Maine National Guard bars Green Party leader from flying

[Raymond D. Mereniuk]

On 3 Nov 2001, at 13:28, Tim May wrote:

> What else is expected in a police state?
> The soldiers say who can travel, and where.
> Fuck this nation. Fuck it to death and start over.

Tim, you are getting much too cynical!  The current events are very 
much a knee-jerk reaction to threats many can't understand.  The 
National Guardsman who played the boogieman is probably a local 
good old boy with absolutely no cross cultural experience who 
translates his fears into hate against any person who appears to be 
any threat to what he thinks is important.

After December 7th 1941 the USA and Canada interned all 
residents of Japanese descent and confiscated their property.  At 
the time it apparently was a good idea, today it appears very 
extreme.   What is happening today is still very minor and very likely 
to go away as people realize the stupidity of their current fears.  

The airport paranoia is nothing new in a global sense, Americans 
have just not experienced it domestically.  Amsterdam airport has 
many soldier looking fellows with their automatics level and their 
fingers on the trigger.  In Singapore in 1980, the old airport, taking 
a photo would get you arrested.  Much the same in Jakarta until 
they opened the new airport in the mid-80s.  Same in India in the 
1980s plus the metal detectors were so sensitive the iron in your 
blood set them off and everyone was patted down.

I have many times experienced being paraded, through a gauntlet 
of armed guards, on the tarmac beside the plane to identify my 
baggage before it was loaded on the plane and I was allowed to 
board.  Talking about rude experiences, try arriving at a US west 
coast airport from southeast Asia with a Thai stamp in your 
passport and then telling immigration your occupation is a 
salesman.  Off you go for a detailed search where you must 
rationalize your desire to visit the great nation of the US of A.

In 1984 at Dehra Dun airport, Uttar Pradesh India, the airport 
terminal was a tent.  I knew I shouldn't take a photo but attempted 
anyway.  The armed soldiers were there before I could get a shot 
off and took my camera away - I got it back after the flight as you 
were not allowed to take photos from the airplane also.  I was not to 
be trusted.

As the armed soldiers were relieving me of my camera a business 
associate managed to take the same shot with a much smaller 
camera.  A copy of this print can be viewed at 

http://www.fbntech.com/images/id-india.jpg

In retrospect this seems pretty funny but at the time they were ready 
to cart me off to the local police station.  If I wasn't a foreign visitor I 
would have been arrested.  In the late 80s I was travelling through 
Jakarta airport with a stone axe I had purchased in carry-on 
baggage.  It was an Irian Jayan looking piece which I figured I really 
needed.  Airport security removed it from my baggage as they 
feared I may run amok.  They returned the item upon landing in 
Singapore where it was considered very funny.

Bottom line is muuch of what is going on now is a knee-jerk 
reaction to a threat which many can't understand.  Over a short 
period of time most of the most of the excesses should be 
corrected as people have time to realize the extreme nature of 
many of the current restrictions.

On a positive note the Anthrax attack through the postal system 
may bring some very positive changes as people seek to reduce 
the amount of mail they receive.  If you are connected Email is 
faster and cheaper plus you can't get Anthrax through an Email 
message.  If you use a Microsoft mail client you can still catch lots 
of shit but it really doesn't hurt you.

On a the air travel side the current level of business travel really 
wasn't justified.  Customers are always going to want to meet their 
vendors face to face but travel for business meetings within one 
business or government organization can easily be replaced with 
video conferencing.

Actually why can't we change our government to where the 
assembly of elected respresentatives is virtual rather than physical.  
When you let them congregate in one place they detach themselves 
from any obligation to the voters and are open to lobbying efforts 
and making backroom deals.  

With today's technology they could be based within an office in their 
constiuency and linked to an assembly with video conferencing 
technology.  An ideal system would make them available to their 
constiuents for a portion of the day and linked to an assembly on a 
video basis for a portion of the day.  You could cut the corrupting 
influences and make the elected representative more responsive to 
the voters.








Virtually


Raymond D. Mereniuk
Raymond at fbntech.com
"The Ultimate Enterprise Security Experts" 
http://www.fbn.bc.ca/sysecurt.html