Category: Insaneness

Last night while traveling, I had to stop at Wal Mart to buy some new windshield wipers.  I was talking to the checkout lady and she mentioned that Wal Mart would be open all day on Thanksgiving.  Can you believe it?!  They are making a store full of employees work just so a handfull of people can go shopping.  Craziness!!

Boy, I'm glad that the TSA recently changed the rules about liquids on planes.  I can now take liquids and gels as long as they fit into a quart ziploc baggie.  I feel so safe now that I had to go out and buy a travel size shaving cream and toothpaste.  You know those half-filled containers are just soo dangerous.

Just in case you can't tell, these new rules don't make me feel any safer at all.  I felt safe beforehand.  What about the terrorist who plans to kill all the flight attendants with their ink pen?  What about the terrorist who makes their driver's license out of c4?  Come on people….this sort of thing is just stupid….it doesn't make us any safer.

I was surfing tonight and came across this article talking about funny comics dealing with airport security. Enjoy.

From http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tmmda/2006/tmmda060816.gif

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From http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/airport%20security.jpg

Want to try your hand at identifying bombs?  Check out Bomb or Not.

So, are we safer or not?  Do you think that us not being able to take toothpaste on a plane makes us safer?  How about not being allowed to take that Big Mac on the plan?  What if you learned that in the midst of everything, someone sneaked c4 on a plane, assembled a "bomb", and documented it all.

Let's read more about the guy who snuck a bomb on a plane.  Below is a teaser:

A MAN WEARING a jacket and carrying a bag was able to sneak a bomb onto a flight from Manila to Davao City last month at the height of the nationwide security alert after Britain uncovered a plot to blow up transatlantic planes.

The man pulled off the same stunt on the return flight to Manila.

Had he detonated the bomb, he would have turned the commercial plane into a fireball and killed himself, the crew and hundreds of other passengers.

The man turned out to be a civilian antiterrorism expert tapped by a government official to test security measures at Philippine airports after British police foiled a plan to blow up US-bound planes in midair using liquid explosives.

Security was tightened at London’s Heathrow airport on Aug. 10, setting off alarms at airports across the globe, including in the Philippines.

But the security and antiterrorism expert, who asked not to be named because of his work, said he managed to bring the bomb and its components onto the plane on Aug. 14 despite the additional security measures at the Manila domestic airport, like the banning of hand-carried fluids and gels.

A similar “insertion of bomb components scenario” is expected to be conducted at other airports in the country as part of efforts to upgrade the antiterrorism capability of airport personnel.

At the departure gate, the antiterrorism expert said he passed through the walk-in detector, frisking and X-ray areas.

He underwent the same security checks at the boarding area.

To prove that he was able to get the explosive and its components past security personnel, he filmed the bomb he had assembled on the plane and showed the footage recently to select members of the media.

How did he get the bomb and its components past the tight security?

So, in the words on Regis…"Is that your final answer?"

Let's see….where do I begin.  Pilots having to take off their shoes.  Passengers having to take off their shoes.  Not being allowed to take water on a plane.  Not being allowed to take toothpaste on a plane.  I could write things like this ALL DAY LONG.  And what do people do?  They take it!  They pass it off as "They say we have to do it to be safe" or "Better safe than sorry."  Come on people!

Want another example?  How would you like your flight to be diverted, delayed for many hours, held at gunpoint, and questioned?  How would you like it if that happened because someone accidentally dropped their IPod in the lav. on the plane?!?!

Don't believe me?  Take a look at this eyewitness account of government gone awry.

Here is a teaser:

When the pilot on my Ottawa-bound United flight from Chicago last Tuesday came on the intercom to report a problem, I felt a trickle of panic, even though he assured us that there was no cause for alarm. They had discovered, he said awkwardly, an object on the plane that should not be there. He had notified the authorities at Ottawa airport, and they would handle the problem upon our arrival.

A few nervous minutes later, at around 4 p.m., we landed and taxied to a desolate spot far from the terminal. I and my fellow passengers (close to 50 of us) expected to see emergency vehicles waiting and a crew of people to rush us off the plane before this "object" exploded. No such luck. We were greeted by an eerie silence, a silence that lasted almost 40 minutes until a bus finally pulled up near our plane.

Perplexed and confused, we were ordered to disembark and told that we could bring nothing with us, not even our passports. (Apparently this order was a mistake because we were expected later to have our identifying documents with us.) Grim-faced police officers with guns stared at us with accusing glances as we staggered down the steps. I felt the impulse to put my hands up. What had we done wrong? Were we suspected of terrorism?

We were transported to a large garage, filled with armed police, on the airport complex and told that we had a long wait ahead of us. This turned out to be true. It would be four hours from our arrival at Ottawa before we were finally released.

Meanwhile, the word had gotten out. The "object" that had caused all this panic was an iPod that slipped off the belt of a young man (who looked to be about 18) when he was using the bathroom. It landed in the toilet. Knowing that his iPod was ruined and apparently reluctant to put his hands in the toilet, the young man tried unsuccessfully to flush it away and returned to his seat. When another passenger saw the iPod and mentioned it to the flight attendant, she immediately told the captain, who then notified Ottawa airport authorities.

Once the young man realized that his unflushed iPod was causing such concern he went up to the attendant and told her what had happened. But it was too late. The call to Ottawa airport had set a process in motion that could not be stopped. The Ottawa police, who were in charge of Operation iPod, had a protocol to follow and they were not to be deterred.

I was surfing today and came across this interesting comic dealing with the current no liquids on an aircraft regulations.

Today, if you haven't heard, the Brits foiled a plot to blow up airliners on their way across the Atlantic. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the list of what you can and can't have on an airplane just got bigger. There are the normal:

• no guns
• no knives
• no scisors (wait…that is unless they are under 4 inches long)
• no bombs

But to that list, add:

• no water
• no pop (soda, coke, whatever you call it)
• no eye drops
• no and lotion
• no chapstic
• no toothpaste
• no deoderant
• no books
• no electronics
• no carry-ons

Well, those last three apply only to flights that originate in Great Britain, but the others are on the list anywhere.

In my mind, we are letting the terrorists win. This is what they want. I saw on another website this quote: If the terrorists invent explosive underwear, will we all have to fly naked? I don't get it. No one remembers the glory days of aviation any more. The days when planes had wicker seats and people dressed up to fly. The days when you could get a bed on a flight. The days when you didn't have to take your shoes off to go through security?

Oh well, I guess we'll all just have to get used to an increase in deep vein thrombosis. (just in case you don't know, one of the ways to help combat that disease is to not get dehydrated while on a plane. I don't know about you, but one of those little cups of water they give out on a plane isn't enough to keep me for 10 minutes….let alone an eight hour flight across the Atlantic).

Just to keep you interested, here is a link to an article on BoingBoing about the issue (there are several more, but due to the language, I won't link to them.

UK Officials Thwart Potential Terror Plot.  From that story:

Congestion was building up rapidly at the airport as authorities enforced strict new regulations banning most hand baggage.

British Airways said some flights were likely to be canceled. Laptop computers, mobile phones, iPods, and remote controls were among items banned from being carried on its planes.

Fox News TV was also reporting the additional security measures banned ALL cary-ons.  This would include things like books, all liquids (water, baby formula, etc….), among other things.

I'll post more later (maybe this evening).

I was reading World Net Daily like I do every morning when I came across this story about a couple arrested in Baltimore, MD because they got lost.

Can you believe it? Getting arrested because you ask directions from a cop! Continue reading “This is just plain wrong”