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What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

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Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#391

Post by thaumasiotes »

floren wrote: post #290
grishka wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only experience with serious US government forms was applying for a tourist visa. This form also has some bonkers checkboxes like "do you plan to commit any crimes in the US". Also the entry form they give you on your flight deserves a mention. This one has "did you handle livestock in the last X months" repeated like 3 times in different phrasing. Not as stupid as the first one, but... why? Why is that question t…

The federal and state departments of agriculture go to great efforts to control agricultural diseases. Others have mentioned foot and mouth, but there are lots of other things. For instance, half of Washington State is declared an "Apple Maggot Quarantine Area" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Maggot_Quarantine_Area ) where it's illegal to bring in homegrown / wild-picked fruit lest you infect Eastern Washington…

> half of Washington State is declared an "Apple Maggot Quarantine Area" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Maggot_Quarantine_Area) where it's illegal to bring in homegrown / wild-picked fruit lest you infect Eastern Washington's massive apple orchards.

The article you link suggests that the quarantine area is the region from which it's illegal to bring fruit out.

The wikipedia article also does something interesting where it describes a mature fly as being an "apple maggot". I would have thought that the term "maggot" referred exclusively to the larval form.

Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#392

Post by notch656c »

freedomben wrote: post #321
51Cards wrote: post #317

Bit of an aside story but I'm in the process of renewing a US work Visa (travel into the US for work often from Canada). I was reminded going through the online form last week that there are 3 full pages of questions like: "Have you ever participated in child trafficing?", "Have you participated in terrorist activities?", "Have you participated in overthrowing a government?", etc. etc. All of the most extreme interna…

Yep that's a favorite US government method. They do the same with the form you have to fill out to buy a gun.

4473 doesn't ask most those. Attempting to overthrow a government doesn't make a prohibited possessor.

Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#393

Post by adrianmonk »

Vrondi wrote: post #364
adrianmonk wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how to interpret this. Were the antihistamines in case you had a drug allergy? Or were they for the other kind of allergy (pollen, pet danger, dust, etc.)?

Antihistamines are for any kind of allergy. They don't care if it's from breathing in something, touching something, or eating something. Allergy is an allergy.

Right, but what was the doctor's intent?

Were they thinking, "The patient might find these handy if they have pollen allergies but never really thought to do anything about it"?

Or, were they thinking, "The patient doesn't seem to know if they're allergic to this prescription I'm giving them, so I'll give them an antihistamine to go along with it just in case."

Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#394

Post by b112 »

Zak wrote: post #360
b112 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Freedom to Walk act, in California, just made it legal. (Not relevant to your point, just a side bit of interesting info). edit: Huh. These guys: https://www.dlawgroup.com/california-freedom-to-walk-act-for... claim it is still illegal, but cannot be ticketed for without certain conditions. I wonder why, or if, this weird condition exists. (I see it is supposedly to prevent police harassment, but that doesn't exp…

The main purpose is likely to allow the police to cite a pedestrian who is at fault for an accident, which helps protect the other parties involved from civil liability.

The law could be rewritten to take that into consideration. The current exception even has language in it to delineate its use.

Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#395

Post by cfeduke »

anthomtb wrote: post #249
technothrasher wrote: post #67

"Here, fill it out again and don't mention that." I had the exact same experience when applying for a clearance while I was in college, for the "have you taken illegal drugs" question. When I honestly answered yes, the interviewer got fidgety and then asked, "well do you take them now?" no. "Do you know any drug users?" We're on a college campus, what would you like me to say? "Well, are you friends with any of them?…

My first clearance interview, about 10 years ago, it was all going along just fine. I had the standard litany of "bad" things any early 20-something American guy gets into - a few mushroom trips, an alcohol ticket, friends from foreign countries. No deal-breakers so long as you are honest and I answered honestly. The only stumbling block came when the interviewer asked "have you smoked marijuana?". I truthfully answe…

I had a somewhat similar experience with the polygraph portion of my clearance process - apparently its common to calibrate the machine to the subject by asking "have you ever smoked marijuana" and they expect you to lie and say "no" but then sometimes people have never smoked marijuana.

Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#396

Post by kortilla »

rodgerd wrote: post #381
LudwigNagasena wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it be easier to deport someone for lying on a form rather than for being a terrorist?

If I said, in the US, "Peter Thiel is a woman-hating monster and the country would be better if he and every politician on his payroll was swinging from a lamppost Mussolini style" it would be difficult to make any case that I was doing anything not covered by first amendment protections. If I'm a visitor to the country and say the same thing having signed an affirmation that I'm not going to advocate for violent ove…

I don’t think death threats are covered by the first amendment.

Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#397

Post by chiefgeek »

anthomtb wrote: post #249
technothrasher wrote: post #67

"Here, fill it out again and don't mention that." I had the exact same experience when applying for a clearance while I was in college, for the "have you taken illegal drugs" question. When I honestly answered yes, the interviewer got fidgety and then asked, "well do you take them now?" no. "Do you know any drug users?" We're on a college campus, what would you like me to say? "Well, are you friends with any of them?…

My first clearance interview, about 10 years ago, it was all going along just fine. I had the standard litany of "bad" things any early 20-something American guy gets into - a few mushroom trips, an alcohol ticket, friends from foreign countries. No deal-breakers so long as you are honest and I answered honestly. The only stumbling block came when the interviewer asked "have you smoked marijuana?". I truthfully answe…

I filled out DoD form for TS clearance years ago and answered honestly that I had smoked weed and done coke in college. That's what my boss said to do. He said if they caught you in a lie you were finished because that meant you could be blackmailed.

EDIT to add: Ironically he had gotten in trouble for phone phreaking as a teenager.

Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#398

Post by notch656c »

chiefgeek wrote: post #397
anthomtb wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first clearance interview, about 10 years ago, it was all going along just fine. I had the standard litany of "bad" things any early 20-something American guy gets into - a few mushroom trips, an alcohol ticket, friends from foreign countries. No deal-breakers so long as you are honest and I answered honestly. The only stumbling block came when the interviewer asked "have you smoked marijuana?". I truthfully answe…

I filled out DoD form for TS clearance years ago and answered honestly that I had smoked weed and done coke in college. That's what my boss said to do. He said if they caught you in a lie you were finished because that meant you could be blackmailed. EDIT to add: Ironically he had gotten in trouble for phone phreaking as a teenager.

Anyone can be blackmailed.

If the thing you did was less bad than the penalty for treason or revealing secrets (life in prison and/or death) then the blackmail argument falls apart. It's just more irrational hocus pocus by self-important bureaucrats. Hell the thing you're blackmailing doesn't even have to be true, they can just find an ex lover and blackmail that person to say you raped them or whatever, and well even if you beat the charges your kids get tossed into DCS/foster care your life is ruined etc etc.

Yet another reason why I'll never work for the government.

Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#399

Post by NavinF »

alasdair_ wrote: post #334
NavinF wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*kool-aid https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid

*Flavor Aid They didn't actually use Kool-aid in the Jonestown massacre, people just think they did.

"drinking the Flavor Aid" doesn't sound nearly as good. It sounds like a knockoff

Re: What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

#400

Post by [deleted] »

anthomtb wrote: post #249
technothrasher wrote: post #67

"Here, fill it out again and don't mention that." I had the exact same experience when applying for a clearance while I was in college, for the "have you taken illegal drugs" question. When I honestly answered yes, the interviewer got fidgety and then asked, "well do you take them now?" no. "Do you know any drug users?" We're on a college campus, what would you like me to say? "Well, are you friends with any of them?…

My first clearance interview, about 10 years ago, it was all going along just fine. I had the standard litany of "bad" things any early 20-something American guy gets into - a few mushroom trips, an alcohol ticket, friends from foreign countries. No deal-breakers so long as you are honest and I answered honestly. The only stumbling block came when the interviewer asked "have you smoked marijuana?". I truthfully answe…

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