🚀 go-pugleaf

Julian Macassey  <julian@tele.com> writes:

> The difference between you and I is that I have travelled
> in these areas and you haven't. If I am in denial, it might be
> because I have experienced more than Fox News.

Ad hominem.  If you can't stay on topic and address what I said 
on its merits, and must instead resort to petty dicksizing about
who's traveled more than whom, you might as well hang it up right
now.  You haven't got much of a case. 

Having traveled to far and exotic lands doesn't give you any
special insight as to airline security.  It's a pity that there's
no way for you to retroactively exchange some of your "world 
traveler" capital for critical reasoning skills.  You'd find the 
latter far more useful and compelling in the arena of debate.


> The Enlightenment. Glad you asked.

That was a period of history, not a legal document. 


> Just how much ice would they [have] used?

Enough to do the job.  If you're expecting an answer in terms
of pounds or kilos, I have no idea.


> It seems you are also in danger at baggage claim, etc.  etc. etc.

You mean like this?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lod_Airport_Massacre

But I'm not terribly concerned about that sort of thing, since
it's much more glamorous and theatrical to bring down an airplane
than it is to attack a building.  It packs a greater psychological
wallop because of passengers' inability to escape, and so terrorists
would get more "bang for their buck," as it were.  That's why they
focus on commercial aircraft instead of more mundane targets such as,
say, bus stations.


> But, I don't live in fear.

Nor do I.  In the bargain, I'm also not willfully ignorant of reality.
I wish airport security weren't necessary.  I don't like the indignity
of being searched prior to getting onto an airplane, or the increasing
restictions about what I can bring on bored, any more than you do. 
But it *is* necessary, and I've long since come to terms with that.

You remind me of my father.  He pines for the halcyon days when it
was possible to go away all day and leave one's house unlocked, go
into a downtown shop and leave the car parked at the curb with the
keys in the ignition, etc.  All that changed in the Sixties, he says,
when the hippies started coming down from the mountains (he lives in 
Los Gatos) and breaking into people's houses.

So he deals with the fact that things are different now by being 
passive-aggressive.  He doesn't like the fact that things have 
changed, and so he simply goes into denial and pretends that they
haven't, becoming visibly angry at the mere mention of any basic,
common-sense form of physical security.  I see the same sort of
response with you when it comes to the increased levels of security
that are a result of the war on terrorism: you don't like it, and so
you bury your head in the sand when it comes to present-day reality.



Geoff

--
"All my father wanted to do was make a toaster you could
 really set the darkness on -- and you perverted his work
 into those horrible machines!" -- Mark Sachs