EU Approves Unified Full Body Scanner Regulations 225
OverTheGeicoE writes "The European Union has adopted a proposal to regulate airport body scanners at Member State airports. No Member State or airport is obligated to use scanners, but if they do, the scanners must conform to new European Union standards. Here's a partial list: Scanners must not store, retain, copy, print, or retrieve passenger images; the image viewer must be in a remote location; passengers must be informed how the scanners are being controlled; and can opt out if they choose. Perhaps most importantly: X-ray scanners are banned 'in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens' health and safety.'"
Re:EU still has some sense left, compared to US (Score:3, Insightful)
Disclaimer: I am European and I do think the perfect government is a balance between Communism and Capitalism. I do think these regulations are a good plan.
Re:Sometimes they get it right (Score:4, Insightful)
Nearly every time I read about the EU doing something that doesn't outright fuck over its citizens, I think to myself, "Man, they must have heard about how we're all about freedom and citizens rights and just ran with it." Is it a bad thing when a foreign entity better represents your home country's ideals than your actual home country does? I think that may be the case here.
I wish more people.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah the supreme irony.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't it ironic that the country that epouses individuality above all and has and endemic "fear" of government is the one being fucked over security, while the europeans show a little bit of rational thought on this whole issue ?
And for the note, we had had over the last 4 decades terrorism in europe, and we have coped to live with it. What did you say ? Our societies didn't collpase and we sure as hell didn't transform in some kind of paranoid security state.
That 1997 Escape from New York was prophetic to a level you yankees can't even seem to fathom anymore.
Enjoy your prison guys.
Re:Sometimes they get it right (Score:4, Insightful)
Technically your "home country ideals" are actually french. US constitution borrows from ideals of French Revolution extremely heavily.
Re:Sometimes they get it right (Score:1, Insightful)
Well shit, son. I'm European and I share any disdain you may have for this American sense of superiority. However, the truth is that the US is the only country on earth (except very small island nations and places like that) where (in theory) the government can't expropriate your property for public interest, where you can have guns and where no speech is restricted. Sure, they are slowly becoming a democracy and these rights have been eroded during the 20th century, but the point is that at a particular time in history, American citizens had a set of right that no other nation in history had had before (at least for such a long time), so yeah, I recognize the existence of such thing as "American ideals", no need to take that away from them.
Re:Ah the supreme irony.... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's partly because, of course, the Europeans are a number of otherwise independent states so it's like a democracy on an international scale - chances are that SOMEONE will kick up a fuss about something that they disagree with and concessions will have to be made (e.g. the UK still isn't in the Euro for various reasons, Germany doesn't want to be involved in more Greek bailouts etc.).
When you have internal opposition on the scale of national governments, it's a bit more even and controlled than when you have only internal opposition that consists of singular people (who, history has shown, can be corrupt, swayed or just chosen so that they are all of a certain age / mindset).
That said, I've never seen a country less free than America. The only sad fact is that they don't notice it. At least the Chinese KNOW where they are (whether they care or not is another matter) but the US just don't seem to understand what they are doing to themselves and what they are letting slip under their noses. So long as they have their guns and their god, they seem perfectly happy to let a multitude of sins pass through with their approval. Hell, they were close to getting national healthcare and they managed to balls that up too.
And the Americans I've spoken to in person just don't get this... they don't understand that, actually, the stereotype of an American that doesn't know or cares what happens beyond its borders is a little more than just a stereotype. They don't care that, even today, their government imprisons and (still probably) tortures people who haven't gone on trial by doing it on foreign soil. That's "freedom" to them, because it's applied to a different type of person - non-Americans. Try to move on a guy from sitting on Wall Street, though, and it makes the news for days on end. When they show the Olympics you only see Americans winning and *NOTHING* else.
America has many problems, like just about every other country in the world, but it's like those countries that call themselves The Democratic Republic Of, or the People's Republic Of, etc. They are anything but. Land of the Free? Yeah, Land of the Free so long as you stay within our borders, have enough money for healthcare, and never ask for anything we don't want to give you.
Re:EU still has some sense left, compared to US (Score:3, Insightful)
Disclaimer: I am European and I do think the perfect government is a balance between Communism and Capitalism.
Actually I do believe the BEST government would use the good ideas from both and refuse to follow the ideologies and propaganda from both. For the record I am an European too (whatever it might mean these days).
Re:Sometimes they get it right (Score:4, Insightful)
I have one thing to say about who's representing who's ideals?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta [wikipedia.org]
Remember that the Pilgrim Fathers left England because they wanted less religious freedom. They wanted everyone to follow their brand.
Re:Passenger can opt out... (Score:5, Insightful)
Correct me if and where I am wrong, for this is not my field of study.
Re:Ah the supreme irony.... (Score:4, Insightful)
I have a mental checklist of things I notice about people when I meet them.
Almost without fail, those who openly and spontaneously profess a love for their country are those who don't actually realise (or won't admit) it's failings and are part of the cause of those failings. "America is the best country in the world" is a typical example that I often hear.
But those who openly and spontaneously put their own country down actually care about it enough to do so and "love" their country more.
Personally, I detest some of the things that my country has done (not least, following America into a fake "war") - I think they are abhorrent and reckless and thoughtless - but I detest them because I'm *disappointed* that it was my country that did them.
Literally, my country should be better than that. We aren't, because we did them, but we should be. And it's because I care about what my country does to its own people, people in other countries, its reputation, etc. that I am more likely to tell people the things we did wrong rather than the things we do right (How many Brits know about the Singapore pull-out in WW2? How many Americans realise how the UK treated the Ghurka despite what they've done for us?)
The UK isn't "free" (because I don't think there can be such a thing) but we are certainly "freer" than a lot of other places and yet I still point out all the stupid restrictions we have at every opportunity because I want my country to be *better*. It seems to me that a lot of the Americans I meet think their country is already "the best" and "free" and so they don't strive to better their country and its image in other countries. Everybody should just love them because they are the best (and if you watch the movie Love Actually, you'll see a very contrived but incredibly accurate depiction of how the US treats the UK politically and what our response SHOULD be).
It's like the difference between "We did what we thought was best" and "We should never have done that". Both statements may even refer to the same incident, but one attitude is superior, the other a lesson to learn from, and either tells you a hell of a lot about the people who say them.