Idiots. The Lot Of Them.

.:This Is Interesting...:.

Look what I got from my comment box the other day...

Hi there. I'm Evi, EIC of The GUIDON. :) Stumbled across your entry through the various links on the internet. I thought I'd invite you to write us formally at feedback@theguidon.com. The GUIDON has always encouraged a culture of rational and responsible discourse. If you send us a formal response to our sport editor's column, we can publish it as a letter to the editor. If you can make it more about your own opinion and less a reaction to our sport editor's opinion, we might even be able to publish it as a stand-alone column. (Blue Jeans and Time Out are columns open to the Ateneo public.)

I can't promise you anything but I hope to hear from you soon. If I could have your e-mail address, I could send you more details.

Well, how about that? I guess I'll give it a whirl, then.

.:Absobloodylutely Ridiculous:.

Due to recent terrorist activities in Europe, liquids are now banned in the MRT.

And here, we prove, the kind of knee-jerk security measures this country takes against terrorism. On a whim, they ban liquids.

Screw people who want to brush their teeth after a meal. Toothpaste is now a contraband in MRT's.

Screw people who need to take their medicine, which just so happens to be a syrup. Or heck, their asthma medicine. I myself happen to be asthmatic. I'd be absolutely thrilled to be told that they have to confiscate my not-so-cheap medicine and proceed to find myself have an asthma attack while inside the train due to the oversaturation of people inside.

Screw the people who have no idea what's been going on, have just bought loads of groceries, consciously avoided picking up cans (Which are already banned.), and end up losing half of the stuff they bought to the guards because hey, you know what? It's illegal now.

Screw drinking from the mineral water bottle to prove it's not a bomb. We don't care about the spirit of the rule, just the letter of the rule.

This is just a complete sham of idiocy that achieves nothing in the long run.

Let's see... liquids are banned because of a supposed foiled terrorist attack that didn't happen here, that still reeks of propaganda to hopefully justify either further action against Lebanon OR the Al-Qaeda. To quell the public paranoia, the knee-jerk reaction of MRT management is to ban liquids the way they banned canned goods the last time, thereby alienating people who use the MRT to travel after buying their groceries.

Why not have better security?

Why not have metal detectors?

Sniffer dogs?

If you are going to make a half-assed effort to placate paranoia, couldn't you at least not make it inconvenient to people who pay good money to avail of your services? Otherwise, you clearly are making a very narrow-minded attempt to please a minority, while the majority of the people who go ride your train are the people who have no idea why you're banning liquids in the first place.

Did you even know that the human body is made up of 80% liquid? Look! Ban *us*, too!

It just grates on me that petty inconveniences like these which in truth achieve nothing are all the management can come up with.

You want proof that it achieves nothing?

Well, how about this?

I have toothpaste and my asthma medicine in my bag. It's just that it's in a side pocket, so when I open my bag up, you can't see it.

So yeah, I get searched on a daily basis when I board the train, and yet they find nothing at all. They frisk you, but they only do that every now and then, and don't do it consistently.

If I wanted to have a bomb, I could have a bomb. Just put it in the side pocket of my bag, and off I go.

Meanwhile, people who don't realize this are terribly inconvenienced as their medicine, their water, their toothpaste, their hair gel, their whatever-else-that's-liquid gets plucked out of their bags for the most ludicrous of reasons.

Yeesh. Liquid bomb, schmiquid bomb. Just get better security already. If you're going to inconvenience me, you better make sure it's going to work.