A friend called and asked me if I wanted to go up to another friend's house, where people were gathering for dinner and such. These are not necessarily the normal of my friends you hear about. Rather, they're quite normal to most--average jobs, no drug habits, and only one of the three drinks. This is only a matter of setting. So at the end of dinner, "Jane" comes leaves the table and the conversation carries on, whereupon she returns, holding a knife. I do not notice anything unusual, but my sense of reality exists in permanent conscious suspension. Even though I'm looking at something I shouldn't, for various reasons, be seeing, it does not occur to me as odd that I'm seeing this knife. It is a ten-inch kitchen knife from Benihana of Tokyo, and I recognize both the weathered wooden handle and the familiar bow in the blade from using those damn circular sharpeners. I still remember the first time I saw the knife; it was twenty years ago. One of my hosts looks to her knife-wielding sister. "Did you tell him yet?" she asks. There is nothing particularly alarming or unusual in my mind yet, except for the statistically rare fact that someone is showing me a kitchen knife for some reason. "It's my knife," says Jane. "O.K.," I reply, awaiting some punch line. "I brought it with me." I say nothing, two and two have not penetrated my reality yet. I keep waiting for the joke. Jane looks at me askance and then says, "I brought it with me ... on the plane." I say nothing. There is nothing to say. Two and two and two and two and two and two and two and two and two and two and two .... Yeah. Finally I speak. "Um ...." Jane smiles. She says, "In my carry-on." At which point the conversation returned to normal, the tale of how Jane had ended up accidentally transporting her oldest kitchen knife through the airport. It was a simple story, one that anyone would understand if they knew Jane; simply a matter of returning from one trip (via car), showering, unpacking, repacking, and then racing out the door to catch a plane. Lying the bag on its side, the blade will appear only a few millimetres wide. The top-view scanner, however, should have shown this, I think. When cutting, the blade stands four or five centimetres tall, so it's a nasty plane of metal that should show up. And here's where the story turns interesting. I have watched a reversal of values take place in Jane which is directly tied to the war on terror. Any other day she would go back to the place she had offended and let them know what had happened. She is afraid to call the airport in question and advise them of the situation for fear of prosecution. Now, people may think that I, the Tiassa, am a paranoid soul. Not so with Jane. Jane is as Main-Street as you can get, and it really does feel like a benchmark has been achieved. I never thought the day would come when Jane would fear her own government. It used to be that when stories of police officers killing innocent people would come on the news, Jane would presume the guilt of the dead. And now she's frightened of her own government. The way I see it, Jane has a duty to advise the airport in question of their failure, or at least to call a news agency that will report the story while protecting her identity. Mind you--I've carried personal-use quantities of drugs through several airports before, and they haven't caught me, but that was before Al Qaeda hit, and I'm pretty sure three grams of marijuana ain't bringing a plane down. It could happen, I suppose, but that would be a pretty freaky moment in the Universe. But I find the situation odd--one of the most straightlaced people I know accidentally transported a ten-inch knife in her carry-on. And now that she's not caught, her government has instilled such a fear in her that she has presently chosen to not report the incident for fear of reprisal. Now, come on ... I woke up in the United States yesterday. What the hell is going on? At any rate, to quote Mr. Miller, "That's the news, and I am outta here." Fly safe. thanx, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I thought you were gonna say she went on a killing rampage Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
perhaps main st has their neuroses buried a little deeper than the rest of us Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
What can I say, "Welcome to the real world." The police state has shown its nose to the everyday, mundane, typical citizen.
Ask her if she is more afraid of her government or of terrorists. If the former, the USA has lost and Big Brother has won. If the latter, Big Brother is on the way to winning.
