cap·tive (kptv)posted by dhammond at 10:49 PM on November 25, 2010
n.
1. One, such as a prisoner of war, who is forcibly confined, subjugated, or enslaved.
Being allowed to do something is not a reason for doing it.It's a pretty useful test to see if it's actually allowed. See also: freedom of assembly.
When traveling with your infant or toddler, in the absence of suspicious activity or items, greater than 3 ounces of baby formula, breast milk, or juice are permitted through the security checkpoint in reasonable quantities for the duration of your itinerary, if you perform the following:I bet they have her on suspicious activity. Working a flight commuting job and having babies? Highly suspect, that. Yep.
Separate these items from the liquids, gels, and aerosols in your quart-size and zip-top bag.
Declare you have the items to one of our Security Officers at the security checkpoint.
Present these items for additional inspection once reaching the X-ray. These items are subject to additional screening.
"Because I am wondering why someone would allow herself to be treated so inhumanely by a bunch of thugs with badges when she could easily avoid such an ordeal by putting her breast milk through the x-ray scanner, which, as I linked above, should not harm the breast milk."This attitude gives too much power to the people that set the rules. "well, they set the rules, so we must follow the rules, don't cause problems, for gods sake, no body upset the status quo!" She should not have to choose to pass her baby milk through the x-ray machine over being harassed by the TSA agents. She was not "allowing herself" to be treated inhumanely, her rights were being violated. There is a difference.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.The constitution and the Bill of Rights are pretty short. They are worth reading, since they are literally the bedrock of how we run our society. This is literally an issue of our most basic civil liberties.
Because I am wondering why someone would allow herself to be treated so inhumanely by a bunch of thugs with badges when she could easily avoid such an ordeal by putting her breast milk through the x-ray scanner, which, as I linked above, should not harm the breast milk.Are you suffering from poor reading comprehension? Are you missing the part where they got revenge on her the next time she was in the airport? How could she have known that that would happen, exactly?
I don't understand the sudden upsurge in TSA related outrage. I know that a lot of it is also being linked from pretty far right sites (Ron Paul right) -- that instantly makes me suspicious of its intent, despite not being a big fan of the TSA.You're not aware that they just instituted new procedures? Yes, people on the right are not happy about it, and I think they're more vocal because criticizing the TSA means criticizing Obama. Check out this hit job on John Tyner in The Nation, accusing him of being a secret Koch-Funded Astroturf agitator because 1) He doesn't vote and 2) considers himself a 'libertarian' of some sort.
In other words, if you don't like being searched, they're classing you as just short of an actual terrorist, forwarding your info to "Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division, the Extremism and Radicalization branch of the Office of Intelligence & Analysis (IA) division of the Department of Homeland Security."At the same time it's important to stay on firm factual ground. All the "domestic extremist stuff" is from blogs and the original source is some random conspiracy theory site who said that "publishing the documents would be illegal" (but quoting was fine, apparently).
"the woman is lectured for several additional minutes before finally being told to leave the security area to sit on the floor and poor her breast milk into eight 1.5 oz. containers."It's pour.
I was asking why she was so adamant about not having her breast milk x-rayed. After a few comments of people saying "why does that matter", I mentioned that in so doing, she was subjected to unwarranted harassment from a bunch of thugs with badges. If she had allowed her breast milk to go through the x-ray scanner, this probably wouldn't have happened.Right, so if a woman comes home late, and her husband is drunk and beats the shit out of her, it's her fault because if she'd just come home on time he wouldn't have done it? Even if you assume that the wife bares responsibility for inciting malicious acts against her, how is she to know that her husband was drunk and would beat her?
Which brings me to how the scanner works. Essentially, it appears that an X-ray beam is rastered across the body, which highlights the importance of one of the specific concerns raised by the UCSF scientists... what happens if the machine fails, or gets stuck, during a raster. How much radiation would a person's eye, hand, testicle, stomach, etc be exposed to during such a failure. What is the failure rate of these machines? What is the failure rate in an operational environment? Who services the machine? What is the decay rate of the filter? What is the decay rate of the shielding material?(The machine actually uses a powerful x-ray emitter, which is then mostly blocked by a filter. But you can remove the filter to make it work like a traditional X-Ray if you want)
" ... critics of the Bush administration argued that the system was a political tool.posted by ericb at 8:23 AM on November 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
And even Tom Ridge, the secretary of homeland security under President George W. Bush, has raised questions [about the color coded terror alerts]. In his memoir, 'The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege ... And How We Can Be Safe Again,' Mr. Ridge said Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, pushed for an elevated terrorism level in October 2004 after a threatening tape from Osama bin Laden was revealed.
Mr. Ridge wrote that after 'a vigorous, some might say dramatic, debate, I wondered, "Is this about security, or politics?"'"
