The price of safety?

**Catherinedana** · 01-15-2010, 08:14 AM

Again I profess my undying love and adoration of Richard!! Making me LOL at my work computer!!

OK - how ridiculous is this? How many people are named Michael Hicks in the US? Do they not have a description of him like age, height, weight, etc? Is the man a little person so that they would even suspect a child of being a terrorist? I could scream. . .

**Laura's Babies** · 01-15-2010, 09:38 AM

I know a guy that is on the watch list. Once when traveling, the "wand" picked something up in his carry on bag. They emptied his bag and searched it many, many times... He said he thought it was just normal security until men in uniforms with guns showed up and told him "come with us".. They held him for hours, searching and researching his bag and questioning him over and over.

I am sure it didn't help matters any that he is a dark complected full blooded Cajun with a thick Cajun accent and he is a real funny person with a sense of humor..

After hours and hours, they did let him get on a plane but they wouldn't let him take that bag on that plane but sent it on another one. When he landed, there was an armed escort waiting for him to escort him to a place where he had to wait for hours for his bag to arrive.

Needless to say, when it came time for him to return home from that trip, he was scared to death to take that bag and threw it away and bought another one. When he got home, there was a letter telling him he was on the watch list.. They never did figure out what was in or on that bag that set that wand off but whatever it was, that's all it took to get him on the watch list.

**smokey the elder** · 01-15-2010, 09:52 AM

Probably some kind of cross-contamination. The names-only watch list is ridiculous. Look how many different ways a name can be spelled, and how many duplicates there are. They need a few more dimensions in their data base!

**RICHARD** · 01-15-2010, 10:11 AM

iI had to cringe when I heard the mom say that he is 'sometimes a terrorist at home'.

WTF, call him a mass murderer, too.

I laugh at stuff like this, but find it incredible that a parent would say something like that..leave the jokes to the morons like me?

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I can see her walk up to the screeners and loudly say something stupid like, "my son is on your terror list" just to vent and to get her point across.

And to make the whole queue titter with nervous laughter.

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She wants to know why a guy with exploding underwear gets on a plane and why her spawn gets frisked?

The underwear/attempted bomber was let on the plane OVERSEAS you dope! Not here in the U.S.

If Hamas/Hezbollah have forced teens to wear bombs strapped to their bodies anything is possible.

If I was a kid I probably love the attention being paid to me!

The mom sounds like another FA that, heaven forbid, her kid goes down in an airplane and she'd raise holy heck for losing her son because the gov't. DIDN'T DO THEIR JOB.

Judging by the picture in the paper?

The kid is a miserable waif that is being pushed to play soccer three times a week, is a cub scout (A good thing), gets yelled at for pulling a "b" down in Advanced Planetary Mechanics and has his toilet breaks scheduled for him.

I can see the mother priming the kid for a trip.

"Honey, you are going to get searched again when we get to the airport because your name is the same as a bad, bad terrorist!"

Way to positively enforce the joy of traveling to your kid-make the little effer paranoid, miserable and anti establishment. He may not grow up to be a terrorist, but I would love to see him in high school or college complaining about why he's treated like everyone else in the longest line of the bookstore.

I understand the idea of being hassled every time you try to do something-I had a temp job where I had to go to buildings with the security guard riding my arse to sign in, where are you going, what are you doing, why are you tall and ugly?- It was a hassle, but I understand the why, and go with the flow.

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LOL, she's trying to get the kid off the list because of the hassle.

If she can get that accomplished, what will keep a terrorist moron from doing the same?

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And if the kid is a terrorist? He can start a fire by rubbing two sticks together.

Another reason to check his pockets.

**RICHARD** · 01-15-2010, 10:24 AM

Speaking of terrorists?

The news just flashed a CIA computer generated picture Osama bin Laden-it was 'aged' using a computer.

In it, OBL has a shorn/trimmed beard and looks cleaned up.

I started to laugh because it reminded me of one of those makeup shows where they clean you up, trim you up and give you a new wardrobe.

Nothing would improve him in my eyes.

He's still a smelly old terrorist effer living in a cave.

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LOL, get back to work, all of you!