So we now have the “Treasure Trove” of data from the “Million Dollar Mansion”. That’s good, but also maybe not so good.
We’ve seen time and time again the government mindless robots react to a theoretical attack vector by building tangible defenses, usually at the cost of freedom of Americans.
It’s not a hard equation to figure out – terrorist says “we could cause problems by doing ‘x'”. If the government knows that and some day ‘x’ were to happen, the media and political parasites like Chuck Schumer would crucify the person who decided in the risk analysis that the costs of preventing “x” and the actual damage if “x” happened can’t justify trying to stop “x”. They might even threaten to make a decision like that a criminal offense.
So as a government functionary, there is no down side to demanding unlimited resources and actions that disrupt economic in order to prevent a theoretical attack.
So the first “x” out of the box is… while scribbling down ideas, someone suggested “hey, let’s derail trains”. Well duh. There have been several intentional derailments of trains in Pakistan that led to significant loss of life.
But the United States is not Pakistan. Pakistan uses trains extensively for intercity travel – packing humans in like sardines. The routes run over treacherous mountain passes over ancient rails and signalling equipment.
We could go down the path of the Soviet Union and turn railroads into military assets – post soldiers every mile or two and task them with defending against sabotage – just think of all the jobs that would create. Prosperity would be just around the corner.
Or alternatively, we could tightly limit visas from people from countries known to want to cause harm to us…
Time for Patriot Act II? Anyone checking out books on trains from the library should be thoroughly investigated. Google should be required to turn over all their search records regarding trains. Ignore searches on “pulling a train”. Those aren’t the droids you’re looking for… 🙂
I know, let’s add another Federal department on top of HLS! Adding a few more thousand Barney Fife’s to government payrolls will surely terrify the terrorists.
Among people who are rail fanatics (I’m not quite there, but close), ever since 9/11, railroads (especially ones that carry passengers) have been very skittish about anyone who looks like they might be filming trains or anything related (of course the 3 CCTV cameras per capita operated by governments are not a problem). Some public transit agencies have long had policies of no photos or filming without authorization – but that’s getting really hard to enforce.
Perhaps they should consider painting over all the windows on the cars to prevent unauthorized picture taking.
I grew up as a kid riding the Greyhound/Trailways bus (my parents couldn’t drive). When my sister came to visit about 5 years ago, I learned that the days of just showing up, buying a ticket, checking your suitcase and hopping on the bus as long gone.
Now you need a picture ID and a reservation which are checked constantly (unless of course if you no habla Ingles)… The other day some guy was suspected of damaging a synagogue in California (I think) and they were waiting for him as he got off the bus returning home.
You can never do too much to protect the children.
Certainly all of us model railroad enthusiasts will be under suspicion. After all, we are building, simulating, and planning operations with scale models of actual railroads!!!
Will this mean I have to show I.D. at the hobby shop when buying a passenger car, diner, sleeper, or any diesel engine?
(Frankly, a more effective target would be a cruise ship… even losing a modest-size vessel would cause panic in the industry.)
You know, I’ve heard some people with model railroads have been known to crash the trains on purpose!
So, here is a timely news story:
http://www.khou.com/news/local/2-officers-shot-in-downtown-Houston-121444819.html
A man trying to buy a ticket on a Greyhound Bus is observed to have a gun-like object in his possessions. Police are called. The man is tazered. He pulls out his gun and shoots two police, the police return fire and he is killed.
No word on whether he had a license to carry concealed – boarding public transit with a concealed gun is not illegal in Texas if he had a permit, but individual carriers can prohibit it.
Greyhound does prohibit firearms on the bus, even in baggage…
http://www.greyhound.com/en/docs/greyhound_prohibited_items_list.pdf
So it goes….
Okay, call me cynical, but there’s a lot of info in the article that seems rather… incomplete (dubious).
The article says a “Greyhound ticket agent checked the baggage of an unidentified man”. Excuse me, but don’t we I.D. a person boarding a bus with checked luggage?
Was the ‘security guard’ in plain clothes? No info given other than he was a moonlighting rookie cop (not sure how a reporter qualifies the term “two year veteran“).
And the BIG question, what was in the bag and what was in his luggage that he checked with the agent?
Let’s ‘demand’ his bag, tazer him, engage in a shoot-out, and after he’s dead give no indication of an initial crime.
Been seeing this sort of thing occurring a lot more frequently, then it’s quietly swept under the rug.
The local scenario here is everyone wanting a police dog to use as an offensive weapon.
In a recent incident, this was the story (as told by the local newspaper). Man gets in some sort of altercation. He calls police. He says “mr x hit me and he is living with Ms Y”
Bring in the police dog – the dog isn’t used to track a scent from the crime scene. There is no independent verification that Mr X was involved or that there isn’t more to the story.
So the police goes to Ms Y’s apartment and inform her they want to talk to Mr X. When she refuses their request to search her home, they release the dog into the house. The dog finds Mr X who is injured by the dog and charged with attacking the dog and Ms Y is charged with hiding Mr X.
All of this without the policeman having witnessed anything or having evidence connecting Mr X to a crime, other than the victim saying so.
In the good old days, the police would have said “Ms Y, we want to talk with Mr X about a crime he may have committed. If he is in your house and you hide him, you will be charged with a crime. If you don’t consent to a search, we’ll tell a judge the situation and get a search warrant to search here for Mr X. If we find him here, we’ll push the prosecutor to give you jail time.
All we want to do is get Mr X’s side of the story. If he didn’t do anything wrong, we’ll be on our way.
FWIW, I seem to remember their might have been a drug connection of why these people knew each other.
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise….. Chuckie Schumer was just on the news wanting to apply airplane screening requirements to passengers on trains.
Let’s see – how are trains different than airplanes?
You can’t make them derail from inside the car…
You can’t crash them into a building
You can’t get into the driver’s compartment from the passenger cars
Riding commuter trains doesn’t require showing an ID – fares are usually paid on the train after the person is already on the car and it has left the station. Most stations don’t have anyone on duty to sell tickets. Checking tickets as the person boards would wreak havoc on the schedules and make them less competitive than driving in your car
Passenger trains don’t have seat belts or air bags (don’t tell Schumer!)
Schumer, Lieberman, Boxer, Feinstein, et-al never saw a police-state decree they didn’t like. Shumer wants our guns, Lieberman wants the internet.
One has to wonder if they aren’t escapees from the Third Reich; not as victims, but as secret members.
Funny how so many of their tribe say “never again” …while implementing it.
ABC radio is really playing up this issue.
They dug up some “expert” on railroad safety who confirmed that attacking railroads would be a “great bang for the buck” for terrorists.
Small conflict of interest there?
That story was followed up by a story encouraing young boys and girls to paint their toenails pink tomorrow to show their tolerance for gayness. The spirit of George Weber lives on.