Then they came for... the boaters

mikea

mikea

Touchdown! Greaser!
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You don't know where they come from," said Singleton. "You know, they could load up with a bomb or whatever and come right out here."

With thousands of boats on the waterways, the worry is the recreational boat is now a Homeland Security threat.

"Just the sheer numbers and ability to hide among recreational traffic is something that makes it difficult for me to find the threat and address it," said Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

A simple boat could be used as a weapon.

...

The head of the U.S. Coast Guard is throwing around a couple of ideas on how to keep you safe.

One would require licenses for all boaters in all states.

The other would call for transponders on recreational boats so authorities can track their location.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/topstories/news-article.aspx?storyid=82887
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"Reporting live from a unmonitored 4 ton TV truck, back to you."

I think the transponder will tell them the boat is somewhere on the water - if it's moving. THAT intelligence is obviously worth having every boater shell $5000 bucks. for equipment :mad: And will they require it for every dinghy, row boat and jet ski? Why not? They could carry a bomb! How about scuba divers? Oh noes!

Why izzit that because we can imagine there could be a threat, we need to make every single citizen that has a vehicle that fits what's in our imagination submit to new monitoring and restrictions?

And as we know every time they fail to mention the tools that terrorist have actually used for fatal attacks in the US. twice: Trucks.
 
A few years ago after some GA accident, Neal Boortz had some callers complaining what a threat these small airplanes could be to national security. People were saying all the planes are just play toys for wealthy, privileged people who have no need for them and stating "They shouldn't have that right!"

Neal has been known to throw in a "news story" just to stir the pudding. After all, he is the self-proclaimed "High Priest of the Church of the Painful Truth" and his slogan is, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad." Occasionally he'll announce a disclaimer telling people, "Don't accept anything I say unless you already know it to be true or have taken the time to research it for yourself."

One morning he started with a news story about the TSA considering limiting boat access to major lakes and particularly along river shores of major cities. People started calling and raising a fit, saying things such as "That's our right! They can't take that from us!" It was indeed one of his better shows. :D
 
To a bureaucrat, anything they can't monitor and control is a threat.

While players of both parties do it, the current administration has certainly implemented more monitor/control of ordinary citizens than I can remember in my oh-so-many years. It's not like the agencies that are doing this are apolitical, especially in today's Wasshington environment.

I'll stop there before I have to move this entire thread to Spin Zone.
 
wsuffa said:
To a bureaucrat, anything they can't monitor and control is a threat.

While players of both parties do it, the current administration has certainly implemented more monitor/control of ordinary citizens than I can remember in my oh-so-many years. It's not like the agencies that are doing this are apolitical, especially in today's Wasshington environment.

I'll stop there before I have to move this entire thread to Spin Zone.
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The current administration had good reason to monitor citizens.
 
JohnR said:
Are there really people who think innocent citizens are being spied upon? This isn't Cuba, folks.
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I know, I started the thread drift. Let's either split the political stuff to a new thread in Spin Zone or I can just move this thread over there if it continues down the path it's headed.
 
Perhaps "monitoring" or control of the boating population is a good thing for aviation. Well not the actual control but just the threat. When I think about it a ' terrorist ' would have a much easier time of loading up a small boat with explosives and other bad stuff and doing damage to say a marina or some place like the Chicago River when packed on a major holiday.
For the most part any bone head can buy a boat put gas in it and go. No so with a plane. same with Trucks. But why am I wasting my breath we all know that here.
So I guess my point is that the more folks they try to do this to perhaps the more allies we will have. Which leads me to comment Mike on the Excellent title to this thread!
 
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You can overload a boat or car or truck and it will still do its primary purpose. There are times overloading an aircraft will get you killed. The threat has always been there, will always be there (see IRAQ re: CAR BOMBS). If an occupying army can't protect itself, how can "controlling" transportation.
Truth is, it is all about money. If you have to control it better, you can ask for more money. Ultimately....


WE PAY!

And I like Thad but that just speaks of grabbing more control for himself.
 
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I just realized that story was from my own city.

The city that outlawed building an experimental aircraft in your own garage (but has since changed that so you can't do noisy stuff at night on your airplane), but allows you to build boats anywhere you please.

In Jacksonville, if you don't own a boat, you're SOL for things to do on weekends.
 
AdamZ said:
Perhaps "monitoring" or control of the boating population is a good thing for aviation. Well not the actual control but just the threat. When I think about it a ' terrorist ' would have a much easier time of loading up a small boat with explosives and other bad stuff and doing damage to say a marina or some place like the Chicago River when packed on a major holiday.
For the most part any bone head can buy a boat put gas in it and go. No so with a plane. same with Trucks. But why am I wasting my breath we all know that here.
So I guess my point is that the more folks they try to do this to perhaps the more allies we will have. Which leads me to comment Mike on the Excellent title to this thread!
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I like the cut of your jib son!

I too think this is BAD in the big sense, but good in the little sense. Perhaps if more "normal joe's" have to start dealing with the crap we have to deal with they may back us a bit more when we complain. As shown by Neal Boortz....start messing with "them thar boats" and people get ****ed.
 
The bottom line is that if you identify and outlaw one way to kill a bunch of people, the people that want to do it will find another way. They're not going to be deterred by laws and regulations.

I know, I know...I'm preaching to the choir.
 
AdamZ said:
Perhaps "monitoring" or control of the boating population is a good thing for aviation. Well not the actual control but just the threat. When I think about it a ' terrorist ' would have a much easier time of loading up a small boat with explosives and other bad stuff and doing damage to say a marina or some place like the Chicago River when packed on a major holiday.
...!
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The Coast Guard does close the Chicago River for security reasons. They patrol with inflatable skiffs. I saw them turn around power boats. They closed the river at where the north,south and east to the lake part branches which prolly ruined the plans of a few boaters. The last time I saw that was when Ahmed Karzai went to the Opera House, which is right on the river. The only saving grace was that it was weekday.

Let me point out once again that on 09/11/01 many of 19 actual hijackers WERE BEING TRACKED and were being sought for visa violations and such, so obviously the way to prevent that tragedy from happening again is to have the other 300 million of us monitored.
 
FlyNE said:
The bottom line is that if you identify and outlaw one way to kill a bunch of people, the people that want to do it will find another way. They're not going to be deterred by laws and regulations.

I know, I know...I'm preaching to the choir.
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Well, yeah, but outlawing murder didn't stop them, so why should outlawing flying, boating . . .
 
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