Y'know...

[holzman_tweed]

...if I were a terrorist mastermind, I wouldn't even be trying to blow shit up anymore.

I'd just find me some suckers, plant the notion in their heads of some sort of cockamie way they could maybe aspire to blow something up, (smuggling liquid explosives on board, for example) and... wait for it... leak word of the plot to the police so that there could be a big bust in the news...

...followed by dumb-assed panicky regulations that make air travel even more onerous for thousands of people than it is now.

I'd damage a crucial part of American infrastructure (the airline industry), promote panic amongst the public, and force Western governments to spend millions of dollars they can't afford -- all without ever having to actually engage any of the "security" that money was buying.

I'd even be saving myself some dough: those one-way cash airline tickets and flying lessons ain't cheap, after all.

Comments

[wednesday]

They are trying to keep us North Americans from the good whiskey in the duty-free. Arrrrrgh, &c.

[docstrange.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, your point is well made - it obviously does work that way, even when that's not the intent. There was a lot more $$ than for tickets moved around for the recent UK->US plot, according to news sources - over $150K in one report I heard. That said, you got it right: we're legislating for corner risks, the "one percent solution" as one security analyst puts it. Security has to be reasonable - not total. Total security is completely giving up self-direction, aka prison. Unfortunately, there is some kind of idea that we need to just go crazy on this stuff. Last election around, it was the idea that the Dems were weak and Repubs strong on it; now I hope it's becoming clear that Congress is going to pass whatever pap will keep them from being voted out of office, whatever will keep ANYTHING from going down "on their watch" - which is to say, security for their jobs, not for us.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

here was a lot more $$ than for tickets moved around for the recent UK->US plot, according to news sources - over $150K in one report I heard.

Oh, I'm certainly not suggesting that's what anyone's done to date, simply that that'd be my plan going forward.

[docstrange.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I think you're right in that it's the effect happening today. You're just cutting to the chase! Didn't Reagan's plan to take down the Soviet Union ultimately work off tweaking them into a spending spiral?

[holzman.livejournal.com]

That all depends on whether we ever recover from the cost of that strategy.[1]

"One more victory like that, and we're done for." -- Pyhrrus, Rex

[1] Assuming, of course, that Reagan's apologists aren't claiming that was the strategy in the same way that my cat claims he meant to fall off the armoire.

[subtlesabotage.livejournal.com]

NO shit.

[tatianne.livejournal.com]

If I were a terrorist mastermind, I would make small(er) bombs, plant them at the base structure, easily accessible by foot in the dead of night without notice, of every major bridge in the US and have them detinate all together or maybe in sequence for effect. It would take infinately longer for it to be rebuilt and be a lot more disruptive to everyday American life.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

That's phase III: it doesn't come until after there have been so many false alarms to demoralize the public that an air raid siren gets no more reaction than a car alarm.

[silme.livejournal.com]

I think you've hit a nail right on the head, alas.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

i came across that post you had mentioned in drs about how racism doesnt exist except in black people's feverish and needing to be victimzed imaginations. i swear i havent wanted to cut bitches like that since... well probably the day before yesterday, but still. how can anyone masturbate that badly and not peel the skin off?

[holzman.livejournal.com]

Egads -- I posted that back in April. Did you find it through a spectacularly unfortunate ljseek result or were you tragicly bored enough to read her LJ that far back? Kind of like I laid a mine in a field and the stupid blew up all over you now.

how can anyone masturbate that badly and not peel the skin off?

They're doing amazing things with lubricants these days.