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Paranoia in the states
Mundane
Elite Ranger
in Zocalo v2.0
A friend of a friend of mine is currently in the states, and for him being an european....well read the email below :)
-----------------------
so, washington was my last station in my "3-day and 5 cities" marathon.
since there is an "extreme makeover" of washington in the name of
security and "easier accessibility" (whatever this means, but i mean
accessibility for the security officers) i cannot make fotos like the
ones you find in the brochures and travel guides. and i have to admit,
that i really love the pictures because this reflects the situation in
the usa very well. everything and allmost every city i have visited
(except seattle and chicago) is under permanent security surveilance and
"permanent threat".
therefore the latest addition to the "park of monuments" is captured on
the paranoia.jpg. x-ray and metal detectors nearly everywhere. even if
you want to access the botanical gardens (a glasshouse of the size of a
tennis court) in washington, you have to pass a body check (no, not done
by a women), a metal detector and your backpacks wil be x-rayed. hey, i
have never felt so secure in a glashouse. but i can still smuggle stones
into the glasshouse, and can smash the windows, huh.
at least i can leave the usa in about 2 weeks. i would not be able to
cope with the security all the time. i need the kick of pure danger. i
want to live at a place where not everyone is x-rayed and is a possible
threat to my life. i am an "outlaw man".
greatings from new york
PS: sorry for the sacarstic email, but i really dont like the situation
here in the states. the paranoia (latest nation-wide "attraction") is
annyoing.
-------------
Another friend of mine is now in the states as well. He took some
pictures of the pentagon. Some security people forced him to delete the
pictures.
-----------------------
so, washington was my last station in my "3-day and 5 cities" marathon.
since there is an "extreme makeover" of washington in the name of
security and "easier accessibility" (whatever this means, but i mean
accessibility for the security officers) i cannot make fotos like the
ones you find in the brochures and travel guides. and i have to admit,
that i really love the pictures because this reflects the situation in
the usa very well. everything and allmost every city i have visited
(except seattle and chicago) is under permanent security surveilance and
"permanent threat".
therefore the latest addition to the "park of monuments" is captured on
the paranoia.jpg. x-ray and metal detectors nearly everywhere. even if
you want to access the botanical gardens (a glasshouse of the size of a
tennis court) in washington, you have to pass a body check (no, not done
by a women), a metal detector and your backpacks wil be x-rayed. hey, i
have never felt so secure in a glashouse. but i can still smuggle stones
into the glasshouse, and can smash the windows, huh.
at least i can leave the usa in about 2 weeks. i would not be able to
cope with the security all the time. i need the kick of pure danger. i
want to live at a place where not everyone is x-rayed and is a possible
threat to my life. i am an "outlaw man".
greatings from new york
PS: sorry for the sacarstic email, but i really dont like the situation
here in the states. the paranoia (latest nation-wide "attraction") is
annyoing.
-------------
Another friend of mine is now in the states as well. He took some
pictures of the pentagon. Some security people forced him to delete the
pictures.
Comments
body checks for a glasshouse? the expression 'wtf' comes to mind. i didnt know they're botanical displays were a controlled substance:rolleyes: i mean, honestly......[I]why[/I]?
[url]http://trondaks.home.cern.ch/trondaks/images/usa/capitol.jpg[/url]
[url]http://trondaks.home.cern.ch/trondaks/images/usa/library_of_congress.jpg[/url]
[url]http://trondaks.home.cern.ch/trondaks/images/usa/paranoia.jpg[/url]
[url]http://trondaks.home.cern.ch/trondaks/images/usa/washington_monument.jpg[/url]
[url]http://trondaks.home.cern.ch/trondaks/images/usa/white_house.jpg[/url]
[url]http://trondaks.home.cern.ch/trondaks/images/usa/reflecting_pool_and_lincoln_memorial.jpg[/url]
[url]http://trondaks.home.cern.ch/trondaks/images/usa/reflecting_pool_and_washington_monument.jpg[/url]
I know St. Augustine and most other locals in Florida are not like that....
