Does anyone actually believe the TSA?

I love ceramic knives. If in carry-on bags, a seasoned screener would investigate, due to the shape and they are opaque.

Nailclippers

Really. Why are we buying M-16's at about $2k a pop for our soldiers. Given the inherent danger of nailclippers, we could be saving a boatload! ;-)

I really don't understand the whole nail clipper thing - is it because there is a metal file on some?

Cousin's husband is Scottish - and wore the traditional kilt for the wedding - complete with the full size knife that TSA didn't notice.........they also didn't notice when his wife flew home the large ceramic knives they got as a wedding gift.

Basically what I am saying is double the number of actual screeners and reduce the numbers who are groping folks. I look at their screens while I wait on others and it's a mess - no wonder they miss stuff.

But not taped to your inner thigh, in a non-pat down non-body screen environment.

I love ceramic knives. If in carry-on bags, a seasoned screener would investigate, due to the shape and they are opaque.

Different airports, different countries.....they have at least $35 worth of my clippers - and there is no consistency to the seizure.

I would be all for no carry on's. Everything is checked baggage, and you get two bags in your ticket price. Ladies, this includes your purse. It would help with security, and make planing and de-planing an almost tolerable experience. Any well adjusted adult can survive for a couple hours without all of their accessories and toys. Coming from someone who has nearly 250 flights under his belt in 2010.

TSA actually sells confiscated knives at auction. They're sold by the pound.

Different airports, different countries.....they have at least $35 worth of my clippers - and there is no consistency to the seizure.

I think you need to start keeping your nail clippers in your checked luggage Lynnie! ...or taped to your inner thigh!

I would be all for no carry on's. Everything is checked baggage, and you get two bags in your ticket price. Ladies, this includes your purse. It would help with security, and make planing and de-planing an almost tolerable experience. Any well adjusted adult can survive for a couple hours without all of their accessories and toys. Coming from someone who has nearly 250 flights under his belt in 2010.

I haven't checked a bag for a couple of decades. It's no fun when those get lost and you don't even have a toothbrush.

Douglas, the last time I taped something to my inner thigh, it was a college football game and I smuggled in whisky.

I would be all for no carry on's. Everything is checked baggage, and you get two bags in your ticket price. Ladies, this includes your purse. It would help with security, and make planing and de-planing an almost tolerable experience. Any well adjusted adult can survive for a couple hours without all of their accessories and toys. Coming from someone who has nearly 250 flights under his belt in 2010.

I don't have a carry-on because I need toys or accessories, 90% of the bag is items that I cannot check due to theft or items for my comfort/health that the airline does not provide and that I actually need during travel.

One free checked bag, fewer lost bags, and the airlines providing amenities again would go a long way in reducing the congestion.

Definitely agree that most people take way too much stuff on planes and can't move too quickly as a result.

Woot! Sounds like funn Lynnie! lol Perhaps that would be a better thing to smuggle on the plane regardless...

I haven't checked a bag for a couple of decades. It's no fun when those get lost and you don't even have a toothbrush.

I check luggage for long or international trips - and it travels without me more than 75% of the time. My luggage and I are usually in different time zones, airlines, countries, and continents - makes clearing customs quite easy.

I only know this because I've done it before, but the nail clippers thing might be due to the fact you can use them as a crude wire stripper.

I only know this because I've done it before, but the nail clippers thing might be due to the fact you can use them as a crude wire stripper.

Cool, I have no idea what that is, however.

Cool, I have no idea what that is, however.

I could start a whole new world with the things you don't know.

It would be a bleak world of old men sipping prune juice while grumpily complaining that prune juice was far better in their bygone youth.

I could start a whole new world with the things you don't know.

It would be a bleak world of old men sipping prune juice while grumpily complaining that prune juice was far better in their bygone youth.

It would be a bleak world of old men sipping prune juice while grumpily complaining that prune juice was far better in their bygone youth.

