Debbie Schlussel: "Where's Seinfeld?": TSA Liquid Rules Get Even More Ridiculous
I've written about the absurdity of the ever-changing Homeland Security and TSA liquid rules. But, now, they are even more absurd.
Today's Wall Street Journal features a piece on the "method" behind "Carry-on Madness." One line in the article says it all:
Where's Seinfeld when you need him?
Here's the essential part of the article:
In a quintessential bureaucratic bedevilment, the TSA allows small bottles and tubes of liquids to be carried aboard airplanes only if they are enclosed in a quart-size zip-top bag. No gallon bags. No fold-over sandwich bags. Even if you have only one bottle on you, it must be carried in a quart-size, zip-top plastic bag. Screeners confiscate any nonconforming items or send travelers to ticket counters to check luggage.
How do you spell ludicrous? T-S-A. The article goes on to discuss tiny-sized tubes of toothpaste and shaving cream that were confiscated b/c "people didn't have quart-size platic bags," said a TSA official.
So, apparently, if your 3-ounce bottle is not in a quart-size plastic bag with a zip-top, then it could be used in a terrorist plot? Or if your 3-ounce container is in a much smaller sandwich bag, then you can put together a bomb with it? Huh? The whole thing is absurd. Welcome to PC government by committee. Extremist Muslims around the world are laughing at us. Islamic terrorists are laughing at us.
Here's more of the absurdity:
Steve Feld had a squeezed down, nearly empty tube of toothpaste that clearly had less then three ounces in it, though it held more when it was new. He also had a used tube of lotion that "once held fractionally over 3.0 ounces," he said. A TSA screener grabbed them both.
The TSA claims it's not about the liquid but about the size of the container, claiming it's too difficult to mix a bomb in anything 3 ounces or smaller.
But hello . . . do we really need to do this when we could profile? Is some guy named Steve Feld going to unroll his tube of toothpaste and try to mix a bomb in it? Have you ever seen anyone get anything back into a tube of toothpaste (except when they're on video and the video is run backwards)?
Again, this is absurd. And it will never stop terrorists. As we know, last week, it was disclosed that in 20 out of 22 tries, guns, fake bombs, and other dangerous items were successfully gotten through security at Newark airport.
Maybe that's because TSA screeners are too busy taking some businessman's toothpaste or grandmother's hand lotion. We have bigger fish to fry.
So, why does the TSA keep frying the innocent non-Muslim American traveling public?
TSA chief Kip Hawley claims that those running his agency are not "as stupid as we may look." Maybe he's right. They're even more stupid.
Posted by Debbie on October 31, 2006 11:52 AM to Debbie Schlussel