Ready for another CEB toon from Miss Telnaes?
Remember to include in your discussion:
- I agree or disagree with Miss Telnaes' (the cartoonist's) viewpoint.
- Here's why...
- Confirms you read the details.
You will still receive 3 points for the assignment [one point for viewing it, one for agreeing/disagreeing, one for your reason(s)]. The discussion ends Thursday night for credit!
EXTRA CREDIT for more comments you add...
Here we go!!!!
Click the image to open the video
or DOWNLOAD a copy (the file is a 418 KB video)
If you are still having problems go directly to the Washington Post archive site at
I think I've made my objections clear on the TSA and their violation of our 4th amendment rights.
And yet there is one argument used often to disparage my position. If we do not have the TSA, we could have another attack - and NOT by the usual "suspects" but rather…..well….anyone!
Then a story came out about, Colleen Renee LaRose, a Michigan born girl who in 2004 moved to Philadelphia to live with her boyfriend. Raised in Texas, Colleen was just as American as you and me. Grieved by the recent deaths of her brother and father, she went through depression, even attempting suicide.
Sadly, Satan often takes advantage of people's pain - changing their heart to the most false notions, including Islam. She converted in 2007 and became what many call a "radical". In 2008 she posted herself as "Jihad Jane" saying that she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" the suffering Muslims being oppressed by the Western Great Satan. She shared her sympathies to terrorist groups in Palestine whom she believed were persecuted by Israel. All in all, she became a bona fide, Burka-wearing Muslim extremist (or, as I believe - she was just following the basic tenants of the Qur'an).
She was arrested by the FBI on October 16, 2009 charged in a plot to kill the Swedish artist, Lars Viks, who offended Muslims worldwide with his cartoon of the false prophet, Muhammed (he drew Muhammed with the body of a dog, a high insult in the Arab world). Read more here.
The amazing, and frightening thing - Colleen looks as American as Sarah Palin. And her co-conspirator, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, also know as "Jihad Jamie", who was accused of terrorism as well, could wander around our malls, stores and streets….and no one would know anything about her desire to violently force Islamic beliefs upon our society.
Radio host Mike Gallagher made the comment in the cartoon - is he wrong?
Watch this video and see Mike Gallagher's alternative idea - PROFILING - http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=994_1262012824
So…..
….maybe the TSA has a purpose after all.
Right?
Or is there another way to identify terrorist threats….even those that look as red-blooded, Apple-pie eating, baseball loving American as you and me?
Should we profile instead?
What do you think?....
Well, the newscast was great! But how can you profile the Arab-looking people from the rest? No. 1 you don't have to look Arab to be a Jihadist. Jane proved that. No. 2 medical procedures can turn the profile of a person into a totally different human being. No. 3 the act of screening somebody effectively mentally is impossible! That would be like me having a fear that a weird farmer poisoned all the apples sold in the market, and to make sure they are safe I take a bite out of every apple in the store, then put them back. No. 4 what if these profiled persons have a round trip? How will you track that? With FBI files? No. 5 isn't this a breach of the 1st amendment to the Constitution, as well as a skewing of amendment 14? The separate lines are preposterous. It's better to set up hypnosis centers at every TSA checkpoint to determine what the true motives of a traveler is on an airplane.
ReplyDeleteOK, I'll leap into this now...
DeleteTim, sorry to razz you all week - but hypnosis centers at every TSA station? Really?
Look....some of us have no problem acting like a chicken or barking like a dog....but if you do that on a plane, won't they haul you away?
Tim, you're a weird duck.
ReplyDeleteI will agree that it is challenging to racially profile people, and that it can be extremely unhelpful and even superfluous to search only Arab people or people who look suspicious. I'm a little bit confused though on why metal detectors won't be sufficient. Jihad Jane is a great example on how anyone, especially whacked-out Americans, can have the same potential of terrorism as a Muslim. There has to be a better way if the TSA searching people, because I don't think random selection of people is enough. Its unconstitutional and ineffective. Again, why aren't metal detectors sufficient, and second of all, why are flyers being searched on their way leaving America, and not when they get here? Third and last, we've become so paranoid that at this point, the terrorists have already won. They've taken away our peace of mind and any trust we had before towards our fellow countrymen.
and Tim, you got the hypnosis idea from Sigmund Freud, in our Apologetics homework last night. You think the TSA is violating the 4th amendment by searching our private parts? You violate; literally hack into the mind, your way of being, your spirit; you give up all conscious thought and will, and expose the very depths of your subconscious and put it in the hands of the government. THAT is the ultimate example of terrorism.
Rant over.
One thing the stories I provided don't necessarily show is that "Jihad Jane", once she converted to Islam, started looking, sounding and acting Muslim.
DeleteSo while not all Muslims are violent or terrorists - we are not being attacked by little old grannies in wheelchairs....or small boys and girls who can barely read!
We are under attack by Qur'an loving, Muhammed venerating folk...
...if a store is robbed by a red head lady, 5 feet tall driving a black Mustang....doesn't it make sense to actually look for that person who fits those characteristics?
