[IP] more on more on more on DHS Passenger Scoring Illegal?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker@xxxxxxxx>
Date: December 14, 2006 9:00:47 AM JST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, David Reed <dpreed@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on more on more on DHS Passenger Scoring Illegal?
From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed@xxxxxxxx>
>
David - the repetition, in this email as well as the prior one, of
outright falsehoods and distortions about the actions of the imams,
is offensive to me.
...
But IP should be above that.
We all should be above that. Yet a tone of entrenched hysteria
continues to grip the U.S., the results of which are actions that we
would otherwise call hate crimes.
The long-term, strategic damage that we are doing to ourselves, in
the world community and within our own borders, does not seem to
register.
David cited factual errors about reports on the behavior of the
Imams. So, I looked around for credible news stories that indicated
what they actually did.
So far, I can find nothing indicating that their prayer activity was
done in a theatrical manner, that they sat in anything other than
their assigned seats, or that they actually did talk in Arabic about
"hostile" topics or actions.
It increasingly sounds as if what took place really was the type of
quickly escalating group hysteria that we have seen repeatedly.
(Here in Silicon Valley, many of the taxi drivers are Indian Sikhs.
After 9/11 most of them stopped wearing their head pieces, because so
many idiot American's thought they might me Muslims.)
Yet we see articles about the authority of airline captains, as if
their authority was at issue. It wasn't
And we see embarrassing articles, like the Wall Street Journal one by
Debra Burlingame's, cited in IP, that is impressive for its attempt
to excite emotions and apply some astonishingly dangerous logic. The
imams said "Allahu Akbar" and so did the 9/11 terrorists. Gosh. If
any of the terrorists ate peanuts should we refuse travel to anyone
eating peanuts?
In other words let's stop demonstrating the cliche about correlation
not indicating causation. Or rather, if we are worried about real
danger, we had better worry a lot more about things that correlate
well with it. Praying and speaking in Arabic are really bad correlates.
We need to stop using superficial observations and characteristics,
with justifications that rely on hyperbole, bad logic, and
inflammatory emotional appeals, for doing stupid, hateful, and
ultimately self-damaging things.
What is most ironic about this particular event is that was they were
so obviously *not* terrorists. Terrorists make a point of being
*less* noticeable, not *more*.
Either these guys were exactly who they say they were -- and they
were therefore treated egregiously -- or they were intending to
create a media event.
Neither case has them as dangerous, and throwing them off the plane
ensured that the latter goal was achieved.
d/
--
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
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