Comments on: The Very Tiny Terrorist

By: Political idiocies « Rturpin's Blog

Political idiocies « Rturpin's Blog — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:47:53 +0000

[...] for a toy soldier. The political (not financial) idiocy came when its miniature, plastic rifle was confiscated at Gatwick Airport. Given the subject line, there has to be an obligatory link about Michele [...]

By: This Week in Automotivators, January 24-30 « The TrogloPundit

This Week in Automotivators, January 24-30 « The TrogloPundit — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:11:20 +0000

[...] The Agitator. Picture found at Rather Childish, although it really [...]

By: thorn

thorn — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:44:50 +0000

“…meanwhile…”

ROFL. Best post ever! :D

By: Ian MacLeod

Ian MacLeod — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:14:22 +0000

Law Prof wrote:
“The danger level is exactly the same as that from a 7 inch stainless steel Cross pen (someone could stab you in the brain through your eye orbit). The pens are allowed as are knitting needles.

So, BTW are the twin 72 inch paracord laces on my boots. Imagine what a graduate of infantry AIT could do with those. As my DI liked to shout “YOU are your primary weapon. YOU are never unarmed.”

I’ve had senseis over the year say the same thing. I could do the same thing with a finger, or put my thumb through the temporal bone (thinnest bone in the body). Are they going to start confiscating fingers too now?

Ian

By: Ian MacLeod

Ian MacLeod — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:10:11 +0000

No wonder we’re in trouble – these people aren’t just idiots, they’re totally INSANE! That what you get when you give unaccountable power to idiots. I would be unsurprised to learn one day that they’ve decided that the only way to keep America safe from people who travel is to stop ALL Americans from traveling and to keep travelers out of the country. Eventually these lobotomy cases would just forbid stepping out of your own house for ANY reason. People would starve? Too bad, but at least they’d be safe! Everyone would safe from each other, right?

Good grief.

Seriously, when even the supervisor makes that stupid a ruling, you have to conclude that there’s a fundamental flaw in the concept. If you’ve just got to keep the system, you might try making some obviously needed changes, starting with hiring people who have a little bit of discernment. What if the kid behind this passenger had pulled his Play Dough out into a cylinder? Would they confiscate it because it then looked too much like a gun? If not, then the first ruling was just as insane as the second would be!

Ian

By: SJE

SJE — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:42:49 +0000

Its not just guns in U.S. schools: a single tablet of ibuprofen, a small paring knife, T-shirts that say the wrong thing…etc.

By: Kayak2U Blog » Blog Archive » “There was no flexibility or common sense.”

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:36:39 +0000

[...] Balko and elsewhere. MikeSoja – January 27, 2011 — 11:36 pm Filed in: Endarkenment, Morons, [...]

By: KBCraig

KBCraig — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:58:15 +0000

British airport security may have reached a new low for them, but it’s not uncharted territory. The news archives are rife with stories about U.S. grade-schoolers, usually aged 5-8, expelled from school under “zero tolerance” weapons rules for having similar “guns”.

By: SJE

SJE — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:05:07 +0000

How about a plastic model of a brain, since that is what the TSA is most afraid of.

By: Marty

Marty — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:24:11 +0000

after reading the gun smuggling article, I’m kicking myself AGAIN for not capitalizing on these money making opportunities! profits available with cigarettes, 4loco, marijuana, guns, etc and I’m broke. Maybe I’ll look into the bath soap thing…

By: paranoiastrksdp

paranoiastrksdp — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:22:09 +0000

#40 | cw | January 27th, 2011 at 8:01 pm

They have already kept people with mere pictures of guns on their clothing from boarding planes.

By: cw

cw — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:01:09 +0000

A little molded piece of plastic isn’t any more a firearm that a photograph of a firearm. Will they confiscate photographs next? What absurd tyranny the government brings to our lives!

By: Kevin Carson

Kevin Carson — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:52:14 +0000

I got your nine-inch terrorist right here.

By: Headline: Airport Security Good Only as a Target of Mockery « The TrogloPundit

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:32:55 +0000

[...] Memeorandum. Also, in the comments at The Agitator: Of course, if the miniature replica firearm is a firearm, then the miniature replica person is a [...]

By: Judi

Judi — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:28:12 +0000

I can’t even dignify this with a response.

By: Leon Wolfeson

Leon Wolfeson — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:34:02 +0000

Actually, the rule against firearm-shaped-objects is because of several incidents of people trying to take replica weapons in hand luggage. It’s probably not a well-written regulation, but the *intent* is against replicas of any sort.

The airline doesn’t have a choice, it gets to follow the regs.

Also, Mattocracy? No, they’re just dismantling the accountability mechanisms which allowed people to easily track the government’s record.

By: keith

keith — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:19:24 +0000

the 9 inch terrorist . . . that’s what the ladies call me.

*rimshot*
thank you. thank you very much.

By: Danny

Danny — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:12:13 +0000

It’s so weird it’s hard to believe.

My preliminary hypothesis: the TSA has a pathological set of office politics, such that the frontline employees are watching their backs with utter paranoia, and thinking that any little thing, even some tiny-scale replica of a gun, could be used by a supervisor to take adverse employment action against them.

By: Mark Draughn

Mark Draughn — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:07:18 +0000

#30/PersonFromPorlock, Smokeless powder may be a deflagrant, but the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (not as much fun as it sounds) treats it as an explosive for regulatory purposes. Just how the ATF draws the line between the explosive-like deflagration of gunfire, the less explosive-like deflagration of something like a model rocket engine or a flare, and the totally non-explosive deflagration of say, a campfire, isn’t real clear.

By: CyniCAl

CyniCAl — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:03:29 +0000

And so security theatre has fully progressed to security theatre of the absurd.