12 March 2007

Freedom Flying

Tomorrow I am going to Florida. The only real option I have for transportation to this destination is flying (I mean, what sane person drives that far?). This isn't really a problem for me as I generally enjoy air travel, and am a fan of planes and flight. That was before I was not allowed to bring toothpaste.

The TSA (Transportation Security Administration - a post September 11th creation) determined that it is unsafe to have passengers carry on items such as toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner and deodorant. All at a time when we're trying to teach our junior high students to improve their personal hygiene, the federal government is prohibiting it. Incredible.

So instead of enjoying air travel, those of us who used to anyway, are forced to endure a flight full of B.O. and bad breath. We are also forced to have two sets of toiletries, one for air travel and one for home use. If you ask me, the TSA teamed up with Wal*Mart to sell more conditioner, which we will all now buy (but only in 3 oz quantities) so we don't have to check our bags. Have you seen the lines to check bags? It would be faster to drive to Florida than to check my bag.

The good news is that not everything is banned. There are several very useful items that are allowed as carry ons. Here is a partial list taken from here:
  • ...bone marrow, blood products, and transplant organs;
  • ...prosthetic breasts... (THANK YOU!)

"You are not limited in the amount or volume of these above items you may bring ... However, if these items are ... larger than three ounces, please perform the following:

  • Declare you have the items to one of our Security Officers at the security checkpoint.
  • Present these items for additional inspection once reaching the X-ray. These items are subject to additional screening."

I'll bet they are. We also have to remove our shoes to go through security. Its like those guys that walk on the hot coals, but instead of hot coals, we have athelete's foot and fungal infested carpet. I have to work myself into a mental state like those karate guys before they punch through the cinder blocks.

So, if the terrorists' goal was to inconvenience our lives and make us spend copius amounts of money to prevent a future "attack," they have won. We hire overweight and under qualified people, who would otherwise be working at the terminal 1 McDonalds, to be in charge of regulating how much shampoo and C4 I can carry on.

Thank you TSA, and God bless America.

3 comments:

Thomas said...

hasn't anyone told them that criminal masterminds could actually create a massive dirty bomb from blood products and prosthetic breasts?!??!

what if the blood is tainted?

what is TSA thinking?

Courtney said...

I can't wait to see how the terrorists use the prosthetic breasts

Emily said...

My brother was detained by airport security after 9/11 for a book he was reading--a novel. So he went home and rescheduled his flight and came back to the airport with Harry Potter as his reading material. They remembered him and detained him again and wouldn't let him fly. He is the most non-violent person you will ever meet, but his hair was dyed black, so that raised some serious flags. What a joke. It was nutso. So, my advice--Bring a People magazine or something. The security guys usually let that through.