2 1/2 years ago 20 guys with $3 boxcutters, set this nation along a path to destroy itself.
The latest example.
I can’t fathom the expense or the delays involved, but this is fucking stupid. The point of the convention is to bring money to NY, but what is the point when we turn around and spend bazillions on security?
Maybe we get to a point where it’s simply not worth it (say like checking every single train that passes under MSG, all 3,000 of them). You either take your chances getting blown up, or you go hold the thing on an army base.
Which of the following will find themselves inconvenienced, detained, and questioned the MOST by this massive police presence?
a) terrorists
b) smokers
c) squeegee wielding panhandlers
d) American citizens exercising their first amendment right to assemble peacefully and protest the actions and policies of the Bush administration
I raise a question on the boxcutters - I thought that nobody knew how the 9/11 terrorists managed to take control of the four aircraft, and that details involving boxcutters were mere conjecture.
Actually, smokers won’t be inconvenienced til after the convention. The very types who want the ban don’t want to inconvenience the Dems while they’re throwing money around.
And as for the commuters- well, the highways gonna be a mess, the trains into the city will be stopping short of the city and offlloading passengers onto busses.
I know a whole lot of people taking vacation that week, or working from home.
And what happened to the plastic shivs? On 9/11 itself newscasters kept talking about boxcutters and plastic shivs. The day after it was just boxcutters.
As for the hijackers using boxcutters or not, the point is they used a method that is considered “lowtech” would be an understatement.
We need to find the line between taking our chances in a tough world and protecting ourselves. I believe we are way to far on the protecting ourselves side.
Well, North Station is the same building as the Fleet Center, which is where the convention is being held. South Station could safely explode without disrupting the convention, and that’s the most important thing here.
Ah, I see. I am unfamiliar with that neighborhood. I also see that terrorists only go after politicians and never civilians. A lesson we learned on 9/11. :dubious:
It might well get worse under Kerry. Speaking today to the National Conference of Black Mayors, he blasted the Bush administration for failing to protect dozens of chemical plants in the US and leaving them vulnerable to terrorist attack. Surely, there are quite many sites of varying descriptions that may be considered vulnerable to terrorist attacks. If Kerry sticks to his word (which he has failed to do recently, in fact) then it seems likely that places all over the country will have heightened security.
Kind of a hijack here, but, Libertarian, you seem to jump on the Democrats and Kerry pretty often (and god knows there are good reasons to do just that).
I remember years back, when I was kind of flirting with small-l libertarianism and the Libertarian Party in particular, I went to a convention in Albany, New York. This was during the Reagan/Carter election.
Murray Rothbard was the convention speaker, and you can’t imagine a more dyed-in-the-wool libertarian. I remember distinctly him saying that Regan and the Republicans were the real threat to liberty, not Carter and the Democrats.
I don’t hear that kind of thinking much anymore among libertarians (or Libertarians).
