While walking around O'Hare Airport on Monday.....

[marmar]

waiting for my flight home to Detroit, every five minutes or so, there was a loud announcement that the "Security Threat Level is ORANGE.".... First off, WTF does that mean? Me, and I'm sure most other people, don't really know what the color-coded security levels mean.
Secondly, it seems that the second part of the announcement, "Please report any suspicious activity to airport police," would have been more than sufficient. But they've got to keep us living in fear, I suppose. It's like being in one of those science fiction movies, the ones where the future is always very bleak and totalitarian.:scared:

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. I was in Ohare a month ago and the same thing creeped me out

I also noticed that they were big on telling you to report suspicious activity yet they never said what to do or where to go if there was a real emergency.

[americanstranger]

13. They do that over the PA on the LIRR now, too.

The nifty slogan that NYC came up with is 'If you see something, say something.'

I'll admit it's catchier than 'Rat out total strangers due to your own pants-wetting paranoia,' but still - the railroad no longer gives train and track information and runs this pre-recorded loop that goes back and forth between urging people to rat on strangers and warning them to 'mind the gap' (the space between the entrance to the train and the platform, because a drunken woman died falling into said gap a few months ago).

Shorter LIRR: 'Don't sue us, and turn in your fellow citizens.' Wonderful.

- as

[Cha]

31. It would have been nice

if the bushits; having SEEN the Aug 6, 2001 MEMO had said something but that would have helped in stopping the 9/11 attack and then we wouldn't be having all this PARANOIA!

[snappyturtle]

2. I know....wouldn't you just like to stuff a rag into the loud speakers?

I have no fear of the terrorists....whoever they really are unless it's our government types. All this fear,fear,fear crap on TV the last few days is beyond the pail. I think we would see success if we were to leave the ME...all of it.

[Zywiec]

3. So that announcement made you scared?

"they've got to keep us living in fear"

What did you do differently after hearing that announcement that you wouldn't have normally done?

[marmar]

5. No, the announcement didn't scare me personally.....

it irritated me more than anything. The "keep us living in fear" was a general observation. A constant announcement of "Security Threat Level Orange" without any specifics only serves to frighten because it doesn't give any specifics about what it means.

[Zywiec]

6. The reason I asked

is there are always threads about how these terror warnings are designed to scare people, yet I have never found one scared person no matter how many times I've asked. Do you know anyone who is affected by these warnings?

[marmar]

12. Sure. A couple of ladies sitting next to me at the gate heard the announcement....

and started talking about how nervous it made them.

[Ian David]

4. Could have been worse: "Last day: Capricorn 29s. Year of the city 2274. Carousel begins."

"Fucking bagage claim always la-- wha? Hey! HEY!! What's happening!"

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/red.sky/logan/lastday2.wav

[AllegroRondo]

7. "There is no Sanctuary!"

[tjwash]

14. THERE! ARE! FOUR! LIGHTS!

[Hamlette]

8. Someone should call O'Hare on it, it seems it always says "ORANGE ALERT" when

no one else in the country uses the color coded alert system anymore.

I've flown through O'Hare twice in the last 3 months and both times it said the same thing even though there was nothing going on elsewhere in the US. It's unnerving at first cause I couldn't check to see what the hightened alert was about. Now I know there was no hightened alert.

[orleans]

27. .

[AspenRose]

32. My favorite terror alert chart

[toadzilla]

9. i mouthed off to the security screeners there about fearmongering

stupid, i know... but she was throwing away my makeup which was perfectly acceptable to bring on the plane, however i did not know i had to have a plastic baggie to put it in.

apparently making explosive devices out of liquid eyeliner is only possible when the liquid eyeliner is not inside of a plastic sandwich bag.

[dalaigh lllama]

24. same thing happened to me at LaGuardia

Is there any logical reason why lip gloss can only be carried onto the plane if it's put in a plastic baggie? I felt like I was in a Monty Python skit.

[Sapere aude]

10. Maybe they should have a security threat level light that can be any color and make it orange.

Sort of like the fire hazard level here in the West, a Smokey Bear sign that tells the fire hazard level.

The sign could read, "for those who need to be afraid, the level is orange" with an orange light.

[tjwash]

11. That message has been blaring at every airport since 2003.

nt

[marmar]

15. At Detroit Metro Airport, there's no mention of a color-coded alert level....

Just a "due to an increased security level, please report any suspicious....."

[LibDemAlways]

16. Yep that's the one I've heard. It's assinine, too, of course.

It shouldn't take "an increased security level" for a person to report "suspicious" activity.

Gee, I just saw that nervous guy leave a big package with what looks like a lit fuse sticking out. But I haven't heard the reminder about the "increased security level" so I'm sure there's an innocent explanation.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. There's a sign on the highway just outside MSP that says

"Threat Level Orange Elevated" and it's been there since last summer. I think it was the TSA's pants-wetting response after the Brits caught the guys who were going to blow up airplanes with more than 3 ounces of hair gel and toothpaste.

[LibDemAlways]

19. That sign is just begging for someone to put a

reply beside it - something along the lines of "Percentage of Populice who believes this crap - falling."

[Tesha]

21. 24% by last report, but yes, dropping. (NT)

[Tesha]

18. Maybe we just need these posted everywhere around der Homeland...

[tabasco]

20. No kidding.

I wish it was fiction.

[mr_hat]

22. It's funny the way the guy enunciates it, too. >

Big pause, then a real flat "orange." Ho-hum.

[Tesha]

23. That's the way "Uhhh, Clem!" talks. (NT)

[mr_hat]

26. It's the bees, Mr. President.

[Tesha]

28. And de spiders! (NT)

[bdamomma]

25. anyway to control the masses they will do it.

plus lord pissypants approval ratings are tanking that is his way of being defiant, put the FEAR back into the people. He should just leave, I hate the man.

[Cha]

29. When we went to protest the imminent

bombing of Iraq in NYC on Feb 15, 2003..the city was full of Orange Alerts. To scare us of course.

When we use to read about Europe before and during World War II..we never thought it would happen in our country. Who could imagine the evil of the bushits?

[april]

30. oh my it has been code orange for a long time ..major BS it

is just to keep up the hype make me sick ...code f**k

[Vinca]

33. We're changing our name from the United States of America to

the United States of Paranoia.