This Means We’re Winning…Right?
Flakes on a Plane
From New York Public Radio:
NEW YORK, NY August 29, 2006 —An Iraqi architect says he was not allowed to board a Jet Blue flight at JFK because of the Arabic inscription on his t-shirt.
REPORTER: Raed Jarrar was wearing a T-shirt that read We Will Not Be Silent in Arabic and English, when he was approached by security officers. The officers said the Arabic script was upsetting other passengers, and told Jarrar to either turn the shirt inside out or wear something else. Jarrar protested but finally wore a T-shirt provided by a Jet Blue employee.
Is there a metaphor in the idea that covering his t-shirt suddenly made his fellow passengers feel better?
August 31st, 2006 at 8:10 am
Couple guesses: 1: That whoever these security people turned out to be, they were not responding to passenger complaints and only used it as an excuse. 2: That only one passenger complained…there’s always one in the crowd…and security made it sound like all the passengers were scared shitless.
I would have thought that this was something our country could have united against. Do we really want to live like this?
August 31st, 2006 at 8:48 am
Another guess:
The overly ratcheted up security is starting to lose steam and therefore relevance. So the machine is finding ways to validate itself.
See!! If it wasn’t for us, these liquid snake inscriptions would go unnoticed!
The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding
bureaucracy.
August 31st, 2006 at 9:15 am
Note to potential terrorists: Leave the “I’m giving my life for Allah and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” shirt at home, in favor of “These colors don’t run”
August 31st, 2006 at 9:59 am
Ye gods.
Yeah, you are right. Potemkin village security at its finest. But hey - the dude got a free T-shirt out of it! Score!
August 31st, 2006 at 3:21 pm
W!T!F!?!
Now the TSA gets to tell us what we can wear? What if I wore my “FUCK THE TSA” T-shirt? Would it be ok to wear “First thing we do is kill all the Muslims”? And even if it is true that “the Arabic script was upsetting other passengers,” so what? You don’t have the right to not be uncomfortable by someone else’s fashion sense. If we did, more people that shouldn’t wear spandex wouldn’t.
Next thing you know, compulsory overalls!
I’m just waiting for someone to say that this isn’t encroachment on our civil liberties a la Lum’s last week. This is a real infringement on a person’s freedom of speech. Can’t wait to hear the arguments to the contrary.
Sooner or later someone has to make a real stand about this shit. Ideas, anyone?
August 31st, 2006 at 9:30 pm
speaking of t-shirts…
a while back listening to a Praire Home Companion, the host jokingly described a t-shirt reading “God has choosen the Republican Party, why haven’t you?” in one of the skits.
I wonder how TSA would react to that.
September 1st, 2006 at 7:08 am
He should definately have worn this shirt instead.
September 1st, 2006 at 7:56 am
Wow, I guess we do profile. This guy has that and freedom of speech covered in a law suit.
On a personal note, I think I’m going to redneck up a T-shirt with a black magic marker the next time that I get sent somewhere for work that I don’t want to go.
September 5th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Last week Delta made my friend turn inside-out her “George Bush Killed My Dog” shirt because it was “offensive”.