Flying home from Manila, they took away a small scissors from my toilet kit. It was about three inches long in total, with the actual cutting end about an inch and a half. I asked them if they really thought that was something dangerous. The guy just looked at me and said, "The rules are the rules."
The lack of any common sense and a focus on doing everything by rote only tells me that security at airports could easily be compromised by the wrong people. It would be easy to manipulate people who are no longer actually looking for truly dangerous situations, only for a small scissors to grab or some such thing.
I don't feel any more secure now than I did the day after 9/11. What I'm observing more and more as I fly, are a bunch of people (TSA agents) in a dead end job, counting the hours until they get off and the years until they get their pension. Any focus on catching a real threat to our security is no longer present (there are exceptions of course, but they are just that, exceptions). New machines do not make me feel any more secure.
I do the same things I used to do when leaving the poolroom. I look at all my fellow passengers to see if there is anyone who makes me feel uncomfortable. In other words, I'm my own best security. I even watch (through the windows) as the plane is being loaded and prepped for take off. I like to know as much as possible about the plane I'm getting on BEFORE I fly. I even study the pilots as they come through the gate. I want to see what kind of shape they're in, and what their attitude is like.
I know, I'm funny this way. My daughter calls me paranoid. I guess I've been around too long and seen a little too much. I'll never forget when I caught the creep who was harassing the pretty gal who worked in my poolroom. He was the most clean cut young man you would ever see. And not bad looking either. But still a total creep! I scared him shitless that day, and we never heard from him again. But who knows where he went next?
