[oldie]

Tony Gioia for the installation at Malta International Airport of the Personal Identification Secure Compariison and Evaluation System (PISCES).

Malta is the first European Union country to have this state of the art border security system.

Regards - Oldie

[LANMaster]

I hope the system saves some Maltese lives.

[oldie]

I think LAN we have to take our dental records and 17 items of ID with us when we depart Malta airport

Sad facts of life eh

[LANMaster]

Sad, but what's the alternative?
Unfortunately I expect it will only get worse over time.

It is growing time for the herd of humanity to be culled again.
52 million in WW2, right?

I'd say that 100 million will be the next mass number we'll be mourning.
Not 3000 as we did with the WTC.

[pyritechips]

Jeez, LAN. Getting ready for the Apocalypse? Still a victim of the Whitehouse's systematic and ongoing fear-mongering?

Once before I stated that a social balance is struck between security and freedom. They can't both go up or down at the same time; they are inversely porportional to each other. I can't understand people that think by increasing security they gain freedom. It is a well established fact that governments (and I mean governments in general, so don't bother accusing me of "Anti-Americanism" or "Bush-Bashing") increase control of the population by increasing the fear factor. This increased fear factor causes the unknowing population to acquiesce to increased security, security here being synonymous with "control". It is also a fact that once any degree of freedom is surrendered in the name of security it is monumentally difficult, if possible at all, to regain that freedom. I can't understand how Americans, who are fiercely proud (and rightfully so), can fail to understand the above and so quickly and willingly surrender the freedom they take pride in.

[Fidelista]

pyritechips---the best, well spoken, post I have read. Its seems that Americans are almost ready to give up their {my} heritage and ideals ---all for a bunch of flim-flam artists.
It would have taken me two days to express the message, many posts, and invites to "go home"!!
I do wonder sometimes why Americans don't appreciate the values and freedoms they {I} enjoy?.

[LANMaster]

Hi Jim.

I tend to keep my politics and my occasionally whacko philisophical beliefs somewhat separated. (of course some might disagree.)

In the far future I invision a world where serveillance is much more common than even today. I don't support that, I just think it is innevitable.

With regard to the culling of the human race, I think it is bound to happen sooner rather than later. That wasn't a comment on politics at all. Perhaps it will be an asteroid or some freak storm. My WW2 analogy was perhaps a poor one. Pompay may have been a better example. Political injection into this thread was not my intent. But the growth of the world population and the spread of civilization and travel around the world has made our planet much smaller it seems.
So people who are bent on acts against mass peoples now have a far greater range than they have had in the past, and society is combatting that range with tighter security measures, such as the device which Oldie mentions at the start of the thread.

So this "culling" philosophy of mine (which in no way was intended as a political commentary) was simply a thought that nature culls humanity one way or another, usually when humanity starts to get too arrogant. Just a thought.

[pyritechips]

I tend to keep my politics and my occasionally whacko philisophical beliefs somewhat separated.

I try to but I find it difficult to separate philosophy from politics, as they are inextricably interconnected.

In the far future I invision a world where serveillance is much more common than even today. I don't support that, I just think it is innevitable.

I agree but you need not wait for the far future; it is here now. Only the degree changes. I also do not support it, and I also think it is inevitable, for good or bad.

As for the main thrust of your argument, I agree. I started a poll here last year asking what was the world's universal most pressing problem. I argued that just about all human social and international problems can all be traced back to increasing populations pressures. Most people disagreed with me.

The "culling"* of humans is a historical and biological fact. What has changed recently is that the "culling" is caused less and less by "natural" occurances (Pompei) as we learn how to protect ourselves from the natural environment, and more and more by human activity (war, traffic accidents, chemical and "tool" injuries, etc.). It seems we are quite clever in protecting ourselves from Nature but uncontrolled population growth makes it increasingly difficult to protect us from one another.

