Airport Security Is Killing Us

Post by grecy » Wed, Nov 21, 2012, 5:54 PM UTC

tadfisher wrote: post #218

jvm wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you could cherry pick parts of Finland that have even lower gun violence. Conversely, unlike your cherry-picked states, parent actually chose Finland for its exceptionally high gun violence. Even if you broke out the 50 states few would be within the normal range for wealthy countries.

Believe it or not, I don't disagree with you. The majority of states in the US are not what you would think of as "developed" by any objective measure-- be it crime, poverty, health, education, or equality. That is why I included states like Louisiana with murder rates comparable to some African nations. But you cannot deny that some regions of the US are developed, are great places to live, and are comparable in ter…

Post by pessimizer » Wed, Nov 21, 2012, 8:05 PM UTC

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…

Post by chrisdroukas » Thu, Nov 22, 2012, 4:39 PM UTC

tadfisher wrote: post #51

grecy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America has the highest murder rate of the developed world, higher even than a chunk of developing countries. My quick glace showed America at 4.2, the next developed country is Finland at 2.2, so living in America you're 1.9 times more likely to be murdered than any other developed country. Of course, the vast majority of Developed countries have a murder rate less than 1.0 per 100,000 people. http://en.wikipedia.or…

The United States is very large, and the homicide rate varies wildly between states and cities. Where I live, Oregon, the homicide rate is 2.1 per 100,000 people, a little bit better than Finland as a whole. Hawaii is at 1.2, New Hampshire and Vermont are at 1.3, and Minnesota is at 1.4. Contrast those with Louisiana at 11.2 per 100,000 people (!), Mississippi at 8.0, New Mexico at 7.5, and South Carolina at 6.8. It'…

Post by flyinRyan » Fri, Nov 23, 2012, 9:33 AM UTC

methodover wrote: post #200

joonix wrote: post #2

I opt-out of the x-ray scanner every single time, and so should you. It really doesn't take much longer to go through the process. Show up 3 minutes earlier if you have to. You're rushing to the gate, for what? To sit there longer? Boarding with the crowds is stressful anyways. The most relaxed way to board is at the very end -- there's no more line, I just walk right into the plane, most people are seated, and just…

I wonder if there's a better way to register one's complaint rather than merely opting out. (And I happen to agree with another poster who said that the 'enhanced pat down' can be more degrading than the scanner if you get someone who gets a little overzealous when they 'encounter resistance.') What about a t-shirt, perhaps? Printed on the shirt would be a calm and clear explanation of the problems with the scanners/…

Post by flyinRyan » Fri, Nov 23, 2012, 9:37 AM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #60

swohns wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The numbers themselves aren't the real takeaway, it's how preventable these deaths are.

Exactly, and one can conclude that the dollars spent versus lives saved makes the waste seem even greater. Converting the TSA to bee control as mentioned above would lively save more lives (to take an extreme example).