Re: Texas oil refineries, a White Van, and Al Qaeda
The person in question was just somebody with a weakness for industrial architecture.
The "no cameras" signs were very popular in east block countries. It was forbidden to take pictures of bridges, government buildings, airports, railway stations, industrial installations, water dams etc. The signs were prominently displayed and the consensus on their purpose was essentially to scare and comfort the sheeple. There was an interview somewhere in early 90-ties when ex-government employee attested to that. The counter-intelligence purpose was irrelevant even then - it was just too easy to hide cameras. But harassment of tourists and hobbyists was great PR, proof that 'authorities' are doing the job and disarming the imminent evil. In a depressingly predictable manner US of A is sliding into the same mode of operation. And, depressingly, it works. Expect more manufactured everyday threats, more citizen-informants, the works. Contracting or subcontracting airborne demolition artists is not practical on ongoing basis ... we need a terrorist threat everywhere, every day. Make sure your children do not overhear your non-compliant conversations.
An Metet wrote:
The person in question was just somebody with a weakness for industrial architecture.
*I've* taken pictures of oil-company installations in Houston and Galveston and points between. Who do I turn myself in to? I also walk or cycle all over London & take photos of just about everything from bridges to canals to private houses (aren't digital cameras wonderful?). No-one's bothered me ever. Though sometimes I've felt I was being a bit stupid wandering alone at night through large public housing projects openly carrying 800 quids worth of video camera.
The "no cameras" signs were very popular in east block countries. It was forbidden to take pictures of bridges, government buildings, airports, railway stations, industrial installations, water dams etc.
Back in the 1970s I was on a camping holiday in what was then Yugoslavia with a friend. We arrived in Rijeka in Croatia by bus, started walking off to see if we could find a camp sight, and by the time we realised we were walking out of town the wrong way it was too late & too dark to do anything about it. So we slept on a small mound just off the road we were on. Next morning we saw that we were on what was basically a rubbish dump, overlooking the naval harbour, with a great view of all sorts of military activities. No-one seemed to be taking any notice of us though. [...]
In a depressingly predictable manner US of A is sliding into the same mode of operation. And, depressingly, it works. Expect more manufactured everyday threats, more citizen-informants, the works. Contracting or subcontracting airborne demolition artists is not practical on ongoing basis ... we need a terrorist threat everywhere, every day.
In 1990 I and some colleagues were visiting a Texaco office in Houston for a work-related meeting. In the carpark we began to take some pictures of each other with the office building as background. The carpark attendant came up and demanded we stop insisting that there no photographs could be taken of the building. Not even an industrial location, just a high-rise office building in a Houston suburb (Bellaire), in full & close view of the street, some other commercial buildings, and dozens, if not hundreds, of private homes, and distantly visible to thousands - possibly hundreds of thousands - of people every day. Crazy authoritarianism. Rules for the sake of rules. They exist to show who is boss. Like school uniforms or corporate dress codes - the rule is made not to enforce any desirable behaviour but to show who is where in the the hierarchy, who is able to make rules and who has to obey them.
Ken wrote:
Crazy authoritarianism. Rules for the sake of rules. They exist to show who is boss. Like school uniforms or corporate dress codes - the rule is made not to enforce any desirable behaviour but to show who is where in the the hierarchy, who is able to make rules and who has to obey them.
Waiting in a public lobby of an educational facility in NYC I was asked to move by a dame at the security desk. Huh, I said, why? She said you're blocking my view, I have to see everything going on. So I moved two inches, grinned, said show me your tits, sure she'd like the Seinfeld line from Boy in A Bubble. Sgt Madam banged a 10-13 bell and six more dames encircled me aiming their protuberances terrifically. Whoa, I said, gobbling a 360 bubbling cheek-swipe of the twelve knobbies, 6 badges, 6 nym tags, ripping leaks and smearing Tyson's blood and spit on their mountainous blue fronts. Then the six-pack array-pivoted 180 and jack-rammed me senseless with hard butts, flashlights, cuffs, and swear-to-god hard leather pouches of powderpuffs and tampons, and, ass-clenching me upright, jitterbugged to the holding pen, where I was sloshed with a bucket of icewater, stripped searched, body cavitied, Abu Ghraibian privates ridiculed, magic-markered pederast to symbol who rules domestically, not the caucasian dodos peddling silly secrets of terrorists about to shit on civilization.
participants (3)
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An Metet -
John Young -
ken