* Though it is a legitimate word, somehow "cull" as used in human context does not sit well with me. Is it because it is a euphamism to dull the horror and shock of mass human death?

[GoneForNow]

Originally Posted by pyritechips

It is a well established fact

You know better then to use a line like that.

This increased fear factor causes the unknowing population to acquiesce to increased security, security here being synonymous with "control".

I guess the statement that "you have nothing to fear but fear itself" was a misnomer.

It is also a fact that once any degree of freedom is surrendered in the name of security it is monumentally difficult, if possible at all, to regain that freedom.

Really? Can you cite me an example of when a freedom was taken away and never given back to us Americans? Its a well established fact ( ) that on the few times a President has attempted to curtail a freedom the Supreme Court has slapped them back to reality....old Abe Lincoln comes to mind.

I can't understand how Americans, who are fiercely proud (and rightfully so), can fail to understand the above and so quickly and willingly surrender the freedom they take pride in.

Thats easy, because most Americans don't agree with the premise of your statements.

[pyritechips]

Originally Posted by pyritechips
It is a well established fact

You know better then to use a line like that.

Its a well established fact ( ) that on the few times a President...

LOL

Thats easy, because most Americans don't agree with the premise of your statements.

That's why I'm asking for an (intelligent, informed) American point of view. Do most Americans even understand the premise of my statement (I can see the pitchforks and torches outside Castle Pyritechips now, screaming for the head of that Anti-American mad Canadian! )?

[GoneForNow]

Originally Posted by pyritechips

That's why I'm asking for an (intelligent, informed) American point of view. Do most Americans even understand the premise of my statement (I can see the pitchforks and torches outside Castle Pyritechips now, screaming for the head of that Anti-American mad Canadian! )?

Well despite the belief of some (no fingers pointed), we Americans aren't the naive unsophisticated stupid hicks we are sometimes portrayed to be. We understand very well and we'll deal with it in the future. This is not the first time nor will it be the last.

[oldie]

Originally Posted by gbrumb

Well despite the belief of some (no fingers pointed), we Americans aren't the naive unsophisticated stupid hicks we are sometimes portrayed to be.

From the many Americans my wife and I know, and know well, this is not how they see themselves, nor is it the way we Europeans see them - Brits Germans - French - you name them. OK, we may well poke a little fun your way regarding the American "Gung Ho" attitude. But the same harmless fun can be pointed at the German "discipline" the British "stiff upper lip" the Italian "superiority" etc

So GB - there you have it

Oldie

[LANMaster]

Originally Posted by pyritechips

I can see the pitchforks and torches outside Castle Pyritechips now, screaming for the head of that Anti-American mad Canadian! )?

What a mental picture!

[lighthouse]

Surveillance and security? I heard about a street theatre company in New York who set up in front of CCTV cameras and do performances of all sorts of stuff (Shakespeare, own works etc), complete with costume and dialogue boards, so it looks like one of those old silent movies to whoever is on duty that day. And after a few weeks of looking at everyday street scenes full of shoppers, traffic etc, it probably helps break the monotony for people in the department. .........But seriously, in an ideal world you shouldn't need any of it because the eventualities that necessitated its introduction in the first place wouldn't happen. Its advocates point to every incident - terrorist or otherwise - to justify even more of it and civilised society becomes the lesser for it. Can it be good for the collective psychology of entire peoples as their world becomes not much more than a film set run by faceless security agencies taking up their own role of 'Director'? Is the system run equitably anyway - or can it be used to perpetuate vendettas, simply because someone in the infrastructure doesn't like someone? If you're gonna have increases in surveillance into every aspect of our lives, as some see as a necessary consequence of the heightened terrorist situation, then who's looking back at them, looking back at you to ensure that all's fair? : And while they're staring all night and staring all day - what does a person do to cope with the inevitable claustrophobia?

I know, go and pull faces at the CCTV - or even get a street theatre thing together! How do you abridge for dialogue boards for a silent movie interpretation of "1984"?