why tourism to America is way down in spite of it being cheaper because of the collapsed dollar?

Hmmmmmmm

I think this is one of the most pernicious aspects of the growing police state in America. There was the call years ago to spy on your neighbors. Delivery people were asked to provide information on you. It was straight from an Orwellian totalitarian state. I was expecting to see youth groups formed in schools to report suspicious activity anywhere, including the home. Children reporting their parents.

Laws criminalize what had been common, innocuous, even friendly behavior. Ask yourself why someone takes a picture. To capture the memory to show friends. The beauty, unique or even common quality of a scene. That's the case for the vast majority. Vast. On the order of powers of ten magnitude, the purpose was and is benign. Yet using the Cheney theory of treating actions and people as criminal on the basis that some small microscopic portion make actually have criminal intent becomes the rule in America. It's for "protection." But whose protection? The state's or the state's people?

It encourages intimidating qualities in police and pseudo-police. Flight attendants now are acting on behalf of "homeland security" so you better not complain about how they treat you. You can be arrested as a suspected terror threat and put on the many watch lists.

I think it was Xeni Jardin at Boingboing that described walking through an airport with a dozen or so other people when a security guard shouted to "Freeze!" to everyone. Everyone stopped. They were told not to move a step. After ten minutes of motionless standing someone complained and was told to shut up and not move. After 30 or so minutes the group was allowed to move on. You get the sense that this was done almost for the fun of abusing the power. People weren't asked for identification or given any reason for their temporary kidnapping. That's because there was no need to give a reason. Pressing for one would likely get you on a list.

If you criminalize common behavior you enable abusive police filtering of the enforcing of that common, newly criminal, behavior. Some can be given warnings while others can be detained and arrested, .. deported or renditioned.

It's the proud and utterly patriotic "Brown Shirting" of America.

Will show you the train tracks just fine, thanks.

And pretty much anything else you need to know.

Security theatre is really getting very stupid in this country.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Charles Darwin

You can go to jail for not watering your lawn in Orin Hatch's Utah

In spite of all of the noise they make about liberals, I really do think that many conservatives are pathological control freaks.

"I just watched armed police officers remove a visitor from the train for taking pictures." Episcopal Cafe Editor's note: Amtrak #2290, September 15, 2007, Acela express, the quiet car.

An unfortunate occurrence, perhaps not official policy but not an isolated incident either.

"I know it's too late now, but I wonder what would have happened if all of the passengers had refused to let the police take the man off the train."

It will happen again, and next time, provided you are the sort who can keep your temper, you can do more than watch: speak up, write down names, involve the other passengers, interrupt your own trip to accompany the confused old guy, and otherwise, nonviolently, bear witness.

print it out and carry it with you from here