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Don't Fly During Ramadan

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Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#911

Post by fudgy73 »

83457 wrote: post #413
eternalsunshine wrote: post #243

...and what does this have to do with Ramadan?

My guess is... Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims. Many terrorists are muslim. Terrorism increases around Ramadan. He is brown, many Muslims are brown, TSA on high alert for Muslims. He is setting off an explosives residue detector. Many terrorists use explosives.

Terrorism (by Muslims) doesn't increase around Ramadan. Ramadan is the worst time for extremists to do anything. Ramadan for Muslims is a time of spirituality, being with family, and discipline. While that may not be across the board, being thirsty and hungry makes all activity more difficult, and that applies to all - especially during the 17+ hour fasts while Ramadan is in the summer.

Makes me sad about what happened to the author, but Ramadan has very little (if anything) to do with it.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#912

Post by esalman »

rdtsc wrote: post #769
esalman wrote: post #328

I find similarities between this incident and the interrogation technique of the secret police in East Berlin. I learned about this in a movie I watched a few days back- "The Lives of Others" or "Das Leben der Anderen" (2006). The secret police used to detain people and question them repeatedly for many hours while forcing them to sit on lie detectors with their palm faced down under their thigh. Under pressure, inno…

Great movie! But those were not lie detectors they were pads to collect sweat. Those were put in jars, cataloged, and saved for later. They would be used in hunting someone down using dogs. It basically saved their scent and then years later if they want to find you and you are running way they could bring in the K-9 unit.

Thank you for correction, I missed those details.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#913

Post by cvshepherd »

nske wrote: post #876
moocowduckquack wrote: post #814

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the US continues to be one of the most free countries in the world in all respects." If this is true, then why does it jail more people per capita than any other country by a long, long way? Your population can't be simultaneously one of the most free and be the most incarcerated, as that makes no sense.

It depends, some other possible explanations could be that the US justice system is that much more effective or that US inhabitants are that much more disobedient to the same laws than those of other countries. Not saying that's the case, just wouldn't be so quick to dismiss anything. US can indeed be said that are among the most free countries, but that doesn't really say anything without clarifying who we are compa…

i would argue that a high incarceration rate does in no way point to an effective justice system.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#914

Post by xtracto »

coldshot wrote: post #250
atmosx wrote: post #81

I'm European, I think I'll never go to the USA. They are just too aggressive/paranoid with security. Of course, I have no rights there.

Well, you are still kind of lucky. If you come from so-called "developing countries" or middle east don't even think about going to Europe or USA. The attitudes are almost the same besides US having better devices and more officers.

That's false. I am from a so called 'developing country' and and lived in Europe (lived in UK and Germany, travelled around lots of countries) for more than 7 years. In no way did I felt as bad as the original post. Moreover, there's no way to compare the security theater in the US (take your picture, hand digits and questioning) with the approaches in Europe (sheesh, even in Germany when I go stopped by some kind of officer during my entry to the country once... even counting for the fact that my German was very limited... imagine that in the US).

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#915

Post by betterunix »

laureny wrote: post #494
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…

> 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. She's right, and like her, I have found it next to impossible to explain this to Americans who think the US is turning into a police state. People making this claim should spend a few hours reading on history and learn about the Gestapo or the Stasi. What's happening in the U…

"the US continues to be one of the most free countries in the world in all respects"

I suppose if you ignore the fact that we have an order of magnitude more prisoners than any other country that is true. You cannot claim we are one of the most free countries in all respects when we have so many people in jail (which is basically the polar opposite of freedom).

"People making this claim should spend a few hours reading on history and learn about the Gestapo or the Stasi."

So if we have not yet descended to the level of the Nazis, we could not be a police state? This kind of "race to the bottom" attitude is dangerously misguided. We already have soldiers enforcing the law. We already have combination law-enforcement/intelligence agencies. We know that the police are lying to judges and prosecutors about how they gathered their evidence. Peaceful political protesters have discovered undercover police spies sent to their groups. Even if we accepted your extreme definition of a police state, we are in a lot of trouble as things stand right now.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#917

Post by Sprint »

BlackDeath3 wrote: post #580
marvin wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the lawyers out there, this sounds like an excellent business opportunity. 20-minute legal emergency response to people in trouble at the security checkpoint. Could assist directly with regards to asserting rights, filing suits if the passengers' rights have been violated and extracting every dime that can legally be extracted from airlines that involuntarily re-book passengers. Sorry that you had to go through t…

It would be nice if there were some sort of dead man's switch functionality in-case phone access was denied. I'm not sure exactly how this would work, but I think it's an interesting idea.

Use GPS and cell tower tracking to determine if you are inside an airport. If you are inside for longer than X minutes, send a message to selected people stating that.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#918

Post by eshvk »

chiph wrote: post #778
rfnslyr wrote: post #685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Yeah can you give me about two weeks? I'm going to take my RV." -1 client. How bout no.

Three possible replies to this. #1. I have a MiFi device, so I can get started with the preliminaries as my spouse drives. And of course, once I arrive I'll be on-site with your team. #2. Because I provide my own living arrangements, my expenses will be much lower. I'll charge you diesel from my current location instead of a round-trip business-class airline ticket, and the RV park is $300 a month, vs. $150 a night a…

#2 A huge enterprise company would probably reject you for nickel and diming on their behalf. The billing rate is incredibly high mainly because they just want their job done.

#3 A consequence of high billing rates is that you will be required to be there as soon as possible.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#919

Post by solistice »

cwkoss wrote: post #560
omegaham wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, keep in mind that the NSA doesn't employ that many people. Furthermore, these people mostly work in the same area, have been vetted repeatedly, and are watched. The TSA, on the other hand, works everywhere, has many more people, and do not have the same scrutiny applied to their employees. Interestingly enough, most classified information doesn't get leaked the same way that Snowden leaked his documents. It'…

If you include contractors whose primary income is from providing services to the NSA, the number of people who had some knowledge of their surveillance is probably approaching half of a million.

But even those contractors are professionals if they get access to anything of value.

Trying to keep a "detain"-button secret, having it manned by thousands of people that only have a high school diploma OR a year of work experience in security/aviation/screening, doesn't sound easy (those are by the way the education requirements for a TSO according to usajobs.gov). Since a leak could stem from a minor overstep of their contract (ohh, I told a buddy about it, big deal right?), and there are frequent policy violations by agents, it does look grim for the existence of such a button.

I heard of them kicking the machines to make them go off though, so there's a "button", and it's public knowledge that they will use it if they want a pat down.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#920

Post by noisy_boy »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #663
Zimahl wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of it? Why would it only be a portion? Just because you exercise the 5th doesn't mean the police or Feds have to suddenly make you comfortable. He asked for water and probably could've gotten some if he had pushed the issue, it didn't seem as though he was being very vocal about being hungry and thirsty.

How much should one have to scream at armed men before getting water ?

It lies somewhere between being Vocal enough to be heard and being so vocal that you are charged with assault. Clearly his fault that he couldn't strike that balance in such comfortable conditions.
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