also in the not good department

[rm]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/pecunium/70299.html?mode=reply

Is it just me, or is everyone operating out of weird fear of what our government could become and in the process helping it along?

Meanwhile, the airport thing I posted last night got Metafiltered: http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/37361 where we discover that her story is apparently neither credible nor sympathetic because -- 1. she was crying, 2. she calls her partner "my beloved", 3. she's queer -- and that having strangers insert their fingers into our orafices is just the price we pay for safety.

Welcome to life as a woman. We do not exist except in perfection and blandness. I wonder, if she hadn't cried, would they have said she liked it?

Her defense, all of which involves points so obvious one really shouldn't have to make them, is here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/strange_selkie/87392.html

Comments

[delchi.livejournal.com]

The finger bit is complete and utter BS to me.

Near as I recall they have to have probable cause, and alot more authority than what was exibited. I'm begining to think that maybe some rogue TSA worker just wanted to have ' fun '. It's not unheard of.

A cowerker here recently went on a trip , bught a new gym bag time duffel w/out a lock, and it was cut open then put on the luggage conveyor belt. Her clothing made the rounds several times before the bag appeared.

I posted a reply giving the number and email addy of the TSA civil rights line. I hope someone reports this.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I have always operated out of some fear of what Gov't can do, because one cannot trust power to restrain itself.

More: What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you - where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast - man's laws, not God's - and if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it - d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.


Robert Bolt: A Man for All Seasons.

What bothers me now is not so much that, as seeing all the laws that are being knocked down, and all the people playing Roper in the reaping.

TK

[heron61.livejournal.com]

What disgusts me most about all of this is that large numbers of people support this government's increasingly vile excesses because they are honestly afraid of terrorism. I'm sick to death of hearing people's fears about terrorist attacks, especially since the actual risk is so trivial. I'm curious to know how bad things will have to get before people are more afraid of this government than they are of largely mythic dangers.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I still stand by my theory that this is not a government excess, but an employee of going too far or being stupid.

The only difference between a TSA screener and the security guard at the mall is that they slept through a handful of classes and guessed lucky on a multiple choice quiz.

This has improved slightly in recent times, but really it's not that much different than when I was on the plane with teh nut job waving a knife and gun.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I will stop complaining about having to take off my tennis shoes.