Bomb bomb-bomb-bomb bomb…
Man turns out to have been arrested for nothing - Yahoo! News
I was originally disinclined to ever defend an idiot who packs explosive devices in his luggage, or even the parts necessary to do so, but… umm, he didn’t actually pack a working bomb, the luggage couldn’t explode (according to Air Jamaica, the airline), and he checked his luggage to be stored wayyyy out of his reach. Now, after knowing the details, I’m having a hard time believing he did anything illegal, unless being sketchy is suddenly illegal in the USA.
It is interesting that the most intense battle for civil liberties is taking place in the world of air travel, by far the most convenient form of transportation across long distances. I’m assuming you can get away with packing a WORKING pipe bomb in your luggage if you agree to sail on a boat or take a bus from here to wherever. It’s no less immoral or less legal to do so. (relevance: putting other people in danger without awareness of risk is immoral. Transporting an explosive device among consenting parties is perfectly legal, unless someone wants to quote me the section of US Code that says that no one can ever privately possess explosives - that rule simply isn’t there) The fact that we do not screen all bus, train, and boat passengers in this country for explosives or weapons has nothing to do with safety and has everything to do with economics. Airplanes do indeed have a much different risk profile as they are more fragile and potentially catastrophic form of transport; yet it is mind-boggling to witness the mass resignation and cognitive dissonance about civil liberties among American citizens when it comes to air travel. It is more threatening to me to have government virtually eliminate civil liberties in selective settings (and, eventually, anywhere they see fit) than it is to think about who wants to blow me up on a routine flight from New York to Orlando. The fact that many people have been screaming about this for six and a half years now, and that there’s been nothing but regression on the part of the TSA, makes me think that we are not a functioning democracy anymore.