My Follow-up to Andy Warhol
As most of you know, Andy Warhol once predicted that "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." The statement seems eerily correct given the explosion of talk shows and reality TV, which mainly happened after his statement.
I would like to follow-up on Mr. Warhol's bold prediction with one of my own:
In the future, everyone will be on the TSA's no-fly list
The TSA has the ridiculous policy of stopping everyone with a similar name as a single terrorist subject. So, once a John Smith comes under scrutiny as a possible terrorist, every John Smith gets turned away at the gate.
Sarah Zapolsky's 1-year-old son had better get used to being looked at as a
possible terrorist every time his family gets on a plane.That's because experts and officials say there's no way the toddler's name
will be taken off the federal no-fly list - even after he and another tot made
headlines for being stopped as potential terror threats."His name is the same or similar to someone on the no-fly list," said Ann
Davis, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, explaining
that even though a baby is not a threat, someone out there with the same name
is, and the name must be kept on the list.
Hat tip to Hit and Run.
Barbara S Meyer:
I am a short, overweight, 71 year old grandma. I too am on the no-fly list. I have not complained because (1) I don't have to fly often, (2) when I do fly, I allow myself enough time for the extra hassle and (3) just in case my terrorist namesake is flying, I want that short fat old lady stopped!!!
August 18, 2005, 8:00 amAnon:
So what should the TSA do here? We have a list of possible bad guys. Should we simply not try to prevent these people from flying? Or, if we do believe that we should try to prevent them from flying, how should we do it so as to minimize the impact on innocent people, some of whom might happen to have the same name as one of the possible bad guys.
August 20, 2005, 5:40 ammarkm:
They should put a description in the list, too. Duh!!!
August 20, 2005, 9:35 amTimbu :: Musings:
Miracles & Assorted Odds and Ends
I've haven't written much lately so here are so I'll do a little catching up tonight. I loved The Angels Retirement Speech, by Annie Farnsworth, which appeared on The Writer's Alamanac. ... now they've got their own miracles, like cell...
August 31, 2005, 10:04 pm