They've stopped tours of the White House, did you know that? It seems the People's House, well, isn't ours anymore. And I think I know who to blame.
Hey, anybody remember this quote? "When you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy."
There is security, then there is rediculous overkill. Not only is the whitehouse offlimits to the population, but so is the Washington monumnet, and the Statue of Liberty (new york). WTF???
I dont even know what to think about it anymore, it sucks what this country has done to itself. Id like to place all the blame on Bush, but I think a lot of it was more Cheney. Cheney needs to go, and he can take his Bush puppet with him.
[B]Something ain't right with that town, did anyone see fahrenheit 9/11 pretty revealing to how much bush really cares about the way the world is. [/B][/QUOTE]
just a FYI, that movie was propaganda BS. based incredibly loosly on fact (ala, real videos) but arranged such to relay something incredibly false.
example being how bush finished that story about the goat. When you find out what that book is about, you fully understand. It was something about how this one goat believed in liberty and justice, and doing what is right, and another group didn't. It fit RIGHT in with what was happening.
[B]There is security, then there is rediculous overkill. Not only is the whitehouse offlimits to the population, but so is the Washington monumnet, and the Statue of Liberty (new york). WTF???[/B][/QUOTE]
yes, i can see how the last 2 would be crippling to the US if they were to be destroyed........:rolleyes:
Precautions are being taken mostly due to some increased intel of terroist activites, and Presidential elections coming up soon.
And BTW, please, in God's name, use some common sense and DON'T believe everything that Michael Moore spouts from his mouth!
I'm a US citizen, and you would think I would have a little more knowledge of how things go in my country than someone visiting from Europe. I generally try not to come to conclusions about other countries from what I see on TV or read off of websites, as I think that people from that particular country better represent what it's like. I'm sure if I visited Switzerland I would get an impression of the country and people that was lightyears off from the way it actually is, but that is just my opinion I suppose.
And trust me, the security precautions in Washington are NOT the norm in this country, it's the exception! Including how our nit-wit politicians act. Washington is a nice place to visit for the museams and history, but there are TONS of much nicer places to see. The mountains and beaches are quite beautiful on the East Coast.
[B]Why does only one post negate what I say? I've been lurking at this site since before "Into the Fire" was cancelled; I just don't post on Internet forums. [/B][/QUOTE]
And now we know why ... ;)
Don't mind the other post, everyone here is welcome to share their opinion...
;)
I live on the West Coast, and it isn't like that out here in California.
As to the pictures, why did they drain the reflecting pool? I suspect construction may account for some of those pictures more than terrorist threats...
-Φ
[B]Jack beat me to it. Your post count has nothing to do with the value of your opinion. I mean look at Biggles. He's got tons of posts, but it's not like anyone listens to him ;) [/B][/QUOTE]
I sure as hell hope they don't. :D
[B]As to the pictures, why did they drain the reflecting pool? I suspect construction may account for some of those pictures more than terrorist threats...
-Φ [/B][/QUOTE]Terrorists could put Anthrax in the pool. :eek:
? maybe...
[B]And those "ID Checkpoints" are not all over the country; I've never seen one except in that pic of yours. Don't think the entire country is paranoid from a brief visit.[/b][/quote]
I can attest to that. If we were to follow that logic, then everyone up in Canada must be nice as hell because of one or two people, or everyone in Japan is a master at karate or whatever martial art you pick at random. I've had the opportunity to visit quite a few states in my 23 years of life, and its not as bad as you think. Matter of fact, the only places I've seen the "100% ID check" signs are on military installations. Even then, they only check the driver 99% of the time.
[B]example being how bush finished that story about the goat. When you find out what that book is about, you fully understand. It was something about how this one goat believed in liberty and justice, and doing what is right, and another group didn't. It fit RIGHT in with what was happening. [/B][/QUOTE]
:eek:
What was [i]happening[/i] was the destruction of the two tallest buildings in the United States, and two more attacks yet to come. Now, I don't mean to sound blunt (okay, yes I do), but that's the sort of situation we have a president for. To make fast, athoritative decisions. His job was to defend this country by deciding that [i]this[/i] was what we were going to do, and [i]then[/i] having other people take care of it. Perhaps you don't realize how confused the situation was. Contradictory information, everyone looking to their boss to tell them what to do because they had no clue how to proceed. We [i]needed[/i] a leader, right then more then ever, to tell the FAA to ground the planes, to tell the military where to protect, and if they were authorized to force a plane down by any means necessary. To be given all the information, and to adapt our defense as the situation changed moment by moment.
