Have you ever checked out or ordered a book with the intent of getting flagged?

[Posteritatis]

Just thought the question would be an interesting inverse to Mike 03's thread.

I haven't done so with that intent, but I have looked at a few things I've bought after leaving the store and found myself thinking "Well, I'm glad I didn't buy that in an airport bookstore or something." (I was assigned Terrorism: An Introduction for a class once.)

So yeah. Have any of you went out bookbuying or librarying with the specific intent of trolling the government and raising eyebrows? Ever do it "successfully," in the sense of getting official attention?

I rather imagine DUers could come up with an, uh, interesting reading list on this front.

[silverweb]

1. Yup.

Remember a few years ago when the DHS put out an alert for potential terrorists using the Farmer's Almanac as a reference/resource?

I was so pissed off at that (among other things) that I ordered a copy from Amazon.com with my credit card and then carried it around with me for weeks.

It seems a little silly now, because a few people asked about it and had no clue about the DHS warning when I told them. But yeah, I did order it as an act of defiance and in hope of getting flagged.

[Posteritatis]

4. Haha! I'd actually forgotten about the almanac silliness. (nt)

[JonLP24]

11. lol they actually did that?

I remember learning that Abraham Lincoln as a trial lawyer successfully defended his case using the farmer's almanac as a reference. It was something involving a witness describing the size or shape of the moon that day and Lincoln used the Almanac to show what kind of moon it was that day. Hard to imagine Lincoln as a potential terrorist.

[armyowalgreens]

2. The things I've searched on Google probably have me on some sort of watch list

I wouldn't be surprised if Cheney and Bush are across the street from me in a cargo van with surveillance equipment.

[Ian David]

6. If you don't want to get flagged, always buy porn at the same times as subversive material.

That's my theory, anyway.

[Radical Activist]

8. lol

wouldn't that just get you noticed by two agencies at once?

[Ian David]

13. Terrorists don't buy "Sorrority Girls vs. The Sex Monster From Planet 69." n/t

[armyowalgreens]

9. It's hard to not have people notice me

looking up how to make binary explosives or how mustard gas works...

I also often visit pro-nazi websites just for shits and giggles.

[armyowalgreens]

10. I also reported a threatening group to the SS...

But when they called me, I never called them back.

[Vickers]

3. Sort of. After the ridiculous bullshit about The Farmer's Almanac being used by

terrorists, I bought a copy and left it on my front seat for months.

Never even got water-tortured.

:(

[Ian David]

5. Yes. I bought some subversive books and subscribed to 2600 magazine by credit card. n/t

[Radical Activist]

7. No, but

thankfully I've done much more subversive things that would and have gotten governmental attention.

[ikojo]

12. Following the OKC Bombing I wanted to read the book that

allegedly "inspired" Tim McVeigh, The Turner Diaries. Now I cannot remember whether I bought it at Amazon or at a local bookstore, but I did buy it.

[PDJane]

14. no, i haven't....but i'm a canuck.

However, I have deliberately taken a second look at books in my luggage and decided to leave them at home. For instance, I've left the copy of the Koran and a couple of books on Sharia law at home when travelling to the US, have deliberately left my laptop at home and carried the important files on a dvd/cd in my luggage, and have given Amira Hass to someone before boarding a plane.

And yes, I have some interesting reading that I would NOT carry on a plane to the US, including Family of Secrets, The Litivenko Files, Body of Secrets, Armed Madhouse, any examination of the death penalty, The Book of Revenge, The Shadow Factory, Legacy of Ashes, Shakedown (about Canadian abuses), The Age of the Unthinkable, A Fair Country, The Schock Doctrine, of course, Discipline and Punish, the Birth of the Prison, The Last Days of Ancient Sunlight, Heat, Drinking the Sea at Gaza....too many more to mention.

[alfredo]

15. I bought a copy of the Koran at my local book store.

[shadowknows69]

17. I got a book on Kabbalistic philosophy

But somehow I doubt that would get the same attention.

[alfredo]

18. Probably not. Buy Al Gore, Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, and Franken.

Let you Liberal Flag fly.

[shadowknows69]

16. Well, we just bought a book about a serial killer

For my mother in law of all people. I wouldn't expect to get a glance from that but there are some books that i'd like to own that I know would get me on a list.