis were in. You know, we ought to get the guy who did Saddam's surgery. Turn a mid-60's person into a person in the mid 40's...

Anyhow, we should all stuff 'em into planes that are being decomissioned and fly them around the ocean in circles. We can make a nice game out of it - "Will it blow up, or will it crash and sink into the ocean?". Would make an interesting TV show... and we can stuff like a dozen of them in there who believe in different causes... oh what fun! (for the humor impaired, this paragraph is to instill some levity into an otherwise deadpan serious post).

Originally posted by Concordia
Career-Enhancement? How can blowing yourself up have any career-enhancement? To do so would end your life, and any hope of continuing a job...

-Concordia
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Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
So, what exactly do you take to become IMMUNE TO SARCASM?
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It is indeed a great problem. People don't seem to grasp the concept of sarcasm.
 
Originally posted by Worf

As for martyrdom, they believe in dying for their cause (see irrational), in the belief that more people will follow their cause because of it. But money is also a good one - after all, $20,000 is a lot of money to an Iraqi civillian, as in "set for life".
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more often than not, the bombers are strongly religious, where heaven is a beautiful place, where there will be seven virgin brides, and their whole family will be there to greet them... (or something very close to that).

some groups then use this to convice them that by killing themselves is the best way to get into heaven.
 
Originally posted by Rostek
more often than not, the bombers are strongly religious, where heaven is a beautiful place, where there will be seven virgin brides... (or something very close to that).

some groups then use this to convice them that by killing themselves is the best way to get into heaven.
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Actually, they are told that they will be able to have sex eternally with 72 (each!) dark-haired virgins in paradise.

The Koran itself admits no *sure* way to get to heaven/paradise except to die in jihad, or holy war. The only other way to get there is if Allah decides to arbitrarily grant you forgiveness and entrance into paradise. So, they spend their whole lives wondering if/hoping that (as does a good part of the rest of humanity who *aren't* Muslims) God/Allah will decide that their "good" deeds outweigh their "bad" deeds done in this life, and decides to let 'em in. Unfortunately, such a tenuous and false theology can lend itself to desperate measures on the part of its adherents. Me, I prefer true theology, which this system knows nothing about.

Anyway, thus do the extremists use this sole "guarantee" to brainwash the susceptible to do their bidding, and we have the rise of Al-Quaeda, Bin Laden, Hezbollah, et al.

Sad, really... :(
 
Not that it matters, since we're all going to hell anyhow. After all, there are many religions out there, and a number of them state the only way to heaven is to be a part of their religion. Thus, we're all going to hell. QED.

Of course, if you consider the fact that what we call "civilization" is a PC term for what we really do ("eat, sleep, procreate"), it's also easily demonstrated that the way to gather a following is to make it easier to do those things. (And yes, everyone more or less suffers from it - whether it's religious fanatics sleeping better because they know they're going to heaven, to suicide bombers doing it for the money ("eat"), to the Western world being somewhat preoccupied with money and/or sex (Viagra, anyone?)). Yes, everyone, even the rich, and intelligent (the rich have the Scientology cult), the intelligent well...).
 
Originally posted by Preacher
Actually, they are told that they will be able to have sex eternally with 72 (each!) dark-haired virgins in paradise.
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Well you'd think that after two or three of them they'd be saying "ah, c'mon, bring on someone who knows what they're doing." :p :p :p :p :p
 
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