Comments on Rebecca Weiser's Swine Flu Post

According to my classmate, Rebecca Weiser’s, post about the swine flu outbreak, I completely and 100% agree with her opinion. I too perceive that we, as a nation and even we as a combined mass of the world, blew it “out of proportion.”

Rebecca also mentions in her post that, “more people die of the regular flu than the swine flu, which is why I think we are being a bit too worrisome.” In this, I do not believe we are being to “worrisome”, I believe that we are realizing the precautions we should take to avoid diseases. If we were to be as careful as we were while the swine flu was an “epidemic” then we wouldn’t stress over flu season or sicknesses as much, in general. Precautions like washing your hands after using the restroom, using antibacterial sanitizers after sneezing, cleaning toys at schools more often (since the swine flu was more common in children), and wiping off door and toilet knobs more frequently, would seriously decreases the spread of germs which cause bacteria and viruses to become diseases.

And though I may take it to the next extreme by believing that the government used the swine flu outbreak to cover up something more controversial, I still stand firm in trusting that we did push the swine flu to its media and health scaring limits.

Blog Stage Seven

What would you do if your laptop or camera were seized without a probable cause? The article Seizing Laptops and Cameras Without Cause, tells of many occasions in which persons coming back home from trip have become part of “random” search and seize inspections. It is not clear how inspectors pick whom they will be inspecting but the majority of searches done are of “travelers who were nearly all of Muslim, Middle Eastern, or South Asian descent.”

“Citing the lawsuits, customs officials decline to say how many computers, storage drives, cellphones, and BlackBerry's they have confiscated or what happens to them afterward.” When laptops and cameras were taken they typically were not given back for months. “Larry Cunningham, an assistant district attorney from New York, told the hearing: ‘I am aware of no authority that would permit the government, without probable cause to believe it contains contraband, to keep a person's laptop or to copy the contents of its files.’” The governments response to the custom officials taking persons personal electronics was that it was a way of keeping everyone safer. “Customs insists that terrorism and child pornography are sufficient justification for electronics searches. And even civil libertarians agree it makes sense for customs to search luggage, which could pose immediate dangers to aircraft and passengers.”

In response to the government doing such things, businesses have changed “their policies about traveling with corporate information. Many now require employees to access data remotely to avoid confiscations.”

So… what would you do if you were in this situation? Is this inflicting upon individuals freedoms?