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Originally posted by wolf
I suspect your wanding at the Spectrum has more to do with the actions of 'bangers in Phila than it does terrorists in the Middle East or elsewhere. They always used to do physical searches at the stadiums, didn't they?
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Not to my knowledge; these friskings started when the bombings of Iraq started. Before, they might ask to look in your cooler to make sure you didn't bring in bottled beer; now, EVERYBODY gets searched. A friend of mine assumes the POW/concentration-camp position when he goes through the turnstiles (arms behind the head), to my great amusement and the consternation of the security guard.
Quote:
Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
Your perspective of the world and our countries place in it may not have changed but you are not an island (to coin a phrase) and lots of changes are going on that will affect you. I'll wager much more than you can forsee.
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Only if you believe that Bush & Co. would have done many things quite differently had 9/11 not happened. I don't; I sincerely believe that taking out Hussein, provisions of the PATRIOT Act, an aggressive takeover of the judiciary, etc., were part of their playbook all along, and 9/11 was an unfortunate but nonetheless useful pretext for them to speed things along and intimidate opposition. If it hadn't happened, something else would've.
This isn't "Bush caused 9/11" or "Bush knew it was coming and did nothing" conspiracy theory; either theory may or may not hold some truth, but we'll never know, so I don't lose sleep over them. All I'm saying is that all that changed on 9/11 was their timetable and the ease of execution of what they had in mind. It's not as if Cheney, Rummy, Wolfowitz and such haven't been chanting the "best defense is a good offense" mantra <a href="http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm">for years now</a>...