All Hank, all the time.

[SlaveNoMore]

Sexual Harassment Panda
Look at the picture - that's a jet, not a turboprop.

Is this code or something? Don't get it.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Is this code or something? Don't get it.

2.

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Is this code or something? Don't get it.

I agreed that racial profiling is appropriate, with certain rule of reason limitations. In response, you posted a cartoon that intimated that I was opposed. The only reason I could divine for it was that I had argued for an exception, and I used an example of a turboprop commuter flight.

I'll admit, a lot of distance between the dots.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Spanky
Is there anyone on this board that thinks racial profiling, when it comes to the war on terror, is a bad thing? In other words, supports this lawsuit by the ACLU that Slave referenced. Seriously? Ty? Taxwonk? SHP?
Adder? Sidd?

I have trouble saying I am flat-out against it. On the other hand, I find the concept very disturbing and I wonder if we aren't losing more than we are gaining. What's more, I recognize that it's very easy for me, as a white, middle-aged male to not be as threatened as those who would suffer most from racial profiling becoming accepted as a law-enforcement tool.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by sgtclub

• COUSHATTA -- Nine black children attending Red River Elementary School were directed last week to the back of the school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/...0332/1002/NEWS

Hmmm. Sounds like racial profiling to me.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Spanky
How about random checks, but if anyone looks middle eastern or Muslim they automatically get checked?

How about everybody gets checked, period? Or they have to sit in the back of the plane.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Sexual Harassment Panda
Like I said, not a bad thing to me, except I might apply a rule of reason. Single guys in a white robe travelling on a flight to Heathrow, do it every time. Olive skinned guy in a Marine uniform on a turboprop to Memphis, maybe not. Regardless, I personally don't think there's an absolute right to get on an airplane. Should we not check a pilot who looks like he's had a few drinks?

I disagree. I hate the fact that I can't say I'm absolutely opposed to it, but I have no doubt in my mind that it's wrong.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by taxwonk
How about everybody gets checked, period? Or they have to sit in the back of the plane.

You want to have to get to the airport four hours early for a flight? You really think eighty year old women from Des Moines need to be thoroughly checked?

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Spanky
The whole point of using Racial profiling is reason. Isn't it always good to use reason in everythinig you do? Doesn't that go without saying? And of course we should not let pilots who have been drinking fly planes, but that is a whole different subject. That has nothing to do with racial profiling.

So everyone on this board agrees. Our government needs to use racial profiling when choosing passengers for more thorough checkups during the boarding process for commercial flights.

Actually, the whole point of racial profiling is to use knee-jerk reaction as opposed to reason. It's easier to target a whole ethnic/religious/racial/national/group than it is to use discretion and reasoning to isolate those most likely to represent a risk.

And actually, the more I read what people have to say, the more I become opposed to it. I guess my answer is yes, after all. I do oppose racial profiling. If we are going to search ten year old Arab boys and girls, then we should search Georgia Cracker grandmas.

Thanks folks, for helping me regain some pride in being an American.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Spanky
You want to have to get to the airport four hours early for a flight? You really think eighty year old women from Des Moines need to be thoroughly checked?

What if the eighty year old woman from Des Moines is Muslim whose father and mother emigrated from Lebanon?

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Spanky
You want to have to get to the airport four hours early for a flight? You really think eighty year old women from Des Moines need to be thoroughly checked?

I think it's a waste of time, energy, and resources to concentrate on my friend Maddie, who was born in Egypt, moved here and became an American citizen twenty years ago, pays taxes, votes, contributes to the economy, is gay, drinks alcohol, eats pork and genuinely is afraid of islamo facists. Probably moreso than most people on this board, because they hate him more than they hate you.

But if making Maddie go through more rigorous screening makes you feel safer, I'm sure he won't mind.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I think it's a waste of time, energy, and resources to concentrate on my friend Maddie, who was born in Egypt, moved here and became an American citizen twenty years ago, pays takes, votes, contributes to the economy, is gay, drinks alcohol, eats pork and genuinely is afraid of islamo facists. Probably moreso than most people on this board, because they hate him more than they hate you.

But if making Maddie go through more rigorous screening makes you feel safer, I'm sure he won't mind.

I'm pretty sure SHP and Spanky would agreed that an Arab with a note of reference from a white person could get a pass on the screening.

[SlaveNoMore]

Replaced_Texan
I think it's a waste of time, energy, and resources to concentrate on my friend Maddie, who was born in Egypt, moved here and became an American citizen twenty years ago, pays taxes, votes, contributes to the economy, is gay, drinks alcohol, eats pork and genuinely is afraid of islamo facists. Probably moreso than most people on this board, because they hate him more than they hate you.

But if making Maddie go through more rigorous screening makes you feel safer, I'm sure he won't mind.

To paraphrase Otter, it's a damn shame "when a few bad apples ruin a good time for us all"

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I think it's a waste of time, energy, and resources to concentrate on my friend Maddie, who was born in Egypt, moved here and became an American citizen twenty years ago, pays taxes, votes, contributes to the economy, is gay, drinks alcohol, eats pork and genuinely is afraid of islamo facists. Probably moreso than most people on this board, because they hate him more than they hate you.

But if making Maddie go through more rigorous screening makes you feel safer, I'm sure he won't mind.

So if there are hundred people entering onto a plane and six are males from Lebanon with their six wives who are wearing headscarf’s and the other eighty eight are all Caucasian Christians from Midwest - , who gets the extra search - should it be random?

Give me a break. Of course those twelve people from Lebanon may hate Islamofascists more than I do. They may even have had relatives killed by Islamofascists. But that is beside the point.

The point is probabilities. The odds that the Midwesterners are terrorists is probably one in one hundred million and the odds of the Lebanese being terrorists are one in one hundred thousand. The safety of travelers is increased when you accept that those are how the statistics work and you don't sit in denial of them.

What do you think the odds are of the next terrorist attack on an airliner being done by a person who is not a male of Middle Eastern descent? Doesn't it makes sense to keep searching all males of Middle Eastern descent. Yes you will give extra searches to a lot of innocent people, but you will be a lot safer.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I think it's a waste of time, energy, and resources to concentrate on my friend Maddie, who was born in Egypt, moved here and became an American citizen twenty years ago, pays taxes, votes, contributes to the economy, is gay, drinks alcohol, eats pork and genuinely is afraid of islamo facists. Probably moreso than most people on this board, because they hate him more than they hate you.

But if making Maddie go through more rigorous screening makes you feel safer, I'm sure he won't mind.

Its a waste of time seraching 99.99% of the people who go through the process. But until the screeners can read minds they have to work with the resources that they have. To not use racial profiling is not using the resources that they have.