[greyfoxx39]

Penalty for transporting a refilled helium tank: $250,000 and five years in a federal prison.

Is this correct? If so, why?

[Question Liberal Authority]

Yes, it's true that the penalty for transporting a refilled helium tank: $250,000 and five years in a federal prison. Not sure exactly why. (To stop people from hiding contraband in helium tanks? Powerful lobbying from the helium tank fillers union?).

What I dislike about the "disproportionate response" argument is that people keep falling into the trap of justifying the proportionality of the response. "Israel's response isn't proportionate blah blah blah" gets countered with "why yes it is proportionate, when one considers everything that has been lobbed its way for 60 years, blah blah blah".

The counter-argument OUGHT to be: There is NOTHING WRONG with a disproportionate response to an act of terrorism. ALL responses to terrorism ought to be "disproportionate".

Imagine if our response to the World Trade Center bombing of 1993 was to overthrow the Taliban, wipe out Al-Qaeda and establish peaceful democracies in Iraq, Iran and Syria. That would have been "disproportionate" to an act that "only" killed 6 people, but we'd be living in a much better world today.