Terrorism and photography in Seattle

[domenico Foschi]

Jim, something tells me you already have the answer.

[francisco_5406]

It's a freer society than anywhere else on earth. Even the UK censors its press from time to time. Maybe Iceland or some advanced Scandanavian country has a higher quality of life, but they also have a monolithic culture. Only the US has freedom and cultural diversity.

The benefit of this free society is unmatched prosperity, where even our poor people are too fat and watch too much TV. The cost is tolerating some self-rightous victims who fail to realize their public whining is the very proof against their claim "that we aren't free."

[tim atherton]

"It's a freer society than anywhere else on earth. Even the UK censors its
press from time to time. Maybe Iceland or some advanced Scandanavian
country has a higher quality of life, but they also have a monolithic
culture. Only the US has freedom and cultural diversity."

Sorry Francisco - look north - Canada

As much (if not more freedoms), higher qulaity and standard of living and at least as much cultural diversity.

(And consistently rated abouve the US in the annual UN quality of living ratings).

Don't get me wrong - I like the US as a place and a people. But your statement above is just rather blinkered.

[Kirk Gittings]

"Sorry Francisco - look north - Canada"

I have to agree with Tim here. Having spent a few years in Canada, I think the difference is illuminating and palpable. I don't want to get into a long winded arguement about it..... but..... there is something about living in a country that is not trying to economically and politically force their way of life down the throats of the rest of the world that is both liberating and refreshing. I loved Canada and if some career things had worked out differently I would have stayed there. My family's roots in America go back, on one side, to the Mayflower and on the other side to the Native Americans who greeted them on the shore. But I truely do not like the direction this country is going....

[Henry Ambrose]

OK Scott, we're probably close to being on the same side here. But I still think blaming "joe average policeman" is not fair to them and certainly not correct. Its the -politicians- that we have to watch for.

And I still think Andre got it right about this particular case.

[Bruce Watson]

Francisco,

Unmatched prosperity? According to whom? If by prosperous you are talking about the quality of life in a given country, the last report I saw says that the USA isn't even in the top 10 anymore. Sigh...

Simple flag waving isn't going to get us back in the top 10 either. What will, is facing up to the problems and working to fix them, IMHO. We can't do that if we refuse to acknowledging the problems in the first place.

[francisco_5406]

While I like Canada very much too, I hardly see it as being more "free" than the US. But then I consider excessive taxation, restrictions on my property rights, and the silly nation-wide bilingual requirements as greatly inhibiting my freedom in Canada. Especially one of the most essential freedoms, that being the ability to run a business and make a living without the state taking more than their fair share.

The same goes for the other Northern Socialist paradises like Scandanavia. Thank goodness they have abundant and profitable natural resources, like Canada, or otherwise they'd be more broke than they already are.

If I were a European I wouldn't be too smug either. Over the past few years the EU has consolidated power and continues to grow into a stifling bureaucracy and a homogenizing super state. Free speech can be considered a "hate crime", property rights are nil, and taxation and welfare keep people locked in social strata just as rigid as the 18th-Century. Heck, school children can't wear religious items in France.

But it's not "cool" or "arty" to dwell on such matters. It's much more relevant to equate Bubba the cop as being the embodiment of Orwell's Big Brother. Maybe another government sponsored grant will arrive in the meantime, that is, if the committee approves my work.

[CP Goerz]

Francisco, are you saying that the US press isn't censored? When was the last time you saw a picture of a flag draped coffin from Iraq on TV or in the papers?



I've found in the little travelling I've done that people make their own little villages wherever they go, just about all your complaints of Europe can also apply here too. As for giving a grudging nod to Scandanavian countries for using and living off their natural resources, are you blind to the fact that a great part of the US history is based on that practice? Lets see if Sweden cuts down all their trees to appease a few billionaire stockholders who will take their money to some faraway continent. Monolithic cultures? I've been in Denmark a lot lately and there are all kinds of people there, not just blondes and brunettes either.

Do the 'rigid rules' of class society have no purchase in this land? Its human nature to have people who are considered better than others (better off to be more accurate), and then there are those who are considered a 'bad lot'. Every town in every state has a well to do side of town and the 'other' side. This is true the world over whether you live in a big hut in a shanty town or a mansion row in Beverly Hills, its all relative. If we replace the word 'class' with 'economic' when refering to strata you'll see that there isn't anything new here.

In the story all the security guy had to do was patrol the bus station so don't you think he would at the least be versed in the rules regarding what is reasonable or not? He doesn't help your argument he hurts it, his one opening quote set the stage for the entire incident. The poor leftist liberal artsy photographer was just trying to widen the scope of his portfolio...trying to make more money which I'm sure was against his higher principals. If he used a view camera we would probably still be looking for his body ;-)





CP Goerz.

[Bruce Watson]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/04/16/airport.screeners.ap/index.html

There's always this to add - that spending billions on "security" isn't making us any more secure.