"I am willing to do whatever necessary to ensure the safety of our airplanes"

I hope that's an overstatement.

Cavity searches for everyone!

Why do you shill? I am going to give your tell away for free on my blog this week. Thus, everyone go visit my blog and bonus code Rooster at doyle's room. Thank you...

Bruce Schneier has a lot to say about airport security.

This poses some serious questions, but also some seriously weird ones:

First,would the suicide bomber whose explosive self-detonating bomb is in another plane be shamed if he didn't perish with the plan?

Also, if he (or she, if likely) landed without blowing up, looked at the tv to see that he indeed blew up the wrong plane, would his mission be successful? It is hard to say.

Now, think of the airline responsibility. If we were to assume that the airline wasn't liable in any other way for the plane blowing up for negligently screening the suitcase with a bomb, would the airline become liable if it became known that the wrong plane blew up?

While I do share your safety concerns. K, I would have been much more pissed off that my luggage got home 5-hours before I did after they told me I had to wait. Hmmph. F'n airline!

But how ridiculous? The most basic safety precautions are being ignored while we remove our shoes and throw away our hair detangler. I am willing to do whatever necessary to ensure the safety of our airplanes, but we need to have a sane approach to safety, something we currently just don't have.

What we currently have is an insane approach to making people who don't ever think about the larger implications of our policies feel safe. All the crap you go through at an airport has much less to do with actually keeping you safe than it does with giving the illusion of security.

Think about that giant cattle chute at McCarran airport in Las Vegas, the one between the security contractor who checks your ID and boarding pass and the point where you actually go through your security screening. There, you and hundreds of other people are squeezed single-file into a tiny area, shuffling forward to the TSA checkpoint. One of the thoughts that goes through my head every time I'm stuck there waiting to take my shoes off and remove my laptop from its case is this: how long before a determined suicide bomber bum-rushes the cattle line - which is completely unprotected - and kills fifty to a hundred people? What good will all the security precautions in the world have done the people (possibly including myself) who die on that day? I know what the response to such a situation would be: move the security checkpoint further back. Institute more random searches. Wait until someone summons up the will to kill more people at the new, earlier security checkpoint. Rinse. Repeat.

I travel by air much more than I'd really like to because of my work; if not for the Byzantine maze of restrictions designed to make everybody feel safe I'd actually feel a lot better about having to travel so much. If it were possible for me to go where I need to go quickly and efficiently by some other means than air travel, I'd switch in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, our scientists have yet to invent the teleporter. Bastards.

Of course, one could encourage able-bodied righties to join up with the military, here; I hear the guys in Iraq are enduring some discomfort a bit more serious than is to be found in stateside airports.

Of course, one could encourage able-bodied righties to join up with the military, here; I hear the guys in Iraq are enduring some discomfort a bit more serious than is to be found in stateside airports.

What the hell kind of flippant crap is this?

Welcome back.
I want the baggage matched up with passengers on the plane if for no other reason in that it reduces the likelihood of lost baggage.

Hopefuly that person who had the heart attack survived and they dont decide to blame McDonalds