[extropy-chat] John John Perry Barlow vs The Man

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk at neopax.com> wrote:

> Amara Graps wrote:
> 
> > "Apparently, Barlow did intend to suggest this. At least, he was
> > prevented from introducing a lot of evidence about how screeners do
> > things that are useful for finding drugs. At a minimum, Barlow
> wanted
> > to suggest that screeners who are supposed to be looking for
> > explosives should not be permitted to use search techniques or
> > procedures that are specifically aimed at finding drugs rather than
> > explosives (arguably, for example, shaking a bottle).
> >
> I would expect that in a proper search for explosives not only would 
> bottles be shaken, but bottles not sealed by the manufacturer would
> be 
> opened for cursory inspection. It is still extremely easy to smuggle 
> bombs aboard aircraft if the right explosive (liquid) is used. As for
> batteries, detonators etc, can an X ray distinguishe between a
> detonator and an electrolytic cap in a laptop?

An xray machine is far more than an xray machine these days. They can
distinguish between metals, semiconductors, organics, etc and can sniff
nitrates, which is the primary flag of explosives.

That they only said that he had some wires in a pocket of his bag was
their pretext, it is clear that his position as founder of the EFF is
the real cause of the search. There are multiple grades of persons on
the no-fly list. The DHS and TSA have a well developed blacklist which
government bureaucrats have shown a tendency to place people on for
their anti-statist views alone. The number of people I know who get the
full body search when flying has gone up significantly in the last
year.

Similarly, the number of people being investigated and prosecuted in
the Free State movement is similarly climbing. I myself am now the
target of a fishing expedition based on a very flimsy pretext that I
happend to have had a case in the past year in a court where someone
was allegedly threatened at some point in time for some reason.

Barlow's big error was in carrying the drugs in his checked-in luggage.
If you are travelling with contraband, either carry it on your person,
or don't carry it at all. Unless you get a full pat-down, they won't
find it on you. The new extensive pat-down procedures do call this into
question, though. 

If there is a chance you will get singled out (and if you are an
outspoken libertarian, you will), don't even try it, even if you have a
doctors prescription for the pot in your home state. Airplanes are
federal jurisdiction.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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