[extropy-chat] Alert for Suspicious Farmers' Almanacs

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003, Adrian Tymes wrote:

> How do these compare?  Requiring marshals on planes
> does not itself imply it is okay to trample on
> anyone's rights just because of some factor that has a very
> shaky, if any, correlation to terrorists.

Its a double edged sword and one that could cause endless
debate that I'm not sure would be productive.  But a
couple of things seem true -- it isn't clear *whose*
laws in effect during international flights so it
isn't clear whose rights you have -- (originating
country, destination country, passport country,
international or UN rules???).  Second though I
think most passengers would be grateful to someone
taking aggressive action towards someone who is
perceived as dangerous -- there are significant
risks to the plane, flight crew and passengers
when firearms are involved.  We have all seen
various hijacking films (real or fictional) and
it isn't clear what the best strategies are.

The same is true for the Almanac checks -- but
I'd be happy to explain why I had an Almanac if
I thought it was going to stop even a single
terrorist act.

Robert