This is why I’m not truly alarmed at this, just annoyed. Obviously, I’m not unique in bringing something potentially dangerous through TSA. I’m not a threat to anyone, so it didn’t matter that I brought a box cutter on the plane, and that’s also the case with just about everyone else.
Most people are not out to cause problems. Unfortunately, we have a system designed to thwart the tiny number of people who would like to cause problems. That’s necessary, of course, but the way it’s being administered is inefficient and very easy to defeat.
Shortly after the Sept 11 attack, the FAA invited the world’s best experts on airport security from the world’s most security-conscious airline : El Al, the national airline of Israel.
On returning to Israel from New York, one of the experts was interviewed by a Hebrew newspaper, and stated simply: " America does not have a system designed for security. They have a system designed to irritate passengers."
Heinz veggie beans, too. cwSpouse had a can in his carry-on bag (he has celiac disease, and doesn’t like to assume that he can get a safe meal at the airport or on the plane). A very apologetic TSA agent held up the can, saying, “Unfortunately, this is, technically a liquid, and I can’t let you take it through.”
However, canned beans, once eaten, *can *be taken through the checkpoint, so cwSpouse sat in a corner and ate his beans, after which he was allowed through security. That’s right, folks: TSA will happily let you load up on beans before the airline locks you in an unventilated vehicle where the ambient pressure will be somewhat below normal for much of your stay.
And yet one time several years ago when I bought a tiny souvenir snowglobe (the globe was about 1.5" in diameter) and forgot to put it in the liquid bag, I got stopped and had to have security empty out my entire suitcase until they found it. :rolleyes:
Man, what awful horrors a tiny snowglobe could have caused!
I’ve had liquid “makeup” in my purse (as opposed to toiletries in my carry on) go through without hassle, I’ve also found small bottles of stuff in the bottom of my carry on after I got home and unpacked.
Recently, I went through and TSA moved the entire line to “pre check” (even though we hadn’t been vetted or verified) and just let us all in with the old style x-ray machines (shoes on, liquids, and laptops in bags, etc.). They didn’t convince me that it was worth paying $85/year to get that service all the time. It did convince me that the normal process was arbitrary and random.
I apparently have scary-looking cellulite. Got my legs patted down, though just from thigh to knee, at BWI 4 years ago.
I must hand it to TSA though, they did save the flight (and two major southwestern cities) from one atrocity: they spotted and removed my son’s large bottle of Axe body wash
