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T.S.A. Expands Duties Beyond Airport Security

If you're not doing anything wrong, why do you care about something that has the potential to save your life? I've never understood the mindset, frankly. If they'd have been in the right place at the right time, the Boston bombing could have been prevented. We live in a complicated world. Strangers are trying to annihilate us. I wish they'd walk around with portable metal detectors. Might get some illegal guns off the streets.

Must have been a slow news day at the N.Y. Times, the L.A. Times covered this back in 2011.
TSA screenings aren't just for airports anymore
Roving security teams increasingly visit train stations, subways and other mass transit sites to deter terrorism. Critics say it's largely political theater.
->TSA screenings aren't just for airports anymore - Los Angeles Times

The problem is, the TSA and groups like Viper Squads were set up by the Democrats as a jobs program after 9/11. If you remember all of the Dems after 9/11 running around like roaches at a Motel 6 scared and yelling, "Save us President Bush the Muslims are coming."

Now anyone who has flown over the past decade know these TSA agents are incompetent, are unemployable in the private sector and are a joke. They don't profile so it's a waste of money. Name one terrorist they have been caught or one terrorist plot they have broken up ?
Ask any in law enforcement who have worked with the VIPR squads and they will tell you they are a joke.

Since they don't profile and if they were to jack up someone who looks like a terrorist from the Middle East they know that Eric Holder would be all over them so they pick out white 80 year old grandmothers and 8 year old white girls to strip search.

But it's gone beyond the airports. Rest areas along the interstate, truck scales, rodeos and shopping malls ! AMTRAK police had to kick Viper squads off of trains because they were jacking up everyone on the train.

And during the Boston Marathon terrorist bombings where was the Viper Squads ? Not in Boston but jacking up and touching the junk of bull riders at a rodeo at Cody, Wyoming !

Now anyone who has gone through the pleasant experience of flying El Al airlines noticed that nobody touches your junk, not one finger is laid upon you and at worse you might be asked a few simple questions. Why is that ? They profile.

We are becoming a police state. The federal government keeps track of who you called and who called you. The IRS targets you if your a conservative. The TSA falls under the Department of Homeland Security and Big Sis can't explain to Congress why they purchased 1.5 billions rounds of small arms ammunition for.
 
If you're not doing anything wrong, why do you care about something that has the potential to save your life? I've never understood the mindset, frankly. If they'd have been in the right place at the right time, the Boston bombing could have been prevented. We live in a complicated world. Strangers are trying to annihilate us. I wish they'd walk around with portable metal detectors. Might get some illegal guns off the streets.

The Feds WERE at the Boston bombing playing make believe. It is precisely because I am not doing anything wrong that I care. Universal Conceal and Carry would allow me to protect my own life and not have to deal with the potential for abuse and intrusion.
 
Then it really must irk you that your view politically is on the fringe.

What irks me is that we've been doing the same thing for almost 70 years and somehow we think the outcomes should be different. The logical fail is what irks me. The purposeful abdication of reason and logic is what irks me.
 
Well, the "people" keep voting them into office don't they?

Yeah, the system is rigged to support the single party. Death of political competition is really solidifying the status quo. The status quo isn't a good thing, but people are lost in the pointing of fingers to realize their side is doing the same thing.
 
Well, you do have a point there, but I wouldn't call people stupid for being caught in the two party cycle, it is after all what they are fed on a daily basis as the only way their voice counts, and most people don't follow this crap like we do.

Not necessarily stupid. Apathetic and intentionally ignorant more likely. Dupes of designing men certainly.
 
What irks me is that we've been doing the same thing for almost 70 years and somehow we think the outcomes should be different. The logical fail is what irks me. The purposeful abdication of reason and logic is what irks me.

So, how's that anger workin out for ya? Getting a lot of libertarian wins in elections is it?
 
So, how's that anger workin out for ya? Getting a lot of libertarian wins in elections is it?

No, it's a win for no one. We just continue our wars and the aggregation of government power, and happily the ignorant trot down the road of fascism.
 
No, it's a win for no one. We just continue our wars and the aggregation of government power, and happily the ignorant trot down the road of fascism.

