Quote:
Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch
I, for my part, do not, but presumably Congress does, and it's not for individuals to undermine our foreign policy, however unwise that policy may be.
Or, more accurately, if you want to engage in acts of civil disobedience, fine, but to expect a government agent at any level to stand by and tolerate it in the name of autonomy or freedom or what-have-you is to expect a government of corruption, or at least one of men and not laws.
I get that it's just a t-shirt but it pushes my buttons when someone says it's outrageous that the government is enforcing Ridiculous Policy A (that I oppose) when its limited resources would be far better spent enforcing Ridiculous Policy B (which I favor). Both of those ridiculous policies are the sausage made by our flawed democratic process, and I've seen personally how awkward it can be when a citizen engages with a government functionary with the "That rule is bullshit" argument. The functionary is probably in the 49% or less of America that opposed that rule, but there is no good answer other than "Okay, I'll only enforce the rules that I would have adopted if it were my choice" or (much more commonly) "Ma'am, this is my job to enforce these rules" the latter of which always seems to result in the Nuremberg argument, and we all know how productive THAT is.
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You are reading too much (or too literally) into my (admittedly sloppy) statement of "who gives a shit..."
It would have been more accurate to say, "I submit that the imminent danger presented by a child walking away from a flight that just landed and wearing a t-shirt that appears to be of Cuban origin, is significantly lower than that presented by a child walking towards a flight that is about to take off and wearing something that set off a metal detector. And yet, we hear outrage about the latter (male) child taking off his shirt (even though it appears that it was his father's idea, and act) than we ever did about the former (female) child having to remove her shirt."
I am certain that you are intelligent enough that, were you on Customs duty that day, you would have found a way to separate the girl from her shirt without having her stripped to her bra in public. Unless your feeling is that engaging in a minimal act of civil disobedience costs a young girl her right to complain about that sort of thing.