Yeah, I read the details, Mr. Johnson. How is it that one can truly understand a person's motives? I don't believe we can. After all 1 Corinthians 2:11 states that, "For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?" No person can read minds, so profiling is pointless. The only way in which we we'll be able to sufficiently address the problem of terrorism is through the search of our citizens. This may be an unfortunate truth of life, but a truth nonetheless. If searching our citizens is "unconstitutional," then why don't we amend the constitution? When something doesn't work, you fix it, correct? This is why we later amended prohibition once we saw it was a bad idea. I say the problem is not in our airports, but in the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteDING! DING! DING! DING!
DeleteZac wins the Constitutional Prize of the week! [insert clapping, applause and shouts of accolade here]
IF it is against the Constitution for the violate our 4th amendment rights (and...sorry folks I can't see it any other way. The INNOCENT are being SEARCHED WITHOUT WARRANTS and sometimes SIEZED - we are all considered GUILTY before proven INNOCENT - a complete 180 degrees of what our Founding Fathers set up for us)....IF it is a violation of the 4th Amendment but we as the people deem it necessary....change the amendment (just like the 18th was changed by the 21st).
That's the Constitutional way...that's the lawful way...
(and now I need to go board a plane and be groped and have my 4th amendment rights stripped....see you guys later...)
It was not the TSA who stopped Jihad Jane, but the FBI, so the TSA arent even relevent here. I agree with Gerry when she countered Tim on hypnosis, but concerning medical detectors, if anyone has seen Act of Valor, they would know that the terrorists are now inventing bombs which cannot be detected by scans. In this, I agree with the TSA.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Emily - and that has been proposed. Even when the Homeland Security Department was set up by the Bush administration, the main argument against it was simply that we already have the CIA and the FBI and the ATF and....etc.
DeleteWHY do we need yet another huge bureaucracy?
Evidently, as you point out, the FBI is still alive and functioning just fine!
Thanks for answering my metal detector question. (Hahaha you said medical lol lol). And I like your point about the FBI. Perhaps the FBI can create a new terrorist prevention invention in the place of the TSA. There has to be a better way of seeing whether flyers have a hidden agenda, without violating the 4th amendment. Maybe we should put airline security in the handsof the FBI.
ReplyDeleteWow. I posted a comment at 4:00 this afternoon and just realized the thing never showed up.
ReplyDeleteEither way, it is for reasons like Jihad Jane that we have the TSA established. Air travel is a weakness, it is an exposed spot in security, a "chink" in the armor of the US Homeland Security. Right now, as of 11 years now, we have not had any situation where a terrorist has boarded an airplane, seized the cockpit, and crashed the plane in a commercial building. Pretty good reputation so far. Yes, there probably are more efficient and faster options available nowadays, but is anyone really willing to bet their own life on a new, unproved, solution? I think ten seconds of highly radioactive exposure and a violation of my fourth amendment right MIGHT be worth it for me to land safely at my destination. Personally, I don't know how willing I would be to participate in an new unproven theory of airport security, running a risk of some Muhammad Abdul Salah finding a loophole of this new security in its early stages and exploiting it on my flight.
I rest my case.
By the way, I watched the Fox video where the four people bickered like crazy and interrupted each other the moment someone opened their mouths. I did not see mutual respect for each one's opinion or "politely remain silent until the person has finished speaking" :P
Interesting thoughts Michael - but I caution you, my friend.
DeleteEvery time you lose an "inalienable right" taken away by this or any other government of man....you will never get it back until the Lord returns.
Never.
You have to ask yourself - could we find another way WITHIN THE LAW (the Constitution) to protect us - I content we must. Because I want my 4th amendment right and I don't want anyone to take it away - even for "ten seconds". Because that "ten" could grow to immeasurable time...and those rights could, by precedence, be taken away in other settings and situations if, I pray to God NO, another attack occurs in a train station....on the highway....in a theatre....in my home.
(NOTE Tim's comment later on - good points, Tim!)
You lose your 4th amendment right, MIchael....you won't get it back.
Now I am going to sign off and go get on a plane.
Y'all have a great weekend and a few days away from me.
I'll miss you guys...
.... Michael, is that the Chinese flag?
ReplyDeleteAnyway. I agree with you Michael. The TSA has been effective for 11 years. We haven't had anymore hijackings. Cool. Now, need i remind you, in a court case if a true felon is convicted of a crime committed with a gun and this said gun was discovered in an illegal search of his home; the evidence is irrelevant. This can be applicable to the TSA because while they have been keeping airports safe they have been doing so unconstitutionally--and I will go as far as to say--illegally. As I've stated before, the FBI seems to know what they're doing. I say they come up with a new way of searches without patting down toddlers. Randomly, I might add; which still adds glitches.
ReplyDeleteI've commented three times, ill let someone else hold the talking stick awhile.
Haha a weird duck. I like that. The reason why I brought up hypnosis was not because of Freud. I posted this before we were assigned the chapter. The hypnosis example was to just show how the 4th amendment is getting screwed anyways. A rhetorical exaggeration.
ReplyDeleteI also think the TSA is approaching their purpose wrong. For example, a burgler breaks into a house and steals something. The owner, in fear of being robbed again, places cameras at the front door. If you were the burgler, would you break in again using the front door, or the back door?
Point is, the TSA is guarding air travel. Whoopdiedo. Jihad aren't that stupid. They can wreak havoc other ways (sabotage, car bombs, etc.). All this added security on one heavily used system when there are a lot more systems out there to bomb is unnecessary.
Yes, yes it is Gerry. Conceal your jealousy as best you can :P
ReplyDelete