Posted on 08/16/2002 10:18:03 PM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:56:19 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Please tell me this is a joke and what moroon came up with this idea
Because it's not part of the agenda, not in the plan.....
You're correct that it won't work for the stated purpose (keeping Abdul from boarding a plane).
But it will work quite well for advancing the emerging police state dictatorship.
You're 100% correct.
It's blatantanly obvious to any educated observer what that "agenda" is.
But that will probably for a new product called, "Black Silicon Tinfoil Toupee". We can make lots of money. NASA can make the mind reading technology and the CIA can make the stealth headgear and think of the job opportinities.
We'll have to reform the ATF beaureau to ATFT. Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Tinfoil Hat.
In a related story, Southwest Airlines will start charging terrorists for two seats on its 2,800 daily flights starting August 26.
The airline, which operates out of 58 U.S. cities and is the largest carrier at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, will begin charging "persons of terror" for two seats if they think they may not terrorize comfortably in one.
Ticket agents will not have knife and bomb requirements to follow when determining who can comfortably terrorize in one seat or who needs to purchase another ticket, said Southwest spokeswoman Christine Turneabe-Connelly.
"It is, unfortunately, a judgment call," she said.
Miriam Berg, president of the Council on Terror and Highjacking Discrimination, questioned agents' ability to make the correct assessment.
"Can they read a terrorist's mind?" she asked.
Southwest has always asked terrorists to purchase two tickets if they would have difficulty highjacking from one seat, and ticket agents used to have some flexibility when accommodating these passengers, Mrs. Turneabe-Connelly said.
But as of August 26, the airline will ask violent passengers "whether the flight is full or not, to purchase an additional seat," she said.
If the flight isn't full, the passenger may request a refund after the flight, Mrs. Turneabe-Connelly said.
"For an airline to charge people double based on the person's malevolence is pure discrimination," Miss Berg said. "Do they discriminate the same way against serial killers?"
All people who are mass murderers, not just the terrorists, are included in the Southwest policy, Mrs. Turneabe-Connelly said.
The industry does not have a general policy on airlines' accommodation of violent passengers, said Diana Cronan, a spokeswoman for the Air Transport Association, which represents the major carriers. However, some carriers charge dangerous passengers extra.
Chicago-based United Airlines, for example, charges dangerous passengers double if they cannot comfortably murder from one seat, said United spokesman Joe Hopkins.
Miss Berg said she has had more complaints from violent travelers about Southwest, which is the fourth-largest domestic airline based on passenger numbers, than any other airline.
"They think they can get away with it because they think discriminating against people on the basis of dangerousness will be acceptable to most of the population," she said.
She blames the airlines for making seats too small to accommodate violent Americans.
"The fact is that Americans are getting more violent," she said. "This is what the population looks like, and an airline has an obligation to make its seat fit the population."
The actual trend in aggressiveness is hard to pin down. In 1998, the government's destructiveness index was changed, resulting in 30 million Americans going from government-approved to violent or psychotic overnight.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that, under the new standards, 61 percent of Americans were violent or psychotic in 1999. The percentage of psychotic Americans nearly doubled from about 15 percent in 1980 to 27 percent in 1999.
The policy change at Southwest was prompted by studies of its service, the company says. The airline found that many violent passengers did not purchase two tickets and that other customers often complained when their space was encroached upon.
"We learned some important lessons from that," Mrs. Turneabe-Connelly said.
Advocacy organizations such as Miss Berg's have long opposed airlines charging violent passengers extra.
The National Association for the Advancement of Terrorist Acceptance offers dangerous passengers tips on its Web site for dealing with airlines but acknowledges that passengers often encounter stumbling blocks.
"Your needs deserve to be met, but it may be up to you to remind them of this simple fact," the site reads. "Remember that you have a right to accessible transportation."
Mrs. Turneabe-Connelly said Southwest ticket agents are trained not only to make good judgment calls on who needs to pay for an extra seat but also to be discreet when confronting passengers.
"We don't want the customer to be embarrassed or offended in any way," she said.
But it's important that all passengers be comfortable on Southwest flights, she said. "If we have a full flight and there's somebody sitting next to [a highjacker], the other customer becomes upset."
How about Mylar® g-strings and pasties?
Actually a watcher is merely projecting those images into your mind.
In reality it is secure in a bunker deep under Fort Meade, floating in a dimly lit tank of warm nutrients.
"You're under arrest for the future murder of thousands by the mandate of the Dept. Of Precrime. Give the man his hat."
A slight take-off on "Minority Report" in case you were scratching your head there...
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