Also - some distressing news: MIL tells us that she indicated to the Ft. Laud airport TSA that she would prefer the pat down to the scanner, and was told that she would go through the scanner or she "would not be flying today." WTF?? We will have to look into this.Anecdotal but very worrying. If this happens to me, I will miss my plane and be lawyering up.
Your joke at the end aside, I agree completely. You don't just hand someone a gun and say "have fun"; You make them learn how to safely use it (we could tie it in as a requirement to get a driver's license, for example).This is kind of a derail, but this idea 'everyone carries a gun' stuff is just insane. Right now the standard for a concealed carry license are pretty stringent, I would imagine. But if everyone needed to carry a gun, what would happen when people drink? Or use drugs? Or just have a momentary rage?
But when 75% of the adults in any crowd carry, only the suicidally stupid even try causing trouble - And those who do won't get very far.Right, but 'trouble' could mean anything that pisses off anyone else, not just actual crimes.
Dee Xtrovert - boiling frogs (as in the anecdote, not an accusation of animal cruelty)Slowly increasing the temperature on frogs causes them to jump out. Throwing them in boiling water actually causes them to die instantly.
Heart Disease 1-in-5_______________________
Cancer 1-in-7
Stroke 1-in-23
Accidental Injury 1-in-36
Motor Vehicle Accident 1-in-100
Intentional Self-harm (suicide) 1-in-121
Falling Down 1-in-246
Assault by Firearm 1-in-325
Fire or Smoke 1-in-1,116
Natural Forces (heat, cold, storms, quakes, etc.) 1-in-3,357
Electrocution 1-in-5,000
Drowning 1-in-8,942
Air Travel Accident 1-in-20,000
Flood 1-in-30,000
Legal Execution 1-in-58,618
Lightning Strike 1-in-83,930
Snake, Bee or other Venomous Bite or Sting 1-in-100,000
Earthquake 1-in-131,890
Dog Attack 1-in-147,717
Asteroid Impact 1-in-200,000
Tsunami 1-in-500,000
Fireworks Discharge 1-in-615,488
"Most of us are horrible assessors of risk. Travelers at American airports are taking extensive steps due to fears of terrorism. But in the decade of the 2000s, only about one passenger for every 25 million was killed in a terrorist attack aboard an American commercial airliner (all of the fatalities were on 9/11). By contrast, a person has about a one in 500,000 chance each year of being struck by lightning.posted by ericb at 4:50 PM on November 26, 2010 [9 favorites]
... Relative to the number of commercial departures world-wide, passenger deaths resulting from what I term "violent passenger incidents"—bombings, hijackings, and other sabotage—were at least five times less common in the 2000s than in any decade from the 1940s through the 1980s.
... Overall, academic and governmental databases report, terrorist attacks killed a total of about 5,300 people in the most highly developed nations since the end of the Cold War in 1991, a rate of about 300 per year. The chance of a Westerner being killed by a terrorist is exceedingly low: about a one in three million each year, or the same chance an American will be killed by a tornado. (The Department of Homeland Security's budget is 50 times larger than that of the weather service)."
Only two things have made flying safer [since 9/11]: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.It simply isn't possible to adequately secure all "soft targets." We have to rely on active human intelligence, and learn how to prioritize risk.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.It's my right to be secure in my persons. While the pat-down also violates this, it's my only option if I wish to fly. At least I've taken an action.
"Happy Thanksgiving, America!"*posted by ericb at 7:33 AM on November 27, 2010
* "The traditional TSA frisking of the bird."
"I wanted to become a naturalist," [the foreman] explained shyly, as though confessing a weakness. "I love animals. But I came to work in the mills. When I was promoted to foreman I got married, then the family came, and . . . well, I wasn't my own boss any more."So there's the rub. It's got to get pretty bad before people see principles as being worth the risk to their loved ones. If the risk is random and the authority behind it unassailable, it can be worse than if the risk is evident and relatively high.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"I was explaining why I testified at the trial the way I did--why I followed instructions."
"Whose instructions?"
"Colonel Ingram. He outlined the evidence I was to give."
"And it lost Jackson's case for him."
He nodded, and the blood began to rise darkly in his face.
"And Jackson had a wife and two children dependent on him."
"I know," he said quietly, though his face was growing darker.
"Tell me," I went on, "was it easy to make yourself over from what you were, say in high school, to the man you must have become to do such a thing at the trial?"
The suddenness of his outburst startled and frightened me. He ripped* out a savage oath, and clenched his fist as though about to strike me.
"I beg your pardon," he said the next moment. "No, it was not easy. And now I guess you can go away. You've got all you wanted out of me. But let me tell you this before you go. It won't do you any good to repeat anything I've said. I'll deny it, and there are no witnesses. I'll deny every word of it; and if I have to, I'll do it under oath on the witness stand."
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posted by KokuRyu at 10:19 PM on November 25, 2010 [1 favorite]