dusted.net

You know, there are times that I’m glad that I’m not in the US to get caught up in whatever the hysteria-of-the-month is, and this is one of them. The “crotchbomber” on NWA 253 has really messed things up for flying in the US with the jerk knee reactions, namely the “don’t have things in your lap 1 hour before the flight lands.” Granted I kinda get why they would put a limit on this, since a plane crash on approach is more disastrous than one midway over the Atlantic, but it still doesn’t end the problems. A plane going boom is a plane going boom, just the body count might be different. With these new idiotic policies, and likely more coming down the road, one could say they’ve…

I travel fairly frequently for business, nearly always internationally. Even traveling to Sarawak requires me to go through immigration. And I am so thankful that on my last couple of trips, that I just have to throw my bag on the belt and waltz on through security. No taking out my laptop, keep my shoes on, or anything awkward. On the flight it is business as usual, do some reading, doze off momentarily with my headphones on, have a quick snack, and continue reading until we pull up at the gate. I don’t think there is any way I could survive that last hour without something to keep my mind off the sometimes very shaky landing approach. Ah well, thank goodness for places that don’t go insane over useless shows of security.

The issue that disturbs me the most though, is that the rules were already in place to prevent his actions, starting before the would-be-bomber even stepped foot on the plane. The man was apparently on a watch list, his family had reported him, pre-flight security detected nothing wrong – I can’t imagine the explosive residue that would have been all over him – and he still just walks on without a problem. Thank goodness the man is either an idiot or incompetant with his bomb plot, or the total failure of security would’ve had horrible consequences, and likely even worse shows of security theatre.

Then again, it would be nice to live in a world where people don’t try to blow up planes and buildings.