

Judge rules TSA no-fly procedures unconstitutional - not_that_noob
http://boingboing.net/2014/01/15/judge-rules-tsa-no-fly-procedu.html

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spodek
> _The DHS engaged in witness tampering (denying Dr Ibrahim and her witnesses
> access to the courtroom by putting the on the no-fly list) and argued that
> neither Dr Ibrahim nor her lawyers should be allowed to see the evidence
> against her_

I was going to write about the gross abuse of power and how we should change
the people and the system but I think their thuggery is so obvious we don't
have to belabor the obvious and the more appropriate thing to say is: What a
bunch of assholes.

~~~
colechristensen
>What a bunch of assholes.

While it might be true, the sentiment is entirely unhelpful and mirrors a
fundamental problem with the reaction to these types of problems: there is
nothing special about these people that makes them assholes.

In fact, I'm proposing that any group of people put into these roles would
behave exactly the same. When you put people into jobs, the – let's say
architecture – of the organization they are put into has a drastic influence
on their behavior (see the Stanford prison experiment)

The question that should be asked is what's wrong with the architecture of
these organizations that brings out the natural bad qualities of human
behavior in average people?

~~~
nwh
Not entirely at odds with the experimentation you quoted, I think it's
perfectly within rights to call these people assholes. If they really had any
conscience about the matter they would speak up or leave the job, seeing as
they don't it's well within rights to refer to these actions as their own and
hold them at least partially responsible.

~~~
colechristensen
Within rights, perhaps... helpful? no. Even prosecution and lawsuits, while
necessary doesn't actually solve the problem and that's the point I'm trying
to make.

Being upset at individuals, suing and prosecuting, and all things of this sort
miss the core of the issue and if you spend all your time concentrating on the
superficial causes you'll never fix the actual problem.

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kcorbitt
Despite its imperfections, the US Constitution's very measured and explicit
introduction of independent branches of government with checks and balances
between them strikes me as one of the greatest political innovations of all
time. It's right up there with representative rule.

~~~
thrill
The Constitution also envisioned _limited_ government.

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saraid216
Looks like a continuation of
[http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6850408](http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6850408)

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aeonsky
Am I on USA-Today or Hacker News?

~~~
peterkelly
HN has a voting system where readers decide what stories get to the top.
Apparently a lot of people considered this both newsworthy and relevant to
their interests.

~~~
aeonsky
"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics..." and "If they'd cover it on TV
news, it's probably off-topic." If we go with your logic, I would start
posting and upvoting news coming from TMZ and the latest Casey Anthony
updates.

