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Letters
Thursday, August 17, 2006 12:00 AM

Is airport security futile?

First it was tweezers, now mascara. Every penny spent confiscating makeup is a penny that could go toward law enforcement -- where it really matters.

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  • Thursday, August 17, 2006 01:42 PM

    Explosive device smuggled (accidentally):

    Back in '96 traveled to Seoul, Korea to visit my brother who was living there. Before I left, he gave me his rollerblades since he no longer used them. He forgot that he had hidden (so his mother in law wouldn't find it) an explosive tear gas grenade inside of one of the rollerblades. I guess he found one that hadn't detonated at a student protest a year earlier.

    Either way, I flew from Korea to Japan, then Japan to San Francisco, then San Francisco to Boston without any knowledge that I had a explosive tear gas grenade in my carry-on luggage. It was never detected and I didn't discover it till I was home in Boston.

    That alone is pretty scary to think about... Then I think of how pathetic recent security measures are. If you can't x-ray bomb building liquids, someone could easily strap it to their body in ziplock bags. Afraid of knives? Ceramic blades aren't made of metal and you could strap a friggin' ceramic machete to your leg and never set off any alarms.

    The worst part about this is that all of these measures are trying to treat the symptom and not the cause. The biggest lie of the century is that terrorists "hate our freedom". There's only so much sand the schoolyard bully can kick in kid's faces before they find ways to find revenge. I bet one of the best airport security measures would be for America to stop bombing the fuck out of civilians in other countries. Just a thought!

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