Well, although we probably agree more than disagree on a range of things, I don't think that going through life thinking that people that don't agree with everything I believe exactly are somehow stupid, or less intelligent than I am. It doesn't help to draw people to listen to what you have to say when you constantly talk down to people as if they are beneath you. Then they don't listen, but rather think that you are just being a jerk (not saying you are one, I don't know you in real life)...This is a problem many Ron Paul supporters have, as well as a huge problem for the current crop of progressive liberals today.

For example, When TNE says this:

TheNextEra said:
Being on the "fringe" isn't necessarily a bad thing all the time. At one time, there were "fringe" people that believed the Earth was round instead of flat. Silly them.

This is an insult...Why should anyone in here listen to a damn thing the guy has to say past this? After all, if I don't agree with him, I must be a "flat earther" right? :roll:

It is dangerously close to the mindset of the AGW cultists out there that have thrown reason out the window for blind acceptance of a theory that has been politically skewed to meet a political goal rather than any true immediate threat from man.

All I am saying, is that maybe in furthering your particular line of thinking, approaching people in a way that doesn't scream 'believe the same as me, or you just stupid' in the angriest manner you can muster would help further your discussion....That's all.
 
Do you really think the embacy in Libya or Egypt is doing a damn think to negotiate peace? Sorry, but that is a bill of sale I'm not buying.

Are you saying that Chris Stevens deserved to die?
 
Well, although we probably agree more than disagree on a range of things, I don't think that going through life thinking that people that don't agree with everything I believe exactly are somehow stupid, or less intelligent than I am. It doesn't help to draw people to listen to what you have to say when you constantly talk down to people as if they are beneath you. Then they don't listen, but rather think that you are just being a jerk (not saying you are one, I don't know you in real life)...This is a problem many Ron Paul supporters have, as well as a huge problem for the current crop of progressive liberals today.

For example, When TNE says this:



This is an insult...Why should anyone in here listen to a damn thing the guy has to say past this? After all, if I don't agree with him, I must be a "flat earther" right? :roll:

It is dangerously close to the mindset of the AGW cultists out there that have thrown reason out the window for blind acceptance of a theory that has been politically skewed to meet a political goal rather than any true immediate threat from man.

All I am saying, is that maybe in furthering your particular line of thinking, approaching people in a way that doesn't scream 'believe the same as me, or you just stupid' in the angriest manner you can muster would help further your discussion....That's all.

I understand that, but the measurements are too obvious. The observables are clear, and people march down the road blindly and in doing so they endanger my rights. All the time bigger government, all the time more intrusive government. It just keeps going, it's like an evil Energizer Bunny. More aggressiveness, more force, more Big Brother behavior. This is undeniable and it is clearly dangerous to allow government a free hand. It has always been dangerous to allow government a free hand. Yet people turn away from obvious measurement and observation and pretend for sake of fear or convenience or apathy or whatever reason pretend that things are fine. Meanwhile, we drive ourselves into further debt, we don't really address any issue of terrorism, the government grows bigger, and we become less free. And I for one ain't so happy about being drug down with the lot because enough people don't care enough to pay attention or fall prey to fear tactics.

Also I didn't say stupid, I said ignorance. Ignorance can be fixed with education. And it wasn't the angriest manner I could muster either, it was more poetic.
 
I understand that, but the measurements are too obvious. The observables are clear, and people march down the road blindly and in doing so they endanger my rights. All the time bigger government, all the time more intrusive government. It just keeps going, it's like an evil Energizer Bunny. More aggressiveness, more force, more Big Brother behavior. This is undeniable and it is clearly dangerous to allow government a free hand. It has always been dangerous to allow government a free hand. Yet people turn away from obvious measurement and observation and pretend for sake of fear or convenience or apathy or whatever reason pretend that things are fine. Meanwhile, we drive ourselves into further debt, we don't really address any issue of terrorism, the government grows bigger, and we become less free. And I for one ain't so happy about being drug down with the lot because enough people don't care enough to pay attention or fall prey to fear tactics.

