TSA to Allow Knives, Bats, Clubs on Planes
In yet more Theatre of the Absurd that is ’air travel security’ , the TSA has modified their restrictions this week to allow ’knives, clubs, bats’, and other alarming (sounding) articles aboard planes.TIME.com writes:
Airline passengers will be able to carry small knives, souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes beginning next month under a policy change announced Tuesday by the head of the Transportation Security Administration.
The new policy conforms U.S. security standards to international standards, and allows TSA to concentrate its energies on more serious safety threats, the agency said in a statement.
While some cheer the new freedoms, others question why knives are allowed, but travelers must at certain locations still remove their shoes, go through the humiliating naked-body scanners and invasive searches, and be stripped of harmless liquids and cupcakes.
Knives of 6-centimeters (2.36 inches) or less in length are allowed, and yet the infamous box-cutters that were allegedly used by hijackers on 9/11 are still prohibited.
These changes, while welcome, come at a glacier-slow pace and seem completely arbitrary to many. If the knives are now harmless, why were they banned in the first place?
It’s been reported time and time again that the TSA fails to detect terror suspects and handguns during tests. If they cannot catch the ’bad guys’ no matter what they’re carrying, why do the rest of us need to suffer under a security regime?
The answer can only be: money, and control.
By Elizabeth Leafloor, Red Ice Creations
With these new changes, we’ll finally be able to reenact this scene from Airplane:
