Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Marc on December 17, 2012 at 12:43pm

I think that a psychological evaluation is creating a bit of a false dichotomy here. There are many ways to intercept potential danger. It can be as simple as a conversation. I go over the border to Canada regularly and get some of the most inane questions asked to me. I am sure the content of the questions is unimportant and the banter is meaningless.

They are looking for signs. If we had a comprehensive system to monitor the sales of firearms and ammunition, we could have watched that guy in Colorado buy 6,000 rounds of ammo in a period of time and someone could have shown up on his doorstep and had a conversation with him and potentially picked up on signs to indicate further investigation or questions were needed. Would that have prevented Newtown, no, but the are other approaches to be used and combined they would be successful.

Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on December 17, 2012 at 7:29pm

Actually Marc, with Little George W's Patriot Act (so cleverly named, so that anyone who questioned it, would seem unpatriotic) in place, to the extent that even our library book choices are being catalogued, that the purchase of 6,000 rounds of amunition wouldn't have set off some bells and whistles SOMEwhere!

Permalink Reply by James Cox on December 17, 2012 at 8:44pm

Do other countries have border crossing question lists? How effective are the questions? What are the guards looking for generally?

I expect that '20 questions', might not be an easy game with a fellow trying to rush a security line/door. Getting at a 'problem', that has a low probability, but potential  high fatality, becomes very expensive, with limited return, unless some inexpensive warning evaluation could be found or imposed.

Is there image processing software that might look for biometric indicators? Could metal detectors, with some basic imaging capability be applied? Are there any body scanners that might offer an alarm, that could then call for a frisk, but passing most everyone else.

Is this a 'problem', with no reasonable solution, or one that demands some new or reapplied technical fix?      

Permalink Reply by Marc on December 17, 2012 at 9:02pm

Leaving the US I think they are looking to see you are who you say you are and there is an issue with male parents taking their children out of the country and back to whatever country the father is from when their marriage to a US woman breaks up.

My friend works for the DEA and he says coming into the country there is big issue with pot being smuggled in from Canada and big sums of cash being brought into the country coming from questionable sources.

They caught a guy coming into the country because he looked nervous when he was asked the questions and they found he had a false floor in his 18 wheeler and the whole floor of the freight area was lined with pot.

Permalink Reply by Unseen on December 17, 2012 at 2:39pm

@ Adam

And I'll mark you as another old fool who has absolutely no clue about what he is talking about.

Must be drinking a lot Ensure and taking your Centrum silver edition huh grandpa? That you can put a 50lb bodly armor plate in 15 seconds. 

You seem unaware that this site has rules regarding how we talk to each other and that you have been at or over that line in several exchanges with me now. 

One of the things we all have to look forward to as we get older is that of being ridiculed for our age by children. Here it's the argumentum ad hominem where the opponent is verbally abused or ridiculed for something off subject rather than his arguments actually being dealt with.

BTW, some proofreading or even taking advantage of TA's built in spelling helper would benefit you a lot.

Permalink Reply by Adam on December 17, 2012 at 3:27pm

Sorry I haven't broken any TOS of this site. Your arguments are very flawed and anyone with any ounce of military training can see it very well. That is why I have been replying to you facetiously. I have no time or interest to rectify your outlandish comments that you make which are realistically not very plausible.

If you do not understand why you are wrong or incorrect simply just ask, do not go on a rampant verbal carnage

Permalink Reply by kris feenstra on December 17, 2012 at 3:58pm

The ToS is just a generic ToS for the Ning platform on which this site runs. The forum guidelines are the rules and guidelines set forth by the TA administrators.

Under "Banable Offenses":
3. Personal Attacks (name-calling or abusive remarks directed at a person or group of people)

While it is recognized that there is a personal element to conversations and that members will want to voice their frustrations or disapproval of other members, the above rule serves two purposes:

• it prevents conversations from dissolving into mud-slinging
• it offers members some level of protection against aggressive abuse

To the letter, the 'old fool' comment would have violated the rules had it not been removed (by whom, I do not know). While it is a particularly mild case for which no one would be banned, it is preferred that members respect the the intended purpose for the rule. We cannot force members to play nice -- most moderator actions are too heavy handed for minor issues --, but a certain level of decorum is appreciated.

I am a site moderator, but I am only posting this to clarify the rules and point out that the guidelines linked above are the guiding principles of the site.

Permalink Reply by Adam on December 17, 2012 at 4:38pm

It was me that deleted my own comment as it was a reply to his earlier comment where he said "It'll just mark you as another one of the kids who sign up here and haven't learned how mature adults talk yet"

If he is going to talk down to me, you know I will do the same to him but I went back and I removed it but I don't know how he still quoted it. 

Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on December 17, 2012 at 8:02pm

@Blaine - RE: "I have learned a lot from him" - as have I, to ignore whenever possible.

Permalink Reply by kris feenstra on December 17, 2012 at 6:24pm

Blaine is correct. If you are following a thread, the entire contents of new posts are sent via email notifications.

If he is going to talk down to you, I don't know what you are going to do. As a moderator, I am not making moral ethical judgments on users. In this case, I was only clarifying site policy with no implication that your behaviour is better or worse than that of any other user. If I gave that impression, my apologies. 

Permalink Reply by Unseen on December 17, 2012 at 8:05pm

As soon as you hit SAVE your comment shows up in everyone's email. When you delete a comment, it's deleted from TA, but everyone still has it. So, if you say something untoward, then delete it, it's still out there for all to see.

Permalink Reply by James Cox on December 17, 2012 at 8:22pm

Wow, I did not know there was a spell check. I'll have to rut around to see if I can find it, thanks!

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