I understand, and in some cases I couldn't agree more...We are a nation of sheep, that tunes in to their favorite news outlet, whether it be FNC, or MSNBC and tunes out. I swear sometimes I get the picture of that scene in the first Mummy movie, where they are in the hotel in Egypt, and the town's people are marching toward them, under the spell of the Mummy, with blank stares, all repeating in unison, "Emotep, Emotep, Emotep"..... And on certain things I can even admit that I fall prey to that from time to time...I think we all do to some extent...

We see it in here, that in certain things if you close your eyes and repeat certain sentences over and over, you can almost picture a Chris Matthews, or Sean Hannity saying the exact same thing...But I don't think that overcoming that mindset is in berating those people, and proclaiming them ignorant for not listening, but rather talking to them and laying out your case in a civil manner...Some will see it, others will not.

Also I didn't say stupid, I said ignorance. Ignorance can be fixed with education. And it wasn't the angriest manner I could muster either, it was more poetic.

In many cases we see ourselves in a different light that what is actually the case.
 
We see it in here, that in certain things if you close your eyes and repeat certain sentences over and over, you can almost picture a Chris Matthews, or Sean Hannity saying the exact same thing...But I don't think that overcoming that mindset is in berating those people, and proclaiming them ignorant for not listening, but rather talking to them and laying out your case in a civil manner...Some will see it, others will not.

I don't think the mindset can be overcome. Sometimes an engineering student needs to be told they aren't cut out for engineering. Sometimes the physics grad student needs to be told that they are not intelligent enough to continue. Sometime the ignorant need to be informed that they are ignorant. Will it solve the problem? I'm under no delusion. I think given the observables and the reactions, many are very content in their ignorance and purposefully avoid breaking it. Everything is obvious, it's as obvious as addition. If one does not see it, it is because they choose not to see it. How do you fight willful ignorance.

But they're dragging me to hell in a handbasket, I'm going to bitch during the entire trip.

In many cases we see ourselves in a different light that what is actually the case.

That's because people like to read into things and add emotions that are not there. What I said previous is nothing more than a statement of fact.
 
I don't think the mindset can be overcome. Sometimes an engineering student needs to be told they aren't cut out for engineering. Sometimes the physics grad student needs to be told that they are not intelligent enough to continue. Sometime the ignorant need to be informed that they are ignorant. Will it solve the problem? I'm under no delusion. I think given the observables and the reactions, many are very content in their ignorance and purposefully avoid breaking it. Everything is obvious, it's as obvious as addition. If one does not see it, it is because they choose not to see it. How do you fight willful ignorance.

But they're dragging me to hell in a handbasket, I'm going to bitch during the entire trip.

So then, what are you doing here? Are you just here to bitch and moan? Good grief, if in the end I thought that was all I was here to do, I'd pull out in a second....

That's because people like to read into things and add emotions that are not there. What I said previous is nothing more than a statement of fact.

Maybe you don't intend it, and I understand that, but, what you see as fact someone else doesn't...That is also a statement of fact.
 
So then, what are you doing here? Are you just here to bitch and moan? Good grief, if in the end I thought that was all I was here to do, I'd pull out in a second....

Refine arguments and experience other philosophies. A lot of it is personal education. Maybe I'll be able to cobble something together to make more persuasive arguments, maybe not. It's hard to combat willful ignorance.

Maybe you don't intend it, and I understand that, but, what you see as fact someone else doesn't...That is also a statement of fact.

Maybe true, but in the face of repeated measurement and observation, it becomes less and less reasonable to not see the facts.
 
Americans are so damned fickle. In one breath they whine about being spied on but the minute something bad happens, they cry about how the government did not do enough. Make up your damned minds.

So...

Basically, you can't oppose over-intrusive govt and want them to do the right things without being a hypocrite, and Americans are all one collective hive mind without different ares of personal views on various issues, is that right?

IMO, that is a HORRIBLY ignorant view of things - both a terrible view of the opinions being made and a terrible sense of logic.

IF you don't like the original x-ray scanners, for example, want them to do the right thing [and in your opinion for this example that were to do Israeli methods], and kept shouting at them when they screwed up, where's the hypocrisy? Where is the contradiction?

IMO strictly, there is none - an d it'd behoove those who use such intellectually dishonest tactics - regardless of the side of an issue they're on - to just cut the crap if you want to be taken seriously.
 
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