Doug, that about sums up your Friday evenings. You're one wild and crazy guy intrepid one.

Air Travell with Kids..



This poster comes from a nice blog post from Australia on why no one should travel to the US with kids.

You're one of the few then. Most of my fellow air travelers need a variety of electronics, candy and clothing for that quick up and down from ATL to PCB. For this, I thank you.

As I fly with tools that cannot be carried on, I check all my bags, and only take on the plane with me a set of Bose headphones (to drown out the crying child who I seem to attract like a magnet), and a lumbar pillow for my lower back. I'll never get back all the time spent waiting for the amateurs to fumble their luggage in and out of the overheads.

I've become a very grumpy air traveler, and as I said before, none of it's due to the TSA. My fellow air travelers are far, far worse. I would let the TSA do surgery on me in trade for being able to fly without kids under about 12, and the promise of being able to plane and deplane in under 2 minutes.

Good news though, new job, new place in Blue Mountain, and no more flying cept for the once a year trip back up North to see mom and dad. Living in paradise, there's not much reason to travel anymore!

I don't have a carry-on because I need toys or accessories, 90% of the bag is items that I cannot check due to theft or items for my comfort/health that the airline does not provide and that I actually need during travel.

One free checked bag, fewer lost bags, and the airlines providing amenities again would go a long way in reducing the congestion.

Definitely agree that most people take way too much stuff on planes and can't move too quickly as a result.

I'll sum up air travel in my situation. At one time I flew for a living, loved it. Today, I won't get on an aircraft unless it is an absolute necessity. It has become the ultimate hassle as far as I'm concerned. Basically, I agree with all of the above.

I've been flying commercial airlines since 1964 and pretty much all of my adult life and I've got the lifetime multi-million miles status that goes with it.

Even with status, flying nowadays has gotten to the point of being almost unbearable.

If a trip lasts longer than a day and I can drive it in under 7 hours, I don't fly. I've just spent $70k putting in a High Def video conferencing solution throughout the company so that people don't have to fly,

While there is a lot to be said for sitting across the table from someone, the video helps and there is also a lot to be said for not wasting countless hundreds of hours waiting in lines, sitting in lounges and stuck on runways. Avoiding inexperienced flyers, wailing children, jackbooted TSA thugs and potentially bedbug infested hotel rooms are just additional benefits.

I long for the day when I have no need of business travel.

Ditto - I only fly because I have to. The surly "greyhound of the skies" that is the current norm of airline travel is one of the reasons I am so PRO train travel.

And it must be said that the behavior and rudeness of our fellow travelers is one of the things that has made airline travel so frustrating and unpleasant.

Though the attitude and behavior of the airlines and staff is also a HUGE factor. It's pretty amazing to see how differently different airlines/staff handle things and what a huge difference it makes in the results.................and their bottom lines.

Jane Hamsher has a nice rundown on how we got the "show me your junk" full-body airport scanners ? and who benefits (my emphasis):
Jane continues the tale nicely. Once Chertoff got Rapiscan's foot in the door, it was just a matter of expanding (and funding) the program. That opportunity was provided by the Christmas 2009 underpants bomber ? and by most Americans' susceptibility to fear, of course. ( Michael Chertoff, was head of Homeland Security under Bush.)

Which is what the TSA junk-groping is about. By making the groping as intolerable as possible, the herd will be more willing to walk through the machines. Sounds like we're going to need more of them.

Yes, ultimately this is a story about money, with similarities to the Prisons-for-Profit story in Arizona. And ground zero is Michael Chertoff, moving from head of Homeland Security to head of his own security consulting firm, then converting his former DHS vendor into his current DHS consulting client, and continuing to flog their goods to a government eager to buy his cred and their products.

Quid pro quo: your tax dollars at work. From your pocket to Chertoff's, with a detour at the Rapiscan cash register. To put it simply, your junk being groped so Chertoff and his friends can make money.