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New crime: being sort of swarthy while using an iPod | 65 comments (65 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: New crime: being sort of swarthy while using (none / 1)
My impulse is to say that if you don't want to fly with someone because you think they "look Arab" or whatever, get off the plane. Don't end up with them being arrested or removed when they've done nothing wrong except look different.
by lauramp on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 06:57:49 AM EST
Re: New crime: being sort of swarthy while using (4.00 / 3)
They're the one that looks different, so they get off the plane. And the rest of the non-different people will cheer, too. It's mob rule.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 07:31:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: New crime: being sort of swarthy while using (none / 0)
funny you say that...i was flying shortly after lockerbie, and going through the x-ray and security check, there was an arab guy right after me in the queue. he had 5, repeat 5 cans of shaving cream in his washbag, spilled open upon request of the security officer.  i remember thinking: ''why would someone travel with 5 cans of shaving cream?'

the security guy never gave him a second look, just waved him on, and i remember wanting to shake the security guy by the shoulders and say 'are you crazy?'

then walking on the flight, telling myself that my imagination was far too active...

jumpy times, jumpy places...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 07:48:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: New crime: being sort of swarthy while using (4.00 / 2)
why would someone travel with 5 cans of shaving cream?

Because Gillette is the Best a Man can Get.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 07:53:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: New crime: being sort of swarthy while using (none / 0)
ROTFL

 well he was pretty swarthy
<snrk>

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue Oct 3rd, 2006 at 05:31:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: New crime: being sort of swarthy while using (4.00 / 2)
I'm also always the one to start sweating, about ... me. I don't look Arabic, I'm not particularly tanned, I don't even have decent facial hair. But I always feel suspicious when I walk into an airport, a train station, when I cross policemen, even when I walk into a store. It's not paranoia, it's worse - it's self-guilt syndrome. But when I'm actually checked for something, for instance when a store's beep alarm goes on as I cross the gates (but am innocent), I'm generally quite cool. I only remain nervous with policemen, they always make me feel even guiltier when they challenge me orally. Except when I'm drunk - did I ever tell you about the time I was stopped by Gendarmes on a highspeed road with my bicycle, drunk, and with no lights on? That was a different story entirely, I even complained that their alcotest didn't work because it showed me as juuuust under the limit, that I was drunk and it was unfair that their electronic gadget didn't give me the respect I was due.
by Alex in Toulouse on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 04:06:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
alcotest jokes (4.00 / 3)
Old Soviet favorite

Policemen stop a guy in his car with wife and kids. They test him. Very drunk. "Your test is not working. Test my wife". They do. Drunk as well. "Your test is not working, I tell you. Test my kid". They do. The 5-year old tests positive as well. The policemen are embarrassed, but let the guy go. "See, I told you we had to give the kid some as well".


In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 04:28:14 PM EST
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New crime: being sort of swarthy while using an iPod | 65 comments (65 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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