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Don't Fly During Ramadan

varnull.adityamukerjee.net

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Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#831

Post by statictype »

dr_ wrote: post #465

Sad but lets not make the mistake of thinking this is limited to the United States. It's how most governments respond to what they feel, correctly or not, are security threats. I'm of indian origin as well and was traveling in India a few years ago. At the time, in response to the Mumbai attacks, the government had instituted a requirement for non Indian nationals to require permission to re enter the country should…

I went through the same BS about not registering myself. The system is incredibly bureaucratic and frustrating. But on the other hand, you never really threatened.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#832

Post by medeu »

jnbiche wrote: post #387
guard-of-terra wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's her experiences with Kazakhstan exactly? I've never been there but would expect from any post-soviet country a great deal of nobody caring about you and not many secret police anywhere.

The ex-soviet central Asian republics are packed full of secret police -- until 2006, Turkmenistan boasted one of the world's most famous totalitarian regimes under his Amazingself-for-life President Niyazov, and although his successor has made some reforms, things haven't gotten much better since Niyazov's death. The other republics share the same kind of government to a greater or lesser extent. IWPR at http://iwpr…

It is common mistake to count all countries with names ending "*stan" as one totalitarian region. I live in Kazakhstan whole my life (30yr) and I or all my friends hadn't any issues with police. We have one big drawback, it's called corruption, but all countries have to pass through this desease.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#833

Post by aspensmonster »

belorn wrote: post #677
jwr wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've a friend who spent a good deal of time recently in Khazakhstan, and she was very amused by my attempts to express my fears of the United States becoming an authoritarian police state. She laughed and said that no, I did not understand what it was to have secret police following you about and all these other sorts of issues. And she is right — the US is nowhere near being an authoritarian police state. But it i…

If the US is nowhere near being an authoritarian police state, at what point will US become a authoritarian police state? When they have kill lists without any trial, jury or judge? When they keep prisoners in jail indefinitely without a trial? When they torture prisoners? When state officials lie to the public? When state officials lie to public representatives? When the secret police interfere with lawyers communic…

>If the US is nowhere near being an authoritarian police state, at what point will US become a authoritarian police state?

When it's too late to do anything about it.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#834

Post by aspensmonster »

beedogs wrote: post #790
jwr wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've a friend who spent a good deal of time recently in Khazakhstan, and she was very amused by my attempts to express my fears of the United States becoming an authoritarian police state. She laughed and said that no, I did not understand what it was to have secret police following you about and all these other sorts of issues. And she is right — the US is nowhere near being an authoritarian police state. But it i…

Replying here because I can't reply to SmokyBorbon directly: your account appears to be hellbanned.

Mod rule strikes again.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#836

Post by a_bonobo »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #817
belorn wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the US is nowhere near being an authoritarian police state, at what point will US become a authoritarian police state? When they have kill lists without any trial, jury or judge? When they keep prisoners in jail indefinitely without a trial? When they torture prisoners? When state officials lie to the public? When state officials lie to public representatives? When the secret police interfere with lawyers communic…

All of these are abuses of power, and should be opposed. That said, I'm confident that there is no nation state on Earth that hasn't done these things. Please correct me if you can think of examples. The difference now is that they are affecting mainstream, middle-class, "normal" Americans. While it's good that people are angry about these abuses, it also seems incredibly naive. This is what states do. This is what t…

>That said, I'm confident that there is no nation state on Earth that hasn't done these things.

Please, tell me one "first-world" country that has kill lists??

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#837

Post by bobbydavid »

moocowduckquack wrote: post #766
jrockway wrote: post #742

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but you're the one misinterpreting what I wrote with hyperbole. Show me the line of the Constitution that lets you travel by air.

Funnily enough, they didn't bother dealing with legal references to air travel before planes were invented. You will also notice that they made no references to space travel either, or computers.

but they don't mention horses either. the method of travel is irrelevant.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#838

Post by hyperbovine »

nrivadeneira wrote: post #808
hyperbovine wrote: post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it was necessary to be in NYC at the time to have been deeply affected by 9/11, but no matter: I, the guy who wrote this article, and 310m other non-NYC Americans still have to live under the draconian post-9/11 regime, regardless of where we were on that day. Also, "casual observer"? Really?

I don't think going through more stringent checks when you fly qualify for "pain and horror". I mainly ask because you're using "the pain and horror" experienced by actual 9/11 victims and their families as leverage to add validity to your statement, and I don't really agree with it.

I see--so only the victims and families were emotionally traumatized by this incident? That does not even merit refutation.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#839

Post by Daniel_Newby »

jwr wrote: post #177
angersock wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've a friend who spent a good deal of time recently in Khazakhstan, and she was very amused by my attempts to express my fears of the United States becoming an authoritarian police state. She laughed and said that no, I did not understand what it was to have secret police following you about and all these other sorts of issues. The distressing thing is that we've been putting so much machinery into place, and gotten…

> I've a friend who spent a good deal of time recently in Khazakhstan, and she was very amused by my attempts to express my fears of the United States becoming an authoritarian police state. She laughed and said that no, I did not understand what it was to have secret police following you about and all these other sorts of issues. And she is right — the US is nowhere near being an authoritarian police state. But it i…

There is no slippery slope to authoritarianism. The US might become a police state, but it will not be authoritarian.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#840

Post by SplrrtFlll »

cranefly wrote: post #698

We are only getting one side of the story here. Would love to hear it from the other side. I think if one swabbed positive for explosives in a triage you could expect something like this in or out of Ramadan.

Much of the misunderstanding, I imagine, is that people who have never worked in a lab, such as these TSA employees, think that 'swabbed positive' means 'touched explosives'.

These quick tests just use a reagent that reacts with a part of a molecule. In the case of an explosives test, I imagine it responds to molecules with a -NO2 group. That could be TNT or any of a thousand perfectly innocent, harmless substances. A test that tests for the whole molecule, with a smaller (but still non zero) chance of a false positive, would be too expensive and take too long for a situation like this.

If you're just testing average people, the chance of a false positive is orders of magnitude more likely than a real positive.

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