Come on Nick, you're talking trash here. The tip came from a British citizen. Domestic surveillance contributed nada, zip, zero. And what was done after the tip was mainly done in the UK which isn't a republic nor has anywhere near the constitutional freedoms we're supposed to enjoy. In fact domestic US surveillance has been responsible for almost every fiasco we've had. The four guys from Buffalo NY who were wrongly accused and had their lives ruined for example. And you don't find it odd that we knew about this for months and yet nothing was done until yesterday? It appears you don't know when you're being manipulated. And the liberal versus conservative stuff gets old. I'm about as conservative as they come but come on, use a little logic for once.
Yesterday was a joke. A pilot I know had his toothpaste lifted by the TSA monkeys who we're whipped into a frenzy by this moronic directive. As he handed it over this pilot (who is a Federal Flight Deck Officer) asked the TSA guy "do you want my gun too?" Mass confusion then occurred and several other TSA personnel and supervisors had to be called. It took them 20 minutes to resolve this before the toothpaste was returned. We won't even get into why, if liquids could be explosive, the TSA was dumping tubs of confiscated possible explosives into garbage cans inside crowded airports. Give me a break.
That aside, terrorism almost by definition doesn't involve an act being accomplished. All it requires is fear. You may want to read the exhaustively researched Cato Institute paper by Ohio State University on the subject. The case against being afraid of terrorism is laid out in irrefutable logic, backed with credible, documented statistics about terrorism's risks. From the number of fatalities produced by terrorism to the trends in terrorism death to the fact that almost no one has ever died from a military biological agent to the fact that poison gas and dirty bombs in the field do only minor damage -- this paper is the most reassuring and infuriating piece of analysis I've read since September 11th. It clearly proves the "keep 'em scared" BS blatantly employed by the morons in this administration.
The bottom line is, terrorism doesn't kill many people. Even in Israel you're four times more likely to die in a car wreck than as a result of a terrorist attack. In the USA you need to be more worried about lightning strikes than terrorism. The point of terrorism is to create terror and by cynically convincing us that our very countries are at risk from terrorism our politicians have delivered utter victory to the terrorists.
The shock and tragedy of September 11 does demand a focused and dedicated program to confront international terrorism and to attempt to prevent a repeat. But it seems sensible to suggest that part of this reaction should include an effort by politicians, officials, and the media to inform the public realistically about the terrorist context instead of playing into the hands of terrorists by frightening the population. What is needed is some sort of convincing, coherent, informed answer to a central question: "How worried should I be?" Instead the message the nation has received so far from Homeland Security is: "Be scared; be very, very scared -- but go on with your lives." Such messages have led many people to develop what Leif Wenar of the University of Sheffield has aptly labeled "a false sense of insecurity."
I'm tempted to call the current administration's policy pure manipulation except it's more likely a combination of manipulation for political gain coupled with astonishing incompetence. You can read the paper here:
http://tinyurl.com/mw9ty
Course, none of that helps if you're one of the extremely unlikely few to fall victim to an attack so you may also want to read these two articles about studies concerning the history of suicide acts and why for the first time in history they're as prevalent as they are. In other words, what motivates many of these "terrorists":
http://tinyurl.com/lbkye
http://tinyurl.com/zy3tg
It's a myth the bad guys hate us for our "freedoms and way of life", something that keeps being promoted by our great leader. History has proven time and again people are driven to such acts by the same few perceptions. Perceptions that, should the shoe be on the other foot, would be shared by a majority of other peoples....including Americans.
Finally, how's it feel to be in a minority?:
http://tinyurl.com/flp8u
I guess the rest of us must be idiots. Your boy's time is coming and I for one will take great pleasure in seeing him hit rock bottom. One can only hope he and his cronies will finally be held accountable for their crimes.
