More security theatre

[Crackpot]

I somehow think that someone pulling out their junior chemistry set under any circumstances would raise suspicion. The simple fact that there are a lot of small explosives that can pack a big punch renders the antiretroviral activity moot. Something I'm sure the TSA knows and is demonstrated by these latest actions. That is they are seeking rationales to cease many of the acts they forced on us since 9-11. Something that is a lot easier said than done if you look at some of the reaction to this announcement.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I haven't carried around a pocket knife since I was in the Boy Scouts...

I carry a Swiss army knife all the time (actually I carry two, one very small the other standard size). I use them at least 3 times a day. I feel naked not having at least one of my knives with me.

Last year when I went into rehab I knew I couldn't bring in my pocket knife (the smallest Swiss Army knife there it). I gave it to my wife as I was checking in. When I got out I found out she had lost it. We looked everywhere and could not locate it. My kids bought me a new one for my birthday. Then, just last week (maybe two weeks ago) she was rumaging through some basket she keeps her recipes in and there is my pocket knife.

I have thought of setting up a service at the airport for items people are forced to leave behind. The TSA auctions them off at no benefit to the owner. If they are anything of value (some pocket knives are $50+) I would mail them back to the persons home for the price of postage plus some percentage of the value of the item.

[Jarlaxle]

Lots of people (especially in rural areas) carry pocketknives. Liz & I carry Leatherman multi-tools, so does my uncle.

[Lord Jim]

I carry a Swiss army knife all the time (actually I carry two, one very small the other standard size). I use them at least 3 times a day. I feel naked not having at least one of my knives with me.

Lots of people (especially in rural areas) carry pocketknives.

My apologies...I had forgotten...





I had that coming...

[Joe Guy]

I always carry this knife with me...

[Andrew D]

If they wanted to relax a restriction that the vast majority of the traveling public would actually care about, how about easing the 4 ounces of liquid rule?

Actually, the rule is:

3-1-1 for carry-ons = 3.4 ounce (100ml) bottle or less (by volume); 1 quart-sized, clear plastic, zip-top bag; 1 bag per passenger placed in screening bin.

(Emphasis added.)

When I recently flew out of Dulles, the TSA person confiscated my toothpaste. I had deliberately brought a toothpaste tube whose contents patently obviously amounted to fewer than 100 milliliters. But the TSA person -- perhaps frustrated by his inability to confiscate my spice jar of lemongrass when he discovered that lemongrass is neither a liquid nor a gel -- pointed sternly to the toothpaste tube's plain wording: "net wt. 4.2 oz".

I briefly debated with myself whether to attempt to educate the TSA person that ounces by weight are not the same as ounces by volume. I decided to forfeit my terrorist-alarm-bell-ringing toothpaste.

[Andrew D]

And speaking of security theater:

When I recently flew out of Oakland -- yeah, it sucks, but it's JetBlue's local hub -- I forgot to remove my half-empty bottle of Gatorade from my carry-on. It was noticed on the X-ray. The TSA assigned to rummage through my carry-on pulled it out and announced, superfluously but otherwise unobjectionably: "You forgot your Gatorade."

Even before 9-11, the TSA (or whatever it was then called) had a thing about bringing half-empty bottles onto airplanes.* I had already passed through the security checkpoint, so I asked the TSA person if I could just drink the remaining Gatorade right there in front of God, the TSA, and everyone.

Nope.

She had to pass the suspect Gatorade to another TSA person on the other side of the checkpoint. So I dutifully went back through the security checkpoint and proceeded to drink the suspect Gatorade -- right there in front of the same God, the same TSA, and pretty much the same everyone.

Then I had to go back through the security checkpoint in order to retrieve the carry-on which the first TSA person had just searched. Fine, I'll go through the detector thingy and then pick up my carry-on and go about business.

Nope.

Because some terrorist-alarm-bell-ringing Gatorade had been discovered in my carry-on, my carry-on had to go back through the X-ray machine. Nevermind that it had already been through the X-ray machine, that nothing suspicious had been discovered except my al-Qatorade, and that I had consumed the offending liquid in full view of everyone.

I was just grateful that I had forgot to pack my toothpaste ....

[Andrew D]

The * from the previous posting: Even before 9-11, the TSA (or whatever it was then called) had a thing about bringing half-empty bottles onto airplanes.

During the 1990s, I flew a lot between San Francisco and Los Angeles. I soon discovered that if I flew into Burbank, I could get to my hotel in downtown LA in less time than it took to get from the aircraft to the taxi stand at LAX.

One of the many times I had to be in LA, I went wine tasting in Temucula. When I got to the Burbank airport, I had with me a few bottles of wine that I had purchased, more out of charitable obligation than anything else. I had drunk part of one of them; the rest were unopened.

When I went through the security checkpoint, a very nice old lady -- she reminded me of a docent at an out-of-the-way national monument -- informed me that the unopened bottles were fine for carry-on, but the opened bottle was not. I had maybe an hour of waiting time, so I said that I would just go outside and drink the rest of the wine in the opened bottle.

She told me that it would be ill-advised to sit outside drinking out of a wine bottle, due to the overzealous nature of the pertinent constabulary. And then, kind soul that she was, she reached below her counter and fished out a paper bag for me to conceal the bottle in while I was illicitly drinking from it.

Once airborne, I opened one of the permissible bottles of wine and drank at least some of it while carving the bread and cheese which I had brought along with a short-bladed knife. No one even batted an eye ....

[Guinevere]

Between flying and being in court (where in some cases you can't even enter with a cellphone), I stopped carrying my pocket knife -- although I miss having it on me all the time.

I'm convinced the liquid/gel ban is simply a ruse to get more travelers to buy $5 bottles of water from the airport "restaurants" and "convenience" stores, or limit carry-ons. I carried an empty water bottle with me on this last trip, and then filled it from the water fountains on the other side of security.

[dgs49]

I think the revised knife rule is intended to stop the confiscation of stupid little shit like nail files and clippers and cigar cutters.

Do I remember correctly that the 9-11 hijackers were armed with box cutters? Those would pass easily now, right?

[Econoline]

NO

These similar items will still remain on the prohibited items list:

● Razor blades and box cutters will remain prohibited in carry-on luggage.
● Full-size baseball, softball and cricket bats are prohibited items in carry-on luggage.

[Scooter]

I think the revised knife rule is intended to stop the confiscation of stupid little shit like nail files and clippers and cigar cutters.

Regulations were clarified some time ago to permit those sorts of items.