Anti-terrorist actions subject to lobbyists' approval.

[techweenie]

This is completely bizarre, but every passenger can carry up to 4 butane lighters per person on a commericial flight in the US.

-----------excerpt-------------

...By September 22, 2001, I had no choice but to get back on a plane. I had been scheduled to give a talk in San Antonio, and so off I went on an American flight out of Newark. At the airport there was a newly, hastily put-together list of all the items that I could NOT bring aboard the plane. The list was long and bizarre. The list of banned items included:

No guns. (Obviously)

No knives. (Ditto)

No boxcutters. (Certainly now justified)

No toenail clippers. (What?)

No knitting needles. (Huh?)

No crotchet hooks. (Now, wait a minute!)

No sewing needles.

No mace.

No leaf blowers. (OK, now it's personal)

No corkscrews.

No letter openers.

No dry ice.

The list went on and on. A lot of the items made good sense. I wasn't quite sure if terrorists also made quilts in their spare time, and I guess I must have missed the terrorist incident where some poor bastards smuggled dry ice aboard a plane (were they trying to keep their Popsicles cold until they ate them and then used the sticks for their attack?).

Frankly, I was a little freaked-out about flying so soon after 9-11 and I guess there was just no way I was going to fly without a weapon for my protection. So I took the New York Yankees-signed baseball that Mayor Giuliani had given me on "TV Nation," put it in a sock, and – presto! Whip that baby upside somebody's head, and they're going to take a little nap. Note to budding terror****ers: If you try something on a flight I'm on, I'll Clemens ya. That, or the smell from my ratty sock, is going to do you in.

Though I now felt "safe" with my makeshift weapon, as I continued to fly through the fall and winter, I did NOT feel safe being greeted at airport security by weekend warriors from the National Guard holding empty M-16s and looking like they shop in the same "special needs" department at K-Mart which I visit from time to time.

More importantly, though, I kept noticing something strange. The guy in front of me, while emptying his pockets into the little plastic tray to run through the x-ray machine, would take out his butane lighter or matchbook, toss them into the tray, then pick them up on the other side -- in full view of security. At first I thought this was a mistake until I looked at the list of banned items again -- and saw that butane lighters and matchbooks were NOT on the forbidden list.

Then came December 22, 2001. Richard Reid, on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, attempted to light his shoes on fire, using matches. His shoes, the police said, contained a plastic explosive and, had some passengers and flight attendants not taken quick action to restrain him, he would have been able to blow the entire plane out of the sky. But his lighter would not light the shoes fast enough, and everyone survived.

I was sure after this freakish incident that the lighters and matches would surely be banned. But, as my book tour began in February, there they were, the passengers with their Bic lighters and their books of matches. I asked one security person after another why these people were allowed to bring devices which could start a fire on board the plane, especially after the Reid incident. No one, not a single person in authority or holding an unloaded automatic weapon, could or would give me answer.

My simple question was this: If all smoking is prohibited on all flights, then why does ANYONE need their lighters and matches at 30,000 feet -- while I am up there with them?!

And why is the one device that has been used to try and blow up a plane since 9-11 NOT on the banned list? No one has used toenail clippers to kill anyone on Jet Blue, and no one has been blowing away the leaves in the aisle of the Delta Connection flight to Tupelo.

BUT SOME FRUITCAKE DID USE A BUTANE LIGHTER TO TRY AND KILL 200 PEOPLE ON AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT #63. And this did nothing to force the Bush Administration to do something about it.

I began asking this question in front of audiences on my book tour. And it was on a dark and rainy night in Arlington, Virginia, at the Ollsson's Bookstore a couple miles from the Pentagon that I got my answer. After asking my Bic lighter question in my talk to the audience, I sat down to sign the books for the people in line. A young man walks up to the table, introduces himself, and lowering his voice so no one can hear, tells me the following:

"I work on the Hill. The butane lighters were on the original list prepared by the FAA and sent to the White House for approval. The tobacco industry lobbied the Bush administration to have the lighters and matches removed from the banned list. Their customers (addicts) naturally are desperate to light up as soon as they land, and why should they be punished just so the skies can be safe?

The lighters and matches were removed from the forbidden list.

I was stunned. I knew there had to be some strange reason why this most obvious of items had not been banned. Could the Bush mob be so blatant in their contempt for the public's safety? How could they do this, and at the same time, issue weekly warnings about the "next terrorist threat"? Would they really put Big Tobacco's demands ahead of people's lives?

Yes, of course, the answer has always been YES but not now, not in a time of national crisis, not NOW, so soon after the worst domestic mass murder in U.S. history!

--------------excerpt--------------

[SteveStromberg]

Try sparkettes distilled water.
The Deiseae is curable with proper treatment.
Ted Nugget has a Summer camp that will give good results in as littel as two weeks.
Supplemented with a daily dose of WND and you should be cured.

[SteveStromberg]

[techweenie]

Got nuthin, huh, Steve?

[lendaddy]

Well, if it was wispered to Michael Moore who told it in a speech which you read, then it's good enough for me! The point is obviously that the flame is useless without................................ a BOMB!!!!!!!! We still screen for those right? Note the other banned items are usuable on their own as weapons.

Get a grip.

[techweenie]

Ah, so a butane lighter with a 6" flame is less threatening to you than a knitting needle?

Wacky.

I guess when the situation is indefensible, the responses turn irrational.

[lendaddy]

Originally posted by techweenie
Ah, so a butane lighter with a 6" flame is less threatening to you than a knitting needle?

Wacky.

I guess when the situation is indefensible, the responses turn irrational.

Wacky's ass, I tell ya what. We meet at sundown, me armed with a crochet needle and you with a Bic lighter. I like my odds.

I really think you need some time off, Nov 3 will be easier to take after a hyatis

[dd74]

Originally posted by lendaddy
Wacky's ass, I tell ya what. We meet at sundown, me armed with a crochet needle and you with a Bic lighter. I like my odds.

You like your odds? I don't. Especially if Tech's been eating bean burritos and holds that six-inch flame to his "wacky ass."

[lendaddy]

Touche

[jyl]

FYI, here is the TSA's list of permitted and prohibited carry-on items.

http://www.tsa.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/Permitted_Prohibited_12_18_2003.pdf

I see that scissors and knives are now permitted as long as they are "round-bladed", by which I assume they mean round-tipped. So are corkscrews, nail files, and tweezers.

Perhaps I will take my Swiss Army knife to a knifemaker and have him grind the knife and scissor points until they are blunt and round. It would be nice to be able to carry a pocketknife again.

Anyone have experience with carrying round-tipped knives and scissors n flights, recently?

[dd74]

You know, if there's a will, there's a way.

Are aerosol cans allowed? Imagine what a Bic lighter and a can of hairspray can do - even if it's just to scare someone.

[stealthn]

There are enough things already on a plane to make a decent weapon, so why would you even need to bring one on.

Ever wonder if it's possible to rush the door at 30,000ft.....

But 4 lighters per person? That would be enough gas if captured to be a good bomb.

Kinda makes you go hmmmm

[island911]

let me see if I have this right. . .
Richard Reid, on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, attempted to light his plastic explosive shoes on fire, using matches.


And your worried about the matches and lighters. (?)

[Adam]

I always wondered how Reid was going to set off his plastic explosive shoe-bombs without a detonator...