[ExI] Terrorist? Who can tell?

[Damien Broderick]

At 08:16 AM 8/29/2008 +0000, BillK wrote:

>If you go into the large areas of London where mostly non-white people
>live, you will see about about 3 million people that look like Al
>Qaeda members to the profiling eye. This information is totally
>useless.

This is so self-evident I can't imagine what Lee is on about. Unless--

>[Lee:]
> > I understand. We should use profiling only when it works, but
> > when it *does* work, it *should* be used, I think you'll agree.

Lee, do you perhaps mean "I'm sick of standing in line and taking my 
damned shoes off when it's perfectly apparent to anyone who knows 
that the only terrorists around my parts are Muslims from [swarthy 
parts of the globe], so they should use racial profiling to let me 
and people like me get on with our business without being molested." 
This wouldn't help catch terrorists, but will save a lot of grief for 
many humans.

Until the first little old white-haired white woman is waved through, 
and blows the hell out of an aircraft, or releases a lethal 
bacterial/viral attack in a crowded airport. Why did she do it? Maybe 
she was furious that McCain got elected after all. Maybe she has 
terminal cancer and was paid half a mil by swarthy terrorists, 
providing college scholarships for her grandkids. Maybe she thought 
the bottle held cough syrup for the unpleasant rasping she'd 
developed lately, prescribed by that swarthy doctor who runs the clinic.

Or perhaps Lee means something entirely different.

Damien Broderick