4 ms·

No different from being detained and banned from boarding if you joke about a bomb at an airport. There isn't much incentive for TSA or OFAC agents to apply co

No different from being detained and banned from boarding if you joke about a bomb at an airport. There isn't much incentive for TSA or OFAC agents to apply common sense or attempt to detect irony. Because (1) that requires mental effort, (2) if you get it wrong and decide someone is serious when they were joking, it doesn't hurt you any other than needing to waste some time on paperwork, and (3) if you get it wrong and decide someone is joking when they were serious, then you've put people's lives in jeopardy, terminated your career, and perhaps opened yourself up for legal liability.

mindslight 11y ago
> There isn't much incentive for TSA or OFAC agents to apply common sense or attempt to detect irony ... because they avoid responsibility for the damages of their willfully negligent actions.
riprowan 11y ago
> There isn't much incentive for TSA or OFAC agents to apply common sense or attempt to detect irony. Right, because every incident that they have to report and log is additional work and justification for budgetary increase.
dwaltrip 11y ago
He's not at the airport. This is a PRIVATE communication between two individuals. It's absurd that this power is available to a government.
- FireBeyond 11y ago
  Where private is defined as "financial transaction through an intermediary who is bound by several laws regarding the laundering or potential illegal use of money".
  - dwaltrip 11y ago
    I understand your point. However, this is the modern way of physically handing $10 bucks you owe to your friend. Similarly, a private e-mail, which is now scanned and indexed by the government along with everyone else's e-mail, is the modern equivalent of sending snail mail 50 years ago, in which there was 0% chance any higher power would have read and catalogued your letter. We shouldn't have to live in the past because the government takes advantage of technological progress with massive power grabs. The potential for devastating abuse is so great. Imagine how this power would have been abused over the past century, if it existed then.

mindslight 11y ago

> There isn't much incentive for TSA or OFAC agents to apply common sense or attempt to detect irony ... because they avoid responsibility for the damages of their willfully negligent actions.

riprowan 11y ago

> There isn't much incentive for TSA or OFAC agents to apply common sense or attempt to detect irony. Right, because every incident that they have to report and log is additional work and justification for budgetary increase.

dwaltrip 11y ago

He's not at the airport. This is a PRIVATE communication between two individuals. It's absurd that this power is available to a government.

FireBeyond 11y ago
Where private is defined as "financial transaction through an intermediary who is bound by several laws regarding the laundering or potential illegal use of money".
- dwaltrip 11y ago
  I understand your point. However, this is the modern way of physically handing $10 bucks you owe to your friend. Similarly, a private e-mail, which is now scanned and indexed by the government along with everyone else's e-mail, is the modern equivalent of sending snail mail 50 years ago, in which there was 0% chance any higher power would have read and catalogued your letter. We shouldn't have to live in the past because the government takes advantage of technological progress with massive power grabs. The potential for devastating abuse is so great. Imagine how this power would have been abused over the past century, if it existed then.