"Passengers should be aware that there are no provisions for returning banned items to them when they are left at the security checkpoint. In addition, those who attempt to bring banned items through the checkpoints are subject to civil penalties of up to $1,100 per violation in addition to criminal penalties." *she might have a duty to report holes in security to the airport in question but since when do we confess to a crime knowing we might have to face prosecution? "Banned Weapons Pass Through Security Undetected There has been a couple of instances of reporters smuggling guns aboard aircraft again. A major investigation is underway in England after a reporter smuggled a imitation gun on to a flight from Heathrow. The replica 9mm semi-automatic pistol was taken aboard a flight to Edinburgh in a carry-on. Another reporter from the same television company carried a six-inch pair of scissors, hidden in a Filofax, on to flights from Gatwick and Southampton. Here in the U.S. reporters investigating airport security were able to smuggle small knives and pepper spray through security checkpoints at 11 U.S. airports during the Labor Day weekend. The reporters carried utility knives, rubber handled razor knives, a pocket knife, a corkscrew, razor blades and pepper spray through every airport security checkpoint they encountered. CBS news crews also tested security screeners last week by carrying bags through security that were lined with lead to block X-rays and got through about 70% of the time. The crews bags were X-rayed and hand-searched, crews had to remove their shoes and IDs were checked but the banned items were not found most of the time. The airports included Newark, Boston, Washington Dulles, Portland, ME, LaGuardia, Kennedy, O'Hare, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Santa Barbara." "Items prohibited from aircraft cabins: (1) Ammunition; (2) Automatic weapons; (3) Axes; (4) Baseball bats; (5) BB guns; (6) Billy clubs; (7) Blackjacks; (8) Blasting caps; (9) Bows and arrows; (10) Box cutters; (11) Brass knuckles; (12) Bull whips; (13) Cattle prods; (14) Compressed air guns; (15) Corkscrews; (16) Cricket bats; (17) Crow bars; (18) Disabling chemicals or gases; (19) Dog repellent spray; (20) Dynamite; (21) Fire extinguishers; (22) Flare pistols; (23) Golf clubs; (24) Gun lighters; (25) Gunpowder; (26) Hammers; (27) Hand grenades; (28) Hatchets; (29) Hockey sticks; (30) Hunting knives; (31) Ice axe/Ice pick; (32) Knives (any length); (33) Kubatons; (34) Large, heavy tools (such as wrenches, pliers, etc.); (35) Mace; (36) Martial arts devices; (37) Meat cleavers; (38) Metal scissors with pointed tips; (39) Numchucks; (40) Pellet guns; (41) Pen knives; (42) Pepper spray; (43) Pistols; (44) Plastic explosives; (45) Pool cues; (46) Portable power drills; (47) Portable power saws; (48) Razor blades (not in a cartridge); (49) Religious knives; (50) Replica weapons; (51) Revolvers; (52) Rifles; (53) Road flares; (54) SCUBA knives; (55) Sabers; (56) Screwdrivers; (57) Shot guns; (58) Ski poles; (59) Spear guns; (60) Starter pistols; (61) Straight razors; (62) Stun guns/shocking devices; (63) Swords; (64) Tear gas; (65) Throwing stars; (66) Toy transformer robots (this toy forms a toy gun); (67) Toy weapons. While the above items are strictly prohibited from being carried into the aircraft cabin, many may be transported in checked baggage with these important exceptions: (1) Firearms and starter pistols may be transported in checked baggage so long as they are unloaded and declared to the airline. (2) Small arms ammunition for personal use may be carried in checked baggage but only if securely packed in fiber, wood or metal boxes, or other packaging specifically designed to carry small amounts of ammunition. (3) One self-defense spray (pepper spray or mace) not exceeding 4 fl. oz. may be carried in a checked bag if it has a positive means to prevent accidental discharge. (4) Blasting caps, compressed air guns, fire extinguishers, flare pistols, and gun lighters are regulated as hazardous materials and may only be transported as cargo on passenger planes under strict limitations in quantity and packaging. (5) Other items listed above are entirely forbidden in air transportation. These include disabling chemicals or gases, dynamite, gunpowder, hand grenades, plastic explosives, road flares, and tear gas. Passengers should also note that there are many items not referred to here that are restricted or forbidden as hazardous materials." http://www.tsa.dot.gov/
Captain whosit? It just occurred to me that this isn't so unreasonable. I remember once watching an interview with William Shatner in the early days of Clark & McMahon's Bloopers and Practical Jokes series in the 1980's. Shatner was talking about one of his television roles in which he was supposed to open a book midway through a conversation, pull out a gun stashed in the cut-away pages, and shoot the other character. For whatever reasons, humorous or otherwise, when he opened the book during the shoot, there was no gun inside. Not one to blow the scene for technical difficulties, he seized the corkscrew off the table and proceeded to "murder" his victim as best he could improvise. To this day, though, I have a scary echo in my head of William Shatner saying, "And so ... I screwed him to death!" thanx, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
funny "Passengers should be aware that there are no provisions for returning banned items to them when they are left at the security checkpoint. In addition, those who attempt to bring banned items through the checkpoints are subject to civil penalties of up to $1,100 per violation in addition to criminal penalties. the penalties mentioned here is for merely trying to get thru customs with banned items. not mentioned are penalties for actually getting it on the plane and getting caught when disembarking. ridge should take the war on terrorism to home depot and other hardware stores that provide weapons for terrorists. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
