Travel Restrictions:

[SLUDoubleDeuce]

Not because they were considered weapons, but because they were afraid she would knit an Afghan.

He'll be here all week folks. Remember to tip your waitress!

[UofMLaxGoalie11]

Not because they were considered weapons, but because they were afraid she would knit an Afghan.

He'll be here all week folks. Remember to tip your waitress!

Nuts to that, tip the bartender. I need all the money I can get.

[mbuff]

this guy I work with, his dad is a pilot and has been trained as an air marshal, so he carries a gun on the plane.

Pilots are not Air Marshals and are not trained as such. Pilots are armed and deputized as Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDO) and as such are only to defend the flight deck (not the cabin) from hostile take over and air piracy. My father was an FFDO on the 777 until he retired last October at which time he returned his Glock 40 calibre to the government.

I agree that the TSA has gone overboard on much of this stuff. Confiscating the toothpaste of an FFDO pretty much says it all.

[ZagGrad]

On a similar note, my grandma, who's had about 2-3 heart attacks, and has since had stints put in her heart, set off the metal detector (my mom was with her at the time). After the alarm, the security agent was told of my grandma's condition--"She has heart stints." Her reply: "Well, can she take them out?"

Most of the time I'd rather read a book/magazine than talk to some of the people on the plane.

Has anyone ever noticed the odds of actually sitting next to an attractive person of the opposite sex on an airplane? I swear, these odds are extremely low, but I'm sure they can be raised depending on where you're going. Of all the times I've flown (about 100), I think I've managed an above average girl twice...

[Tim Whitehead]

Has anyone ever noticed the odds of actually sitting next to an attractive person of the opposite sex on an airplane? I swear, these odds are extremely low, but I'm sure they can be raised depending on where you're going. Of all the times I've flown (about 100), I think I've managed an above average girl twice...

And those poor girls got stuck sitting next to you...

[cjwilhelmi]

On a similar note, my grandma, who's had about 2-3 heart attacks, and has since had stints put in her heart, set off the metal detector (my mom was with her at the time). After the alarm, the security agent was told of my grandma's condition--"She has heart stints." Her reply: "Well, can she take them out?"

I was flying through DFW last spring with a knee imobilizer on - you know those huge things they put on your leg to make sure your knee doesn't move because you tore something or what not. I got to the security check point and was told that I would have to take it off and leave it there because I could have planted a bomb in the metal that goes down the sides of it.

Lucky for me the guy behind me was a doctor and gave the lady a good thrashing.

[horn17]

Has anyone ever noticed the odds of actually sitting next to an attractive person of the opposite sex on an airplane? I swear, these odds are extremely low, but I'm sure they can be raised depending on where you're going. Of all the times I've flown (about 100), I think I've managed an above average girl twice...

I think about that every time we fly out for games....please let me be the one that gets to sit beside the 20 something, 1st marketing career, fresh college grad with a good personality..... and then I look at my ticket and usually get stuck next to the back up goalie with a snoring problem who didnt shower for fear of not making it on time.....

[FLAK]

Is lubricant a "gel"....just asking....

Funny story, my girlfriend was flying back to school yesterday and they confiscated an item of this sort at the gate, strawberry flavored as well. Needless to say she was pretty embarassed.

[Hackalicious]

They will ban whatever they see fit. Laptops, phones, Ipods, they will all be banned,and I have the feeling very soon (why, because what TSA security scanner knows the difference between an internal chip set on a remote detonator and a cell phone chip set?). There isnt much we can do about it. Why would we argue over the convience factor when there is a risk at hand - because we are so self indulged in our way of life that anything that pushes us away from the status quo (as Americans see it) is a giant travesty and an infringement on our rights.

Bruce Schneier is a computer security expert who has lately applied many of the principles to real-life security. He wrote a good op-ed on the scare:
http://www.startribune.com/562/story/609687.html

There is an interesting paper by the Cato Institute on the subject of over-reacting to terrorism risks:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg ... 27n3-5.pdf

[StrykerFSU]

The most poignant part of Schneier's piece,

the arrests are a victory for old-fashioned intelligence and investigation.

Let's remember that when we hear folks blabbering on about "illegal" wiretaps or another covert operation is exposed.

[SLUDoubleDeuce]

Is lubricant a "gel"....just asking....

Funny story, my girlfriend was flying back to school yesterday and they confiscated an item of this sort at the gate, strawberry flavored as well. Needless to say she was pretty embarassed.

