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My point on that was merely that a watch battery can't supply enough current to set off a blasting cap by itself ..

Neither can a cellphone battery. What are they, 600MAH? Hardly in the same league as those big generators you see in the movies -- the boxes with the handle on top of the plunger that they push down, or so I'd think. (I can't buy the notion that those two-handed push-generators only put out 600MAH!)

But since you're in the biz, you tell me -- what can you set off with a 600MAH battery? (And remember, the PHONE will be drawing some of that current too, reducing the amount available for bad stuff.)

I didn't say that it couldnt be used as a timer in a larger, bulkier systm.

Well, I'd have thought you'd have known this, what with you being in the biz and all that, but once they decide to rig it up to a bunch of explosives, they've already committed to a "larger, bulkier system."

Sheesh. Talk about splitting hairs. We have crazed jihadis willing to self-detonate with a pushbutton switch for a "timer", and people are arguing that they won't use watch-timers because it'd require an extra battery. Hello???? They are ALREADY using "bigger batteries" with the CELLPHONES. Did you read that they are removing the STANDARD batteries? Do you think they are gonna build something that will need to be recharged once or twice a day? Of course not! They are pulling the batteries, and it is pretty obvious that they'll rig the phones up to big batteries. Batteries (i.e., alkaline D cells) are readily available, cheap, and can be ganged up to provide whatever voltage and current is necessary to keep the thing running for as many days/weeks/months as they want.

Do you really think they're gonna say, "Oh, dear, we can't get cellphones anymore, and if we use a generic timer, it'll mean using a bigger battery! Oh dear, woe is us, what shall we do, Allah (pbuh)?"

LOL!

This is WAR, not a card game! They are not constrained by some arcane rule that says "Nope, you can't use a bigger battery. Tough break!" They will do whatever they can get away with. And in a free country, that's plenty.

The solution is not to restrict "stuff". The solution is to restrict THEM!

Did you ("you" = the readers of this thread) know that not too long after 911, the federal government, largely, IIRC, at the behest of Colin Powell, initiated a program to attract MORE Muslims -- from Arab nations in the Middle East? Fast track immigration, the whole nine yards. They were pretty open about promoting it, too. They were proud of it.

They wanted to show 'em that we really believed that TROP business. Wanted to make sure they LIKED us.

Gee, I wonder how many of the jihadis currently scurrying about on the Tracfone Spree came into the country as a result of that program?

But I digress, a little.

The problem is NOT telephones. The problem is the jihadi BUYING the telephone. If he can't buy a telephone, he'll buy something else. And if all else fails, he'll climb into a suicide belt and scrape two wires together and blow himeself up (if they ban SWITCHES, as a last ditch resort to "stop terrorism").

We are watching -- in speeded-up motion -- a rerun of the whole gun control debate! Only this time, it's the conservatives who are focusing on the THINGS rather than the CRIMINALS using the things!

England, Australia... they banned guns. Crime -- bloody, ugly, violent crime went UP!

Now they're banning knives -- even going so far as to restrict kitchen cutlery!

But, they will NOT go after the scumbags USING the knives!

Madness... sheer madness.

But, no madder than the notion that by banning telephones, we can prevent terrorists from blowing stuff up.

Same misguided logic, the main difference is that this time it's OUR side singing the Brady Ballad.

Pinch me, wake me up!