Talk about knee-jerk reactions. First it was terrorists on airliners with boxcutters, so we had to relinquish our sharp objects, nail scissors and files, letter openers and those cute Swiss Army knives every one kept tucked in their purse. Airport security checks were filled with little old ladies in wheelchairs being searched for contraband.
After a while, the ban on nail clippers was lifted. And did you notice they took away the metal knives from the airline meal, but left you a metal fork with all those sharp tongs intact?
Then it was some wacko trying to light his shoes on fire, so we all have to put our footwear in plastic bins before we go through the metal detector.
Now it's liquid. Not that they haven't known for years that explosives can be made from liquid. Liquid fertilizer, liquid nitroglycerin, not to mention all the easily obtainable flammables: gasoline, kerosene, propane. How interesting that the day after Lieberman's defeat in the Democratic Primary in Connecticut, a terrorist plot to blow up planes from London to the US was uncovered. A plot using liquid explosives.
So now, it's hand over your baby bottles, contact lens solution, toothpaste and Evian.
I predict it won't be long before they've outlawed chewing gum (plastique) and eyeglasses (can be used by junior Al Quaeda scouts for starting fires).
Oh, yeah, what about Snakes on a Plane? That would surely cause a commotion. Better leave your boa constrictor home.
Seriously, the point is, anyone can use anything as an agent of terror or disruption. So what's the point of waiting until someone tries something new, and then confiscating whatever object they used from everybody else?
And seriously (and cynically) again, did you hear Bush using this opportunity to trot out his trusty war rhetoric? "This just shows that we're still at war with the Islamo Fascists" said our fearless leader, never missing a chance to push his all war all the time agenda.
Or as Randy Rhodes, of Air America puts it, "Perpetual war for pertpetual profits."
