(no subject)

[batyatoon]

Can I just take a moment to froth in rage here?

"Why, Batya," you ask, "what has you so enraged?"

This.

I just. HOW IS THIS HAPPENING.



Edited to add: here's Raed Jarrar's own account of what happened. Thanks, madfilkentist.

Comments

[silveraspen]

Fear, lack of real public knowledge, and a "leadership" that is power-mad.

Among other things. *sighs*

[batyatoon]

Except I can't figure out how to blame this one on the leaders. (Despite the Current Music, which is my personal private anti-Dubya song.)

[adiva_calandia]

........

Uh.

Whut.

[bcgphoenix]

.....

I have no words.

*just. stares.*

[batyatoon]

Me neither. At least none I can use at work.

I'm cursing like a sailor on the inside, though.

[ladyiapetus]

I am scarily reminded of one of Frank Burns' lines from M*A*S*H, the one that went "Unless we all conform, unless we follow our leaders blindly, there is no possible way we can remain free."

[varadia]

Some days I hate the fact that an outside world exists.

[kaikias.livejournal.com]

*lets the icon say it*

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

...whut.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I heard that on the news, then saw a link in debgeisler's LJ this morning.

It's a damned shame I can't get one of those shirts before I fly to London next week. (That and a shame I didn't get one of the Ben Franklin shirts at LACon)

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's disgusting! And so familiar!

*quietly fumes*

[xochitl42.livejournal.com]

I...I know. I know. Ugh.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

People are scared. That's how it's happening. And they're letting it happen.

[madfilkentist]

I'm scared. Because it's happening.

[patrickat.livejournal.com]

The paranoia is taking over, and just about anything that deviates from the normal is going to be a target. All it really takes is one or two people going to security to express a concern about some aspect of another passenger for that other passenger to be subject to additional scrutiny. It doesn't really matter whether the concern they express is well-founded.

[batyatoon]

Additional scrutiny is one thing. I'm even tempted to say additional scrutiny is perfectly fine, despite the overwhelming unlikelihood of a bomber actually wearing a shirt in Arabic.

But making him change his shirt is not okay.

[agoodshinkickin.livejournal.com]

Is it sad that I want to make one in Elvish just to see who'd get the joke?

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

I would buy that!

[daniidebrabant.livejournal.com]

...I feel mildly ill.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

This ain't your grampa's you-ess of aye.

[tropes.livejournal.com]

I saw that on Salon the other day. Shocking.

[mtgat]

I hope he sues them for ten million dollars and wins.

[fiddledragon.livejournal.com]

*fumefumefume*

[avariel-wings.livejournal.com]

I pointed that out to someone I consider a good friend the other day, and got the response, "Well, wearing the shirt in public was kind of stupid."

I'm not sure which of those is more distressing.

[batyatoon]

Ask her if she seriously thinks it's stupid to criticize the government in public, in writing. Ask her why.

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

Come live over here. It's ever so slightly less insane?

[batyatoon]

Nny, love you, but no.

This is MY COUNTRY, dammit.

And, to use a phrase you may remember: I ain't movin'.

[sunavatar.livejournal.com]

Wow.

I'm totally unsurprised, and I think that might be the most offensive part of all.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no shit, huh?

[madfilkentist]

May I suggest that everyone who's fuming take a moment to visit here?

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Done. I did feel a bit of a fraud, given that (a) it's vanishingly unlikely that I'll ever come to America again (or be allowed in if I were to try it), and (b) I had already made up my mind that I would never be a "customer" of jetBlue, but I did it.

[jezrana.livejournal.com]

...The hell.

[dotsomething.livejournal.com]

OMGWTF. What are we (collectively, as a species) turning into?

Oh, wait, we've always been like this. Narrow minded and a little crazy. I naively keep thinking we've grown up past that.

[infiniteviking]

"Don't attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

But good Lord, there's stupid and then there's offensively stupid.....

Besides which: um, there was nobody in the airport who could translate Arabic!? What kind of security system is that? I can understand not having a translator readily available for some weird obscure language, but Arabic, especially today? Ergh.

I really want to be singing 'History Is Made By Stupid People' right now.