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Comment by iseanstevens | Hacker News Reader

Post the 9/11 PATRIOT act (etc) led to dilution of America’s ideals in various ways, IMHO. I felt like we were in the middle of it. I wanted to call attention to how ridiculous it was - since the attention ended up on me and my friend. Zebbler was in the USA on political asylum at the time and it was made clear he’d be kicked out if we made any more noise after this.

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When Family Guy s21e11 (2023) parodies Sleepless in Seattle (1993), they make a point of mocking the fact that a kid left his backpack behind at the Empire State building, as if an unattended bag in a public area is an unthinkable idea.

The show is usually pretty self-aware when it comes to jokes about terrorism and post-911 hysteria, so it was surprising to see this one played straight.

It reminded me of the meme that went around in 2007 - "If it isn't an American flag, it's probably a bomb".

I worked at Disneyland in September 2001 and we received instructions at some point warning us the FBI considered us to be the 4th most likely location in the United States to be targeted and telling us to report unattended bags as possible bombs.

Left me wondering do they have any idea how many people every day set down a bag and forget about it at Disneyland? If we really cordoned and reported all of these, the Anaheim PD and local FBI would never again do anything else.

I am at least very proud of our improv dealing with the press at least! Especially as I don’t think either of us slept particularly well the night before in holding cells.

I wonder if the outcome would have been different if the displays featured the Plutonians?

I'm sorry, that's not a hair question.

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