Orange Alert!!

[Achilleez]

Terror lurks behind every corner, no one is safe. Cancel the flights, ground the jets, we won't be caught with our pants down twice!

 

Sitting up here (in the land of Zed and eh), we blubber eating, igloo building, hockey playing, pot smoking, homosexual approving eskimos find it half amusing and half pathetic at the level of insecurity among the American people, especially during these holiday weeks. I saw a phone-in television show the other day, with frightened citizens of L.A. scared to death that their flight coming in from France would be hijacked.

 

Did 9/11 change everything? In the winter of 2000, did such thing as orange alert even exist? No one was scared of flying then, but now everyone is terrified.

 

So tell me, good American citizens, are you really that scared? Or is this something the media has once again blown far out of proportion?

[Bob White]

Let me see if I get this straight. You are belittling the entire population of the USA because of your personal interpretation of the current events as related through the commercial news media? Is that about right?

 

Such personal power you have allowed yourself.

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[Achilleez]

No, that's not about right. I intend to belittle no one or make any interpretations.

 

What I am doing is relaying what I am hearing from the news and how people take it.

 

Do not patronize me, assuming that I take the interpretations of media news as truth. What I want to know from you is what basis of truth is the media collecting its information.(This message has been edited by Achilleez)

[Bob White]

And how many responses will it take before you form your opinion of 300,000,000 individuals?

[Achilleez]

I know where you are coming from BW, but my goal is not to confirm an opinion of the individuals, but rather decipher the told stories from the untold stories.

 

What is the situation where -->You

[Bob White]

Aside from mourning the deaths of friends and acquaintances that died in the 9/11 attacks and worrying about my friends who are fighting overseas, my life has not changed at all.

 

Hows that for cowardly.

 

The rest I will private message to you.

 

[hops_scout]

Orange alert is what we are at now, correct? High?

 

It hasnt changed anything for me. I've tried to keep my stuff ready at all times regardless of the level. See, I live just about an hour away from a very important building. No, its not the Pentagon, but it has to do with the military. September 11 was a wake up call for the world. The US isnt going to let it happen again.

[NJCubScouter]

Just a few points here.

 

The terror alert system

 

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=29

 

was created after 9/11/01, so the answer is no, there would have been no orange or any other color alerts in 2000. It was not thought necessary at that time to have a nationwide "graded" alert system for terror attacks, or any other safety conditions for that matter. (The military has "defcon" but that is for military use and I don't think that changes have been officially publicized.)

 

While it is true that most of the nation was recently upgraded from yellow to orange, the New York City metropolitan area has not been at less than orange since the system was created. When the rest of the nation has been at yellow, NYC has been at orange, and when the rest of the nation has been "upgraded" to orange ("high"), NYC has been considered to be at what is usually called "heightened" alert or in the terms of radio talk show hosts, "orange plus." I have never been sure whether this covers the area where I live, but since my home is approximately a one-hour drive from "ground zero" (if there were no traffic), it wouldn't seem to matter much. On 9/11/01 itself and in the following days, my area felt very much under attack.

 

What all this actually means to our everyday lives two years later, I don't know. If you look at the homeland security web site, it appears that most of the actual "action" to be taken at different "colors" are actions by the government, not by individuals, families or businesses. When we go from yellow to orange or orange-plus, I don't think I am doing anything differently. As for whether "life has changed" since 9/11/01, I personally think it has somewhat, mostly in intangible ways. The "feeling" is different. Maybe that is partly a function of where I live. But most people are not panicked, you just try to be more "careful out there," whatever that actually means.

[OldGreyEagle]

If we are such a terrible country and one that elicits jokes from your countrymen, why do 90 percent of them live so close to the US border, you would think by your tone they would be fleeing in droves to the Artic Circle to get away from us. WHy do your fellow citizens visit American Hospitals and leave behind the socialist mess of health care you guys have.

 

Bin Laden and the rest want the world to be all under Islamic rule, do you think that will exclude you guys? America is the target because its the biggest, but dont ever dream you guys will get a pass because you eat blubber. The United States is seen by some as a rogue nation, well if having its security solid and freedoms intact makes us rogue, well, OK.

 

You want to make fun of us, fine, you want to taunt us fine, but, if/when there is a huge fire in the Northwest Territories or an earthquake rumbles through Winnipeg, there will be eyes looking south for aid, and expected aid at that and if its not arriving in hours, people will be complaining where is the US? Oh yeah, and that aid is free, we dont expect payback, maybe not being made out as buffoons, and even that is ok, make us buffoons, but where would you guys be without the US directly south?

[LovetoCamp]

nothing changed here except that my cowardly brother is serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

then again, consider the source, a bunch of pathetic unemployed socialists hanging out in a coffeehouse, while sponging off their parents for a leaving.

 

No, it was me laughing!

[Achilleez]

Thank you to hops_scout and NJcubscouter for giving me the only real replies.

 

To the rest, I was astonished that you didn't realize that when I said 'ignorance is a terrible thing', I was refering to those American bashing coffee shop folks.

 

Since this thread has gone horribly astray, I will now correct a few things. I support the USA in its efforts to aid the world. Any country able to give support to another should be doing so much more often than they are. At 9/11 Canada send firemen to assist with the ground zero situation.

 

What I am saying is that several liberal medias here in Canada are portraying the USA as cowardly in their actions.

 

TP, when did I mention my friends being unemployed, socialists or pathetic? You don't know them and certainly are not in a position to presume who they are. They are however woefully ignorant of politics. That is because they, like most ignorant citizens, know everything about politics from the media.

 

If I wanted to be hassled about having socialized health care or living in a country that didn't support the American coalition I wouldn't need to get it here.

[Bob White]

"Sitting up here (in the land of Zed and eh), we ...... find it half amusing and half pathetic at the level of insecurity among the American people, especially during these holiday weeks."

 

Those were your words Achilleez, regarding how you view the American people, and I found it insulting. What comparable act of terrorism took place in your country, in order for you to be amused by our "pathetic" behaviour.

 

"I saw a phone-in television show the other day, with frightened citizens of L.A." Just how many did you see interviewed, that you were able to determine they represented the majority of the population of L.A. or anywhere else.

 

The problem seems to be less the concerns of the American people, or the accuracy of the media, But your behavior to make conclusions based on a few news bites and the coffee chat of a few folks of unknown intelligence. That to me is both amusing and pathetic.(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[Achilleez]

What no one seems to have yet grasped is that, with the exception of the last paragraph, my entire opening post was a joke, or more accurately, sarcasm. Sarcasm to represent the ridiculousness of the whole thing.

 

When I said amusing and pathetic, my meaning was that the media displayed the situation as pathetic, and that people were interpreting it as amusing.

 

I thought I made the context of my writing established with the opening two lines but I guess it wasn't clear.

[Bob White]

First Statement

"we ...... find it half amusing and half pathetic at the level of insecurity among the American people"

 

Last Statement

"my meaning was that the media displayed the situation as pathetic, and that people were interpreting it as amusing."

 

Am I the only person who sees absolutely no similarity in the meaning of those two statements?

 

Achilleez if that last post was meant as an apology, it lacked two words. You forgot to say "I apologize".

 

 

[ScouterPaul]

I was told 2 months ago by my son, who is a military police for the National Guard that the Security Alert was going to be raised during the holidays. How did he know, he was told by his superiors. I think for the most part thise secruity alerts are political in nature - fear after all is power.

 

Has any of these alerts changed my behavior - not at all. I have a greater chance of being killed by a falling tree while camping than I do by terrorist.