Airport Delays

[terracore]

These "spare parts" surely could fit on a self somewhere

You take off your shoes and have them screened because one guy tried to squeeze some explosives into his sneakers 25 years ago, unsuccessfully.  Does anyone think there are terrorists on Big Island waiting for an opportunity to sneak a pair of scissors on a plane if they let passengers board for a few days with reduced, random hand screening?  We used to get on planes with no screening, and few restrictions in carry on.  In the 1980’s a custom officer at Heathrow in London checked my pockets which bulged and asked what I had.  A pocket knife I said, would you like to see it?  He almost reluctantly said “I guess so.”  It was a medium size Swiss Army knife with probably 7 potential weapons (knives, corkscrew, etc) you can’t now carry on a plane.  He said “oh that’s OK.  Have a good flight.”

As much as I dislike the TSA (bureaucracy!) they tried relaxing the prohibited items list in 2013 including allowing smaller knives, golf clubs, small bats, etc but the flight attendant unions opposed it:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/fl...s/1968293/

The argument was that so long as the screeners are looking for items that aren't really dangerous (anymore) it diverts resources from looking for items that ARE really dangerous (like water!).