[ RadSafe ] RE: Stephen Dapra's Comments

[Steven Dapra]

March 5

At 01:10 PM 3/5/07 -0500, Shawn Hughes \(Road2\) wrote:
Stephen; [sic]

I'm not going to play 'cut and paste' commando with you. You seem passionate
about foisting your opinion, no matter how liberal or revisionistic it may
be upon the rest of us.

         <<I am astounded to hear anyone call me a liberal.  My late uncle, 
a Stalinist and a disciple of Saint Franklin Delano Roosevelt, would have a 
stroke if he heard you say that.  He thought I was a deranged right-wing 
extremist.  I am shocked.  As far as being "revisionistic" is concerned, 
you would have to define this word before I could comment on it.  As far as 
playing 'cut and paste' is concerned I cut and pasted a mere two sentences 
(of yours).  That doesn't sound like a "commando" to me.>>

I, and many others like me disagree.

         <<Go ahead and disagree.  That doesn't make you right or me wrong, 
or vice versa.>>

For instance:

"Since the inception of Homeland Security/TSA I have read many stories in
the popular press about their heavy-handed and tyrannical Behavior"

I am trying to recall.... What do we call those that label a race or group
of people after making a snap judgement using a few observations?  Oh - and
'many stories'. How many is many? Especially considering over 600 MILLION
people flew in just US domestic flights last year. But, I am certain you'll
have many witty anecdotes that perfectly dovetail your position to refute
anything I say. Bravo!

         <<Okay, well, what about your "snap judgement" that I am a 
liberal?  Six hundred million people flew in US domestic flights in 
2006?  I'm not denying that figure but it sounds high to me.  That's about 
twice the population of the entire US.  What is the source of this 
figure?  I *emphasize* that I am not denying it, I merely would like to 
know the source.  I don't know if my anecdotes could be called witty.  You 
certainly don't seem to think they are.  They are accounts I read in the 
popular press, and most of them probably came from the AP, Reuters, or 
AFP.  I can't help it if the wire services are witty.  Bravo! to them -- I 
guess.>>

Anyway, you are welcome to keep your position and point of view. Absolutely
none of this has to do with radiation protection. I have zero interest in
turning this list into alt.theorys.speculation.world.politics because I have
been very tired of hearing the others argue, so it seems wrong of me to
perpetuate it. I responded only because I didn't want you to think your
blinding insight silenced me. ;)

-Shawn

         <<Thank you for letting me know I am welcome to my position and my 
point of view.  I would not call my insight "blinding."  All I did was 
report the news, remind readers of what the historians tell us, and point 
out what should be obvious to any well-informed and thinking person.  With 
that, may I have my x-rays back (since you're not going to look at them 
anyway); and quit pawing my daughter's head.  Thank you.>>

         May I point out that you made no attempt to address any of the 
factual claims I made in my message below?  All you did was hurl insults 
and objurgations.  In your initial message you described yourself as "a 
person peripherially [sic] in the Homeland Security Field".  If you have 
this much anger and defensiveness as someone on the periphery, I would hate 
to meet someone who is in the middle of homeland security.

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com


Steven Dapra wrote:

March 4

         Since the inception of Homeland Security/TSA I have read many 
stories in the popular press about their heavy-handed and tyrannical 
behavior, their bullying of passengers, pawing the heads of six-year-old 
girls (feeling for shoe bombs I suppose), and so forth. The aged and 
wheel-chair-bound mother-in-law of a personal friend of mine has been 
forced to partially undress by HS/TSA "inspectors" (or whatever sanitized 
label someone wants to use) before she is allowed on an airplane. I read a 
report of a passenger with metal in his body from surgical repairs who took 
x-rays with him to the airport and tried to show the "inspectors" the 
x-rays. The "inspectors" REFUSED to look at them. It's a long list of bad 
behavior.

Shawn Hughes (SH) (see his complete message below) wrote:
"Those of you that think 'leaving them alone abroad' or similar pap are 
very, very ignorant of the past 100 years of terrorism."

         This is false. I am not thinking "pap" and I am not "very, very 
ignorant" of 100 years of terrorism.

(SH:)
"Remaining silent and impartial about events in SouthWest Asia makes as 
much sense as the US staying out of WWII."

         You appear to be "very, very ignorant" of events leading up to US 
entry into WWII. Even establishment historians agree that the Roosevelt 
administration diligently tried to induce the Third Reich to attack the 
United States. They also acknowledge that FDR hounded and badgered Japan, 
behavior that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt's foreign policy 
got the US into World War II. SW Asia is well outside of our sphere of 
interest, plus our meddling is the cause of many of the "events" there.

         Since you are so hot to meddle, did you remain "silent and 
impartial" when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979?

The reason this "slowly coalescing group of people" wants to kill us is 
because we keep sticking our national nose in their business. If we go 
around sticking our nose in their business long enough we are going to get 
punched it that nose, and that is what happened on September 11. (Try 
reading Pape's book like I suggested.) Ireland and Botswana (and all other 
nations) are best qualified to solve their internal problems. We can't even 
stop drunk drivers, child molesters, and drug dealers in the US of A. What 
business do we have telling anyone else what to do?

I don't think there is any "lack of interest in security on this forum" 
(i.e. RADSAFE). There are some differences about how to provide security, 
as well as some differences about the underlying reasons for our current 
predicament with airplane hijackers, explosive-laden human bombers, and 
suicide truck bombers. I reiterate emphatically that minding everyone's 
business but our own is guaranteed to get us more of the same. I'll go 
further and say people who believe in night stick, Taser, and gun barrel 
security are getting, (or already have) a case of tunnel vision that says 
security consists of bully-ragging people, ignoring their x-rays, 
threatening them, or dragging them off in handcuffs.

A lot of this so-called security consists of shoving people around, and of 
treating the symptoms instead of the disease.

END