the allusion of safety

the things that aren't allowed on planes starting yesterday:

No liquids or gels of any kind are allowed in carry-on baggage until further notice. This includes all beverages, cologne, hair gel, suntan lotion, contact lens formula, toothpaste, shampoo, and all items of ``similar consistency." The only exceptions are baby formula and juice -- but just for those passengers traveling with children-- and medicines, which must have the traveler's name on the container.

so, they allow juice for kids as long as someone drinks it beforehand.

so why can't i have my bottle of water as long as i drink from it beforehand?

secondly, what about folks who are insulin dependent? they have a liquid medication that you can't verify is actually insulin--you can't force a diabetic to take a jolt of insulin just whenever, you know.

and okay, folks can still hide things on their person: small vials in underwear...or even vaginas.

at least one cnn article addresses some of these concerns:

Boyd sees the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's ban as a knee-jerk reaction that leaves Americans no safer than they were before the 9/11 attacks.

"Remember Richard Reid, the guy who tried to light up his shoe on the airplane? After that we had to take off our shoes. Imagine what would have happened if he had hid that bomb in his pants," Boyd said.

and not just pants: you could have a container within a container of baby formula that holds the thing you want. the padding liner of many women's bras. people could eat small wrapped pellets of things, like they do to carry drugs across borders.

the intention here is not to make things actually safer--but to make people FEEL safer.

"Standing there looking to make sure no one has a tube of toothpaste is patently ridiculous, because now we're looking for objects again -- we're not looking for threats" said Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd Group, an aviation consulting firm in Evergreen, Colorado.

and

Clark Kent Ervin, a former Department of Homeland Security inspector general, points to a recent Government Accountability Office report that revealed that congressional investigators were able to sneak bomb components past screeners at all 21 airports tested.

"And if bomb parts could get past then, obviously, things like liquid gel, which nobody would typically think of as a bomb component, could do so, too," Ervin told CNN.

but....

After Kristin Reinke of Champlin, Minnesota, dumped her bottle into a tub at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, she complained to her husband, Mike Reinke, "I just threw out $34 worth of hand lotion."

He was sympathetic, but accepted the Transportation Security Administration's reasons for the ban. "What are you going to do?" he said. "I guess you have to be safe."

(from a different article)

aww, look at the little sheeple, so accomodating. but where do you stop accomodating and say, enough is enough?
for some reason people have come to believe that inconvenience is equal to safety.

let's be clear: you can never be one hundred percent safe. there is no such thing.

and, as the famous ben franklin quotation goes:

"They that would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary saftey deserve neither liberty nor safety."