No, because in Indian culture, a bit of your soil or a piece of your homeland is like gold! It’s a very old thing…lots of people bring some of it over. The Customs guy should have known.
This is silly.
Thank heavens I always ask for cheap earrings rather than a rock! At least no one confiscates them as potentially lethal weapons.
I suspect they would confiscate bear hands, though. Pretty disgusting (assuming they’re fresh), even if they weren’t dangerous.
The bear would depend on whether or not he had a ticket. And, of course, how well he was dressed. If you got him a passport, put him in a suit, and made sure he had a visible laptop, cell phone, and palm pilot, it’s possible they wouldn’t even notice.
Customs: And what are you carrying, sir?
Bear: Grroww!!!
You: Can’t you see he’s on his cell phone? Have some manners, can’t you?
Not to mention how easy it would probably be to slit someone’s throat with a credit or ATM card.
So much for being able to pay for things while on vacation!
Too late. You’re already on The List.
-Joe
Not sure what the limit is on bumping IMHO threads, but well, I think we should, and, in fact, if we’re really here to fight ignorance, it should be made a sticky. Now that I think about it, someone should start a Wiki on such things. (BTW, Homeland Stupidity doesn’t think too highly of current events, I see.)
I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel very safe that Tris doesn’t have a rock. He’d just put it into his kimchee and make everyone eat it.
If this rock were so special, and I’m not doubting it is, are there not means to ship the thing to the recipient?
Look, everyone is going to be inconvenienced with the “new” standards of security. I’ve lost two sets of nail clippers in the past 3 years due to security standards. I learned how to deal with that.
3 weeks ago, did anyone here even dream that a bottle of Gatorade would be a reason of concern? No? We’re in a situation that those hoping to kill us are coming up with new ways to do so.
The airline security agencies aren’t looking to make your life a living hell. They’re looking to prevent attacks that would otherwise make you say “Goddamn assholes didn’t do anything to keep us safe.”
What a major assault on your enjoyment of a world where nobody is supposed to throw a speedbump across your path.
Too bad the world doesn’t take your life into account when planning to kill as many of us as they can.
A fucking rock? Are you fucking kidding me?
I knew no one was going to really get the whole rock thing.
The rock, which I never saw, was not a valuable rock, nor a rock purchased in India from a rock merchant. It was (if my friend did what I asked her to, and I have no reason to doubt it) an ordinary rock, found in a place where she visited in India (which is her home, but not mine). I did say I would prefer a rock not used as paving material, but rather from a creek bed, or seashore, or just buried in the dirt of her back yard. I told her that it could be any small size, but certainly not too big to fit in my pocket.
I like rocks. I have a bowl of rocks. I have been given rocks from many places, over many years, by many friends who know of my fondness for rocks. I always have liked rocks, and collected my own for many years, even getting a rock tumbler and spending a few years polishing rocks. I give those away to people who come to my home and admire my rocks. The whole “get me a rock” thing started when my friend “Skippy” came home from Idaho, from his job in the summer after our senior year in high school. Skippy used to bring presents from anywhere he went for all his friends, and he was a very good present giver. His gifts always reflected his thoughts about that person at the time he was in that place. He brought me a rock, from the Rocky Mountains. He broke the rock off of the Rocky Mountains himself, and brought it for me. All of our mutual friends were quite jealous.
After that, everyone I knew sent, or brought me rocks from wherever they went. I have piece of petrified turtle shit, and a piece of Trinitite, a piece of shale over half a billion years old, a chunk of lava that came out of a volcano less than twenty years ago, lots of interesting rocks. What I do not have is gems. None of my rocks is particularly valuable. I have a few pieces of Amethyst, some Alexanderite, some rose quartz, well, lots and lots of pretty rocks. And some ugly rocks as well.
The rock itself was not yet even a symbol, much less a treasure of any value. It would have become a precious reminder of a good friend who thought of me while on the other side of the world, but instead, its absence is a symbol of the times in which we live. No biggie, my friend will somehow get a rock for me. It might not come from India, but it will still come from her.
So, to the forces of . . . whatever, that are arrayed and entrenched to prevent this sort of thing, I laugh at your pitiful attempts to stop me. I shall prevail in your despite! Tremble in fear before me! You have stopped one small rock. Do you think, because of your ineffectual efforts the avalanche will not come! Muuahhhh ha ha ha! Fools!
