archy

What have we become
Having insulted Rush Limbaugh with a cheap shot pointing out that he's a fat, drug addicted hypocrite, I'll show some liberal even handedness by giving him something he really wants. Rush thinks it's terrible and suspicious that the Democrats and liberal media are talking about Katrina this week instead of 9/11. Don't try to tell him that it's because the anniversary of Katrina is this week and the anniversary of 9/11 is still two weeks away; he knows talking about Katrina this week is a cynical political ploy to make Bush look bad. Okay, just to show what a nice guy I am, I'll talk about 9/11, just for Rush.

Five years of non-stop fear-mongering by the Bush administration and its allies have turned us into a nation of gun-shy cowards who are ready to cast aside our most sacred values the illusion of a few moments security. In evidence, I give you this:

An architect of Iraqi descent has said he was forced to remove a T-shirt that bore the words "We will not be silent" before boarding a flight at New York.

Raed Jarrar said security officials warned him his clothing was offensive after he checked in for a JetBlue flight to California on 12 August.

[...]

He said he had cleared security at John F Kennedy airport for a flight back to his home in California when he was approached by two men who wanted to check his ID and boarding pass.

Mr Jarrar said he was told a number of passengers had complained about his T-shirt - apparently concerned at what the Arabic phrase meant - and asked him to remove it.

He refused, arguing that the slogan was not offensive and citing his constitutional rights to free expression.

Mr Jarrar later told a New York radio station: "I grew up and spent all my life living under authoritarian regimes and I know that these things happen.

"But I'm shocked that they happened to me here, in the US."

[...]

"We Will Not Be Silent" is a slogan adopted by opponents of the war in Iraq and other conflicts in the Middle East.

It is said to derive from the White Rose dissident group which opposed Nazi rule in Germany.

The key point to note is that at no point did they suggest that he was suspected of being a danger to the security of the flight. It was the mere presence of words in Arabic script that sent people into a panic. And, by simply covering up the scary words, Mr. Jarrar was decreed an acceptable passenger for that flight. Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, and the whole right-wing information machine want us to think about 9/11 and stay fearful every moment of every day. They have made us into a nation of pants-wetting cry-babies.