Text 3177, 91 rader
Skriven 2010-01-15 10:27:07 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: "Flying is the safest way to fly"
=========================================
Hello Robert,

On Monday January 11 2010 18:44, you wrote to me:

 MV>> I do. Selecting person on race, religion or age is discrimination.

 RB> Discrimination is better than being murdered.

He who gives up his freedom for security, deserves neither.

 RB> We have to stop trying to be "nice" to everyone and thereby risking
 RB> people's lives.

On the contrary. A prime reason for these problems is that we have been pissing
people off for so long. We have to stop doing that.

 RB>>>  How many 65-year-old suicide bombers have _you_ read about?

 MV>> None so far. But that will probably change when the terrorists
 MV>> find out that such persons are left alone by security. Then they
 MV>> wil start recruiting people looking like you and me...

 RB> Not likely. Young people tend to react emotionally, all or nothing.
 RB> Older people are more conservative and more sceptical. They also tend
 RB> to cling to life more than younger people.

You are generalising. What you say may be true on average, but we have to deal
with the extremes, not the average. It takes only one elderly man that does not
fit your profile to blow up a plane.

Not all old people cling to life. Some are tired of life. Some have terminal
diseases and feel they have little to lose. I think it would not be too hard to
find ONE elderly man looking like you or me, willing to die for a cause.
Especially if he was  promised that his grandchildren would be taken care of.

 RB>>>>> Why treat everyone the same as the high-risk group,..

 MV>> Because it is discrimination to single out individuals because
 MV>> some people of the same race or religion have misbehaved.

 RB> Who cares, if it's effective and saving of resources?

I care and who says it is affective?

 RB> It seems to me that the Israelis - who certainly are more threatened
 RB> than even the Americans - have very few if any problems with their
 RB> system (look for the bomber, not the bomb). With our sensitive natures
 RB> and the limitless desire to be "fair", we unfortunately _do_.

I would not consider Israel the shining beacon of light. I would not want to
live there. And not because of the risk of being killed by a Katjoesja rocket.
I do not want to live in a place where church and state are not separated. Also
I do not want to live behind a fence.

Profiling leads to tunnel vision. Do some Googeling for "Ronald Janssen". He is
a Belgian serial killer that stayed below the radar for at least three years
because he "did not fit the profile"...

 MV>> Here that is against the law.

 RB> So the law is forcing us to discriminate against the majority in order
 RB> to avoid discrimination against the minority, at the risk of the lives
 RB> of the majority. Very sensible, I'm sure.

Do you know that the chance of being killed by a terrorist attack is far less
than the chance of being killed by lightning? What are you going to do? Live in
a Faraday cage from now on?

 MV>> Oh c'mon Bob, you should know what marking people as a group leads
 MV>> to...

 RB> I would say it depends on the circumstances.

The end justifies the means? we all know what that leads to...

 RB> And comparing muslims with jews in the Nazi era merely because they
 RB> are or should be subject to special security measures when boarding
 RB> planes

"Special security measures" is how it started with the jews too...

 RB> (if, as the Israelis do, they are below the age of 50) is
 RB> absolutely laughable.

You keep laughing then.


Cheers, Michiel

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