Don't Fly During Ramadan • Hacker News Board

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#31

Post by afterburner » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:42 PM UTC

C1D wrote: post #20

The way they treated him is appalling. Even if he was Muslim, this shouldn't have happened! I travel a lot and have seen things like this happen before my eyes in the UK and Australia. People that look slightly ethnic and taken aside and "randomly" stopped. EDIT: Sorry for the typo.

appalling

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#32

Post by wutbrodo » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:42 PM UTC

C1D wrote: post #20

The way they treated him is appalling. Even if he was Muslim, this shouldn't have happened! I travel a lot and have seen things like this happen before my eyes in the UK and Australia. People that look slightly ethnic and taken aside and "randomly" stopped. EDIT: Sorry for the typo.

Did you mean appalling?

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#33

Post by chimeracoder » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:42 PM UTC

foobarbazqux wrote: post #17

jonheller wrote: post #8

Extremely disturbing. This was well written and very interesting to read, but I do wonder how one could recall the details so specifically?

Traumatic events can leave much stronger memories, almost like they're burned in.

Exactly. Even a couple of nights ago, I had a dream about going through airport security on my return trip (even though I returned over a week and a half ago, with no problem).

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#34

Post by quicksilver » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:42 PM UTC

It's sickening to hear that you had to go through such experiences. Funny that the 'default' scanner technology didn't set off any alarms. Many of these policies just seem to provide the sense that we're safer, rather than actually do anything to remove real dangers.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#35

Post by eshvk » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:42 PM UTC

lukeqsee wrote: post #7

Most striking and appalling is the lack of common sense and basic empathy throughout this whole ordeal. For example, he asked multiple times for water , a basic necessity for life, and was denied multiple times. That can't be rationalized in anyway—what did they expect, him to drown someone? His requests as to the nature of his detention were denied. His rights to privacy were utterly ignored. And it goes on… We need…

The most popular argument against the TSA that I have heard? They spend too much of their time searching the "wrong people". You know the kind that wouldn't "hurt a fly"? Weasel phrases that in essence mean that the TSA should do what Israel does. Racial profiling. Not that they don't do enough of it. At least on paper, they try to mess up that by searching white grandmas from the midwest and little blonde girls. Of course, the latter is what America complains the most about really.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#36

Post by OlivierLi » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:43 PM UTC

C1D wrote: post #20

The way they treated him is appalling. Even if he was Muslim, this shouldn't have happened! I travel a lot and have seen things like this happen before my eyes in the UK and Australia. People that look slightly ethnic and taken aside and "randomly" stopped. EDIT: Sorry for the typo.

Appaling : http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/appalling

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#37

Post by monsterix » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:43 PM UTC

Thank you for posting this. I was about to book a ticket on Jetblue for next week but I am now decided not to fly with them or recommend them to anyone.

While we can fix private airlines and businesses for their stupid attitude there is, of course, no way for people to fix NSA/TSA and all those inverted bullshitters living on taxpayer's money.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#38

Post by ck2 » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:44 PM UTC

Holy hell. For what little it's worth, I am so sorry you had to go through that.

There is so much horrifying with that story it makes me shudder.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#39

Post by moheeb » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:44 PM UTC

I've never had my flight cancelled...but the rest of it sounds pretty par for the course, even for white people.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#40

Post by munificent » Thu, Aug 22, 2013, 5:44 PM UTC

lukeqsee wrote: post #27

fsckin wrote: post #14

>In all my life, I have only felt that same chilling terror once before - on one cold night in September twelve years ago, when I huddled in bed and tried to forget the terrible events in the news that day, wondering why they they had happened, wondering whether everything would be okay ever again. Wow... just wow.

Perhaps the terrorists knew this would happen all along. They knew our paranoia would surpass any efforts they could ever hope accomplish. Instead of terrorizing a few thousand, they could terrorize a whole nation—daily and officially. It's brilliant and pathetic at the same time.

There's no "perhaps" here. Of course they knew this would happen. That's the whole point. It's right there in the name: they're terrorists because they create terror. The US is now terrified and burning piles of cash and lashing out at its own citizens, which is exactly what the terrorists wanted to happen.