But that's not what happened.
After being informed his country was under attack, he didn't spring into action like a lion on a trampoline, he continued his photo op as if nothing had happened. What if there had been more planes? What if his seven minutes reading to the kiddies (most of which was actually watching the kiddies read to themselves) had cost thousands more lives because more attacks happened, attacks that a clear, decisive set of orders could've prevented.
And don't you dare tell me his staff had things in hand. In this country, we elect our president to lead us, not his handlers. If the president delegates his duties to the degree that he can cool his heels at a classroom while his country is under attack, he is not the man I want to lead us. Furthermore, if I remember my Constitution correctly, its also an impeachable offense for a president to shirk his duties like that. And its damn better grounds for a hearing then a president lying about an affair when questioned during an investigation into his real estate dealings. While a faster response on September 11 by George W. Bush could've saved lives, I very much doubt any innocent americans were killed by Bill Clinton's inability to keep his wee-wee in his pants.
Oh, and about the story being a story of freedom and triumphing over adversity, where in the hell did you hear that? Its a story about a pet goat who causes a bloody mess by eating everything, and then foils a car theft (!), earning the right to eat whatever he damned well pleased. That's not a story of freedom, or anything approaching Truth, Justice, and the American Way. It would be as if the people who had foiled the shoe bomber a few years ago were given permission to shoplift whatever they wanted as a reward.
Oh, but don't take my word for it. [url=http://www.ledgeofliberty.com/2004/07/the_pet_goat_pa.html]Read it yourself.[/url]
The issue isn't what he read, or that he read. The issue is that he was the one man who had all the responsibility to make sure everything was well, and he shirked it. The buck stopped there, and if he isn't the sort of man who can handle that kind of pressure, he had no business putting his hand on that Bible and taking the oath of office.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by TheRangerOne [/i]
[B]Guys, the reason for all of that increased security is because of the elections coming up. If the US is going to be hit in the near future, during an election year would be the best time to influence the American voters. I went to Washington after 9/11; in fact it was in '02, and it wasn't as bad as your pictures show. And those "ID Checkpoints" are not all over the country; I've never seen one except in that pic of yours. Don't think the entire country is paranoid from a brief visit.[/B][/QUOTE]
Well, yes, that's great, but a lot of that stuff is permanent. I recall reading a magazine article that elaborated on this point. The anti-truckbomb wall around the washington monument, the big assed walls around the capital and the White House, those aren't just going to come back down come January. And the best part is, this is more lax than what was originally planned! They wanted to close all roads within a mile of the capital and have all access to the area be through gated underground tunnels!
[B]Jack beat me to it. Your post count has nothing to do with the value of your opinion. I mean look at Biggles. He's got tons of posts, but it's not like anyone listens to him ;)
-Φ [/B][/QUOTE]
I listen to Biggles...... Some times
[B]I listen to Biggles...... Some times [/B][/QUOTE] Explains a lot. :D
[B]Explains a lot. :D [/B][/QUOTE]
Explians What??
And when terrorists do succeed in an attack, the government doesn't get points for not being paranoid before then, so their actions are completely understandable.
Still, I know they've got to protect our landmarks and all that, but couldn't they use some better looking barriers or something? Everything looked really nice the last time I was there; but now from the pictures it looks all ghetto.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by The Cabl3 Guy [/i]
[B]Something ain't right with that town, did anyone see fahrenheit 9/11 pretty revealing to how much bush really cares about the way the world is. [/B][/QUOTE]
All F 9/11 revealed were the obvious truths that rich people know each other and the President talks to diplomats. On his website, Moore often times cites the media he claims doesn't report the stuff he's talking about.