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Airport Security Is Killing Us

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Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#221

Post by smutticus »

tokenadult wrote: post #24

Hear. Hear. I want to be able to walk into an airport with my shoes on and walk calmly to an arrival gate to greet arriving passengers there. And I want to be able to carry a Swiss Army knife in an airline carry-on bag. And I want the terrorists to be attacked relentlessly where they live, so that they have to hide in caves and ride on goats, while Americans and other people in developed countries get to lead civiliz…

> I say let loose the drones

If you're comfortable killing people indiscriminantly then others will be comfortable killing you indiscriminantly. As long as you offer them that bargain they will continue to take it.

Personally, I really don't care what happens in Afghanistan. It's not my problem, I've never been there, and I don't believe I have the right to decide their future. But I find your belief that drone attacks are actually destroying the Taliban fanciful.

Most of the people drone attacks kill are not the intended targets. How would you react if a foreign power killed someone you loved? Would you go away, never to be heard from again? Or would you take up arms against that foreign power? Given your bombast and chest beating I'm assuming you wouldn't stay silent. So what makes you think that the relatives of the people being killed in drone attacks are somehow going to just go away?

Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#222

Post by zanny »

dinedal wrote: post #188
Zimahl wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lumber industry (last one is debated plenty) The lumber industry? You're seriously comparing Big Pharma and for-profit prison companies with the timber industry? I'm not sure if you are talking about America in the 2010s, but the timber industry is tanking. Maybe if you were talking about the 1970s I might peripherally agree. The timber industry is so bad right now that it is cheaper to buy 2x4s to burn in your fir…

I think he included them because they were the original reason for suppressing marijuana, not Big Pharma

I like how I put in parens that it is debated, and it gets debated :P

But yes, they were the original reason for the widespread propaganda spree against pot, but today it is due to big pharma. And people on the internet always argue about it!

Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#223

Post by gsnedders »

MordinSolus wrote: post #170
gsnedders wrote: post #58

I don't see why there isn't more interest in high speed rail in the US: New York and Boston/Washington DC could be less than two hours travel time apart, which though it may well be an hour slower than a flight, has a lot less overhead (no arriving two hours before departure, etc). The technology is quickly reaching the point where San Francisco to Los Angeles may be equally doable in around two hours, again an obvio…

Because it's still too expensive when compared to flying. Just look at the cost of the high speed rail plan in California. Until the price of jet fuel is much higher, economically, it makes more sense to fly. I say let the high speed rails come naturally (because they will eventually): don't try to force it.

Well, the plan for CA was several times the cost per mile of most high speed track built in Europe: something was wrong with that, regardless of anything else.

Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#224

Post by EliRivers »

Osiris wrote: post #69
rplst8 wrote: post #10

Someone else did an analysis of airline travel and highway travel and came up with a similar finding. Blow up one plane per month over the continental US and flying would still be two orders of magnitude safer than driving or riding in an automobile over your lifespan. There's no proof that TSA is making things any safer either. No one will ever pull another fast one on the passengers of a plane again. We all know th…

* We all know that the planes themselves are weapons * Which is why I don't understand why pilots have to be screened. They are flying a huge flying bomb. What will screening them for nail-clippers solve? (Side note: I did, in fact, have my nail clippers taken by the TSA once)

Perhaps it's so the bad pilot can't easily kill the nice pilot sitting next to her.

Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#225

Post by EliRivers »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #144

"The attention paid to terrorism in the U.S. is considerably out of proportion to the relative threat it presents." W O W. My jaw completely dropped when I read this sentence. Considering we've averted 40 terrorist plots since 2001 this is pretty scary somebody would actually print such a statement. Keep in mind, those 40 are the ones we actually know about as well. I'll continue to put up with the minor headaches as…

How many of those were instigated by the FBI?

Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#226

Post by WettowelReactor »

smsm42 wrote: post #201
anu_gupta wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I say let loose the drones You do realise that what the drone attacks are doing is to further radicalise people in Pakistan, don't you? A bit like what's happening in Gaza, what these attacks do is remove a few visible figureheads, kill people who aren't necessarily connected, and turn a good number of previously neutral or inactive people into sympathisers or more active combatants. The idea of a relentless attack…

You seem to base your opinion of what is happening in Gaza on occasional random watching of biased TV news, which is not a good way to form an informed opinion. If facts are of any interest to you, here you go: 1. Strikes in Gaza are not removing figurehead, they strike known military commanders, whose direct involvement in the acts of terror and war is beyond any reasonable doubt. They also strike infrastructure use…

Drug users and terrorist are wholly separate groups that need wholly separate approaches but to claim that drug users only harm themselves is just not true. That being said the War on Drugs seems to amplify the impact of drug use on society rather than minimize it but just leaving drug users alone is as failed a policy as leaving the terrorists alone.

Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#227

Post by WettowelReactor »

F_J_H wrote: post #108

The sad fact is, I think TSA type security is hear to stay, and won't lighten up very much, regardless of the facts that question its efficacy. Why? Picture this. Someone (likely a politician) crusades hard to have the TSA dismantled, and is successful. No matter how much better the system that replaces it is, there is always a chance that someone slips through and takes down a plane, and 300+ people are killed. In t…

Bruce Schneier address this very topic in his post on CYA security.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/cya_security_1...

Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#228

Post by jeshan »

gnosis wrote: post #12
jeshan wrote: post #6

This is so NOT relevant at HackerNews. Why do you guys think other 'hackers' would be interested in such news? Can't they find newspapers on their own?

From the HN Guidelines[1]: "Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did." [1] - http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Thanks, I forgot about the guidelines. My point was that it was not nerd stuff..Citing the first phrase there, "Anything that good hackers would find interesting". Besides, anything in this world could "gratify one's intellectual curiosity". I come to this site to find interesting content and I love it, that's the only reason why I posted that comment.

Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#229

Post by grecy »

tadfisher wrote: post #219
grecy wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is why they speak quickly against comparisons of the United States as a whole against Scandinavian countries or Japan. Those countries do not have the ethnic heterogeneity or deep-seated institutional racism that the United States has experienced and still experiences. America is not unique in that it faces challenges and obstacles to being successful. Japan had two nuclear weapons used on it's citizens, half o…

I am not making excuses for my country, and I am not here to prove that America is unique in that it has to face challenges. I am trying to say that America is not one place or one people, or even one government, and that comparing the entirety of a loose coalition of independent states to single independent nations is disingenuous and ignores specific factors that other developed nations simply don't have to deal wi…

> I am trying to say that America is not one place or one people, or even one government, and that comparing the entirety of a loose coalition of independent states to single independent nations is disingenuous and ignores specific factors that other developed nations simply don't have to deal with.

There is nothing unique about that. That is the case of all countries in the world.

I wonder what you would like to see happen? Rather than compare Japan to America, should I compare Japan to Oregon, and Japan to Louisiana like they are separate places? I wonder what the attitude would be then? Everyone in Oregon sits pretty because they are ranked with the world's best, and people in Louisiana are condemned to life of poverty and suffering?

I wonder what would happen if violence and poverty broke out in a corner of Oregon, vastly changing it's position - would you then further break-down Oregon into counties, so once again you can sit pretty in the knowledge your county ranks well and can ignore the others?

You sound like a baseball team manager who's team constantly finishes towards the bottom of the ladder- then you say "yeah, but we have unique challenges because our team is made up of different races, etc. If we had a better pitcher and short stop, we'd be so much better". The reality is you have the team you have. You can choose to work with it as a team to improve things, or you can segregate yourself and say "well, I'm a great first baseman, so screw everyone else". How is that productive?

A country is made up of the sum of it's parts - every country has areas that are way above average, and areas that are way below average for an enormous number of reasons - that, of course, is the definition of average

Apologies for offending you, that was not my intention, though reading back through my comments I see I have not expressed myself well.

Re: Airport Security Is Killing Us

#230

Post by lambda »

philwelch wrote: post #202
lambda wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, nothing like that. I do not have a constitutionally protected right to eat a sandwich. I do have one to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. Furthermore, with the sandwich, there are alternatives available to me. I can choose to go somewhere else that serves cheaper sandwiches, or make my own. There are some places that I just cannot get to without flying; and some for which getting there would take so l…

> I do not have a constitutionally protected right to eat a sandwich Nor do you have a constitutionally protected right to air travel.

And see, I find that to be a slimy, horrible way to get around these inconvenient "rights" that we have, by defining an entire class of activity, that is pretty much essential to be able to participate in the modern world, as a way of giving up your rights.

"Oh, sure, you may have a constitutionally protected right to free speech. But upon accepting employment or payment for anything, you waive that right." Hey, the government has the right to regulate interstate commerce, and has ruled that even commerce within a state counts because it impacts prices on an interstate level. So let's just do away with the whole bill of rights by saying "you give implied consent to no longer have these rights by engaging in commerce." Done and done.

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