More wonderful stuff found on a popular blog (Raymond Chen’s this time): Greenfield Recorder (second article at the time of this posting)
“He [her 10-year old son] was disappointed because there was military stuff, but it was all fighting stuff, so I asked the clerk, and he was alarmed by us asking how to fly airplanes and said that was against the law,” Olearcek said.
Never mind, good citizens absolutely love the police showing up at 8 PM because they tried to buy some popular entertainment software!
But “what saves us, is people are paying attention,” she said.
"It’s not just the people in uniform who have to be looking after this country. So when people see something out the ordinary, they pay attention.
Buying one of the best-selling pieces of entertainment software available is “out of the ordinary?” Frankly, I’d report that guy to his manager. And if I were his manager, I’d take a pretty dim view of my employees telling customers that it is “illegal” to buy my store’s products.
A mother’s enquiry about buying Microsoft Flight Simulator for her ten-year-old son prompted a night-time visit to her home from a state trooper.
Julie Olearcek, a USAF Reserve pilot made the enquiry at a Staples store in Massachusetts, home to an earlier bout of hysteria, during the Salem witch trials.
“Hrrm, that kid over there just wants to leanr how to fly a plane - not shoot Nazis or hijack cars. He is obviously a terrorist. I better tell the police.”
:roll:
If I were his manager, I’d punch him in the throat then fire him.
(unless Flight Sim has a 15+ rating…)
Best part is that this woman understood the need for such scrutiny. Excuse me? What the fuck is that? Try to buy a flight sim and you get the cops creeping around your house, peeking in windows? This was totally fucking insane. And what if she hadn’t been affiliated with the Air Force and didn’t have the military ID to produce to eliminate suspicions? Sheesh. This whole thing is frightening. What next? You have to register with the FBI before buying MS Flight Sim?
That’s beyond crazy. What kind of a nutjob lunatic would think it’s unnatural for any driver to have a map or reference book with him - especially during Christmas (when half the people on the road are from out of state, looking to visit relatives.)
