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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AC Flyer who wrote (21931)	8/1/2002 7:12:28 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

<Don't discuss terrorism, weapons, explosives, or other threats while going through the security checkpoint. Don't joke about having a bomb or firearm. The mere mention of words such as "gun," "bomb," etc., can compel security personnel to detain and question you. They are trained to consider these comments as real threats. > tsa.dot.gov Compel? Compulsion. Freedom of speech? I wonder when somebody will demand their right to freedom of speech and mention all those rude words [not as a threat but just to assert their right to use them]. Or has freedom of speech gone now? I bet there isn't much conversation going on in airports and especially not when any security people are in the area. Not much smiling or happy chatter as people do what has always been fun and exciting - travelling somewhere. Look around the airport. See any smiles? I saw that once in a town in Yugoslavia and wondered what made the people so taciturn. I'd never seen it before. Now I know! "Daddy, are they looking for guns in our bags?" "Shhh, we aren't allowed to say words like 'guns'. Just pretend that this is really normal and pretend that we live in a free world with intelligent people and a sense of humour". "Excuse me sir, I heard your daughter mention the word 'gun'. I am a highly-trained security person, who has been taught to consider mention of certain words as real threats and we now require her and you to come with us for a full body search. Please remove her nappy because we often find fathers put bombs in 2 year old's nappies." "Come on, you can't can't be serious! She's two! Haven't you heard of context?" "Aha! Resisting a highly-trained security person. You are now under arrest for obstruction and general threatening activity. Since you are an alien, we will take you to Guantanamo Bay where you will be held without legal representation, without acknowledgement that you are held, none of that habeas corpus muck, but you will of course enjoy the full human rights which we demand China offer to their citizens." Hmmm, I think I will defer visiting the USA for a while. Government authorities aren't noted for a sense of humour at the best of times, but I imagine they've gone completely nuts now. Sending F16s to accompany jets to airports because somebody smokes in the toilet or because they get frustrated with some pain-in-the-neck moronic aircrew. Later.... I have just had a call from the NSA, asking why I am mentioning guns in my post and they said not to leave home as they are coming to interrogate me [via the New Zealand SIS - Security Intelligence Service]. Hey, c'mon you NSA guys. Relax. It's a joke. Mentioning bomb, Osama, George Bush, smallpox, Stinger, LAX, gun, buy a suitcase nuke in this post would be enough to send it to the top of the NSA Echelon monitoring list. I hereby declare that I do NOT have any nukes hidden in my garage and any NSA/SIS people have NO RIGHT to search under the compost heap in the back of my garden. Osama has been of great help to 'the authorities' who now have really good reason to hassle people from dawn to dusk. Oh, and do night checks too. "For our own safety and security of course". What a time to be in government. They must be delighted that Osama has made their job easier [= expanding their empires, increasing their budgets, suppressing opposition from whining citizens]. I'd not heard of TSA, but sure enough here it is, complete with huge budgets. tsa.dot.gov Well, I guess I don't want planes blowing up or crashing because some wacko Matrix of Malevolence member gets it into his head [or maybe even hers these days] to destroy an aircraft full of people. Have they banned high flammable duty free booze, which can be ignited and the bottles used as very sharp weapons? Hold two bottles by the neck, smash them together, light the 2 litres of brandy, then start chopping at people. They don't allow sharp toothpicks or nail cutters, but they allow big glass weapons, which also would make good Molotov cocktails for throwing around an aircraft. A few guys with some duty free could create mayhem. Much more fun than lighting a cigarette in a dunny. What a sicko world! Mqurice