They ran a story on the news last night talking about what they are doing with all this stuff. At the end they showed one of those gray bins full of stuff and right there on top was a rather large, half used (at least it looked like it), tube of KY jelly. I know it's childish, but I laughed for a good two or three minutes after that and the only thought I had was someone's vacation just got ruined...

[horn17]

Is lubricant a "gel"....just asking....

Funny story, my girlfriend was flying back to school yesterday and they confiscated an item of this sort at the gate, strawberry flavored as well. Needless to say she was pretty embarassed.

Now that is awesome.....

[Hackalicious]

The most poignant part of Schneier's piece,

the arrests are a victory for old-fashioned intelligence and investigation.

Let's remember that when we hear folks blabbering on about "illegal" wiretaps or another covert operation is exposed.

"Old-fashioned" also means "legal". The Brits didn't have to break their own laws to get the bust. We have FISA courts and wiretap laws for a reason: past abuses by our own government. (Read about the Church Committee sometime.)

If you don't like the laws, write your congressman to eliminate FISA. Then you'll shut up and give your utter and total trust to, say, President Hillary to responsibly wield her new authority to spy on Americans without oversight. I'm afraid I don't have the same confidence in our political leaders as you.

The point I drew from the article is that the security measures being undertaken are ineffective and disruptive. They will not stop a determined terrorist attack, and worse, actually accomplish their goal of terrorizing people -- even though the attack was stopped.

They're never going to catch a legitimate terrorist at the security checkpoint with a pound of Semex in his water bottle. As the article says, if we can't stop weapons from going into prisons, we'll never stop them from getting on planes. All the resources going into these random checks could instead be going into (legal) intelligence and investigations to actually get the perpetrators, like the one in the UK.

Incidentally, here are Schneier's views on the (lack of) benefits to illegal wiretapping:
http://www.schneier.com/essay-100.html
http://www.schneier.com/essay-115.html

[Adam Gamradt]

Snagged a ticket to the Vikings game last night.

We get to the last stop before the dome on the light rail, and the doors open. Train is completely full. No room for anyone to get on. So the doors open, and there's a guy standing there. He has a look about him. Like he's not quite connected to the same reality that we are. He begins to babble a bit, clearly intoxicated. The people nearest the door are starting to panic a bit. The babbling turns to semi-coherent ramblings about the Raiders, and then proceeds to screaming and yelling. Now, for those of you who've spent anytime downtown, this wouldn't really scare you. It was actually quite an interesting experience, for someone who knows the difference between crazy violent, and just plain crazy.

The security I saw, split most of the game checking out the ladies walking by, and watching the game itself.

Somewhat unnerving was the MPD officers stationed at each entrance with what appeared to be and AR-15, and something that looked like an MP5.

I figured hey, why should I care about how many people with automatic weapons are near me. It's not like there are kids around, oh wait, yea, lot's of kids around.

But I digress.

So we are leaving the game a bit early. The crowd is thin. A man with one of the MP5 looking guns and full body armor is walking toward me, as I walk to the station. He's kind of cutting my path off diagonally. Normally no big deal, but again, deadly weapon, body armor, and so on.

As he walks past me, I hear a comment from someone in the crowd. I didn't catch it, which sucks, because now I have no context for the next statement the guy with the gun makes. I over only this. "I'll shoot em all up". That was all I heard from this guy, I did not hear catch what lead to him making this statement. I do know that hearing this made me uncomfortable.

It became clear to me then, what was interesting about the guy outside the train at the light rail station.

Something can be said about a society that treats ALL it's citizens as suspects, in order to pacify our collective fears, to meet some arbitrary political quota, but doesn't seem to care about it's citizens standing on a platform yelling at trains.

Our biggest problems are solvable. They are right in front of our face.

As I looked out the window on the way home I couldn't shake the thought in my head since looking in to the eyes of the train screamer.

Welcome to Minneapolis.

[Ravaging Beast]

I kind of like this whole scare. The airports were empty when I traveled today. It took me ten minutes to get my ticket and get through security at LAX flying southwest. They are known for having lines that begin at the other terminal. I arrived two and a half hours early expecting delays, but there weren't any. I was so surprised. And the best part was that no one had to sit in the middle seat on the plane. Not a single one of my flights was full.
The one thing that seemed a little weird was that they were confiscating water, gels, etc at security, but you could buy all of that stuff past security. Then they wouldn't let you bring anything you bought past the security onto the plane. It seemed a little much. I can't wait to fly back!