Tris
BTW, it was inevitable.
How many claims were made here about the government knowing of the 9/11 attacks and not doing anything about it? Well, now we have policies forming to prevent such attacks.
And, of course, we have people complaining about the steps taken to prevent the very attacks that led to the complaints in the first place.
Seriously. I just need some clarification. I’m in no position to prevent or allow any of this shit happening. I’m looking to all those in the Hindsight Camp to tell us what measures are needed to prevent an attack like 11 Sept 2001 from happening today, 12 August 2006.
And the level of difficulty is those here that on 10 September 2001 would have rained fire on BushCo for “profiling.”
The Powers That Be are confiscating rocks because they do not wish to be caught knapping.
they’ll stone you for that in some places.
C’mon now! Play gneiss!
Yeah, but everyone…nah, too easy. 
I took it for granite, but I guess everything is for shale; tough schist. it’slate, I gotta go, we’ll have to chaulk it up and let it go.
I’ve lost my flinty resolve, unfortunately, but you’ve got a lava nerve, I’d tell you to go ahead and magma day, but I’m the salt of the earth type.
Deaths from terrorism, including domestic terrorism, are a very minor element in the overall mortality of Americans, or even world wide. Even during 2001, the peak year ever for terrorism in the USA, terrorists killed less than a quarter of the number killed by drunk drivers. Do you support routine surveillance without warrants for bars? Should we have internment camps and tribunals for “unlawful non-pedestrians?”
A terrorist is criminal with a political agenda. If you ignore his politics, he becomes an unimportant criminal. The government cannot stop the merchandizing of political fear. That is against the Constitution. But we can. Tell your media sources that you will automatically boycott the product advertised immediately after a criminal’s political aspirations are published on their medium. Then do it, and tell the product seller why.
If you can’t get your politics on the air, you die an unknown idiot. That’s a fate far worse than death for the guys that sent you out to become a martyr. That’s a fate almost as bad as a mild inconvenience to the guys that send out martyrs. Islamic terrorism doesn’t come from Iraq. It doesn’t come from Iran, or Lebanon. It comes from our allies, the Saudis. They pay for it, they promote it, they tolerate it, and they benefit from it. But they will sell you gas for you SUV, so it’s all okay with us.
So, drive a moped, turn your air conditioner down, and refuse to be terrorized. Terrorism is a tactic. You can’t make war on a tactic. And the people using terrorism against us are our own government, and the businesses that bribed their way into office. We are a nation of cowards, with big weapons. Of course we are a target for terrorists.
Sorry to hijack my own thread, but this attitude of “You didn’t say anything about freedom before 9/11, so you shouldn’t be whining now” is just egregious crap. I opposed the Iraq war under George I, and I opposed the creation of a mini super power in Israel in the seventies. I opposed the pointless wang waving of both parties in Viet Nam, and even spoke out against the idiocy of Korea, as a child.
Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
Tris
SDMB, fighting igneous since 1977 -it’s taking longer than we thought
There’s a technical term of this kind of thing - it’s called stupidity.
IT’S A ROCK! I don’t care if it’s a big rock or a small rock or a medium sized rock. Unless it’s a rock made of plutonium and it’s surrounded by a nuclear bomb, it’s not a serious threat. Seriously, imagine you’re on a plane and somebody stands up and yells, “I’m hijacking this plane! And don’t anyone try to stop me because I’ve got a rock and I’m not afraid to use it!” If I was a passenger, I’d go back to reading my magazine, fully confident that the stewardesses would be able to subdue the idiot and my assistance wasn’t needed.
“Better to be safe than sorry” some might say. No - not true. Because being safe is a slippery slope with no bottom. The idiots banning rocks and nail clippers today will be forbidding air travel itself tomorrow. Maybe they’ll decide it’s too dangerous for anyone to drive a car or use the internet or read a book because somewhere something bad might result. You’ll be allowed to sit in a padded room in your house, drinking pre-mixed liquid meals, and watch “Barney” reruns.
Do not stay quiet while your life is taken over “for your own good”.
Amen, Tris! Well-said!
Oh Og, the puns just get boulder and boulder!
:smack:
I was up against a hard place. this whole thread is ungraveling. I have only one quarry left - why did we invade i-rock in the first place?