You're in Logan Airport that day and see Star wearing her idiotic getup grasping a handful of whatever she's grasping. Face it, would you get closer to her, geniuses that you are, or would some of you morons actually alert the authorities to something out of the ordinary? It's a simple question. What would you have done?

Probably gone "huh" and walked away. Those of us who actually live in and around the Boston are largely immune to the eccentricities of our neighbors. A friend of mine built a stick figure out of PVC piping to ride on the back of his tandem bicycle. I suppose the person at HD who observed him being very careful about the lengths of pipe he bought, and his measuring of his own body while he was doing so should have had him arrested at the point of a submachine gun or five for buying pipe-bomb components. Some other friends also build a trebuchet, maybe we should haul them off for building a mechanism to launch explosives at a distance. I saw a guy on a homemeade bike the other day with a disco ball mounted on a pole on the handlebars in place of a headlight. I have good friends who are really into crypto, locks, robotics, you name it. This is a city of weird genius; I'm sorry for the rest of you who have no experience with wild creative intelligence, you're really missing out.

By the way, what she had on her sweatshirt was conceptually the same thing as those idiotic "holiday" pins that light up and blink and play dreadful muzak, but without the decorative plastic cover. Maybe the one good thing that will come out of this is that people wearing those assaults on good taste will also be hauled off at gunpoint.

Plus if you won't reply when you do get asked, you deserve to get punished. Why should you be above the law? Because you're a minority? Because you go to MIT? So this means you can waltz around while ordinary peons get stopped and searched?

What law would that be? There is no law that requires I answer questions about my clothing that are posed by airport curb staff (clue: she answered the first question that was posed to her, she wasn't in the airport building, and she wasn't in the security line nor was she questioned by TSA staff.)

Why do you insist on tying every single topic in Salon to Asperger's? Seriously. I know this is probably proof that I have the condition myself, but it's getting really tedius.

Given the sense of humor of MIT students - I wouldn't be surprised if half the school shows up at the airport with breadboards tomorrow.

I hope the entire city is aglow with little sparkly LED lights by the end of the weekend.

...is when TSA cops open fire on a person of interest because they're acting suspiciously or wearing a "hoax-bomb" and end up killing a few innocent bystanders.

A friend of mine went to see the Elder Bush speak when he was in high-school. He was at the speech, about 40 yards from the President, when he turned to a friend of his and said, "Hand me the telescopic sight!"

He was whisked off within 20 seconds by Secret Service agents, who sat him in a room with no door for 4 hours and sweated him. Quite justifiably.

If that approach was used to such great effect in '91, why can't we use it today?

For what it's worth--the student did screw up, and she definitely deserved to be investigated and detained until it was established that she wasn't any kind of threat.

Still, I'm not real happy about cops (of any stripe) pulling submachine guns on citizens without a pretty compelling reason. Of course opinions will differ, but a circuit board with LEDs and a handful of clay on an adolescent woman doesn't say "bomb" to ME.

As is evident from the comments here, there are lots of folks who WANT to live in that world. I'd encourage them to try out some other totalitarian states, rather than transform the USA into one. My love for America is founded on my passion about our freedoms, not on how well-armed our police are.

High IQ Asperger Nation, like Kid Nation, but with people from this letters column.

I wonder how that would work, actually.

It could be interesting to see people who don't register social clues, think they're better than everyone else, and aren't good at feeling or expressing empathy could work together and build a town.

Could it be done? Or are the "stupid" people good for something after all?

I haven't heard a rational explanation behind the un-labeled Play-Doh in her hand either.

Unlabelled? What is she supposed to do, carry around a little paper sign saying "This is Play Doh"?

Maybe she just quit smoking and needs something to do with her hands. Maybe she's getting carpal tunnel from being on a computer all day long. Squishing things in your hand is good for that. Maybe its a nervous habit. I tend to click ballpoint pens, myself. I suppose if someone saw me with a thin metallic rod in my hand and my thumb on a button, I'd get the privilege of being taken away at gunpoint, too.

I'm off to buy some knitting needles now. I have plans to meet up with friends this afternoon, so hopefully nobody will realize that I could easily use one to give someone an icepick lobotomy by jamming it into their eye socket, and have me arrested. Also I can't really afford $5K in bail right now.

This is another instance that demonstrates the high level of anxiety that is encouraged in this politically charged atmosphere (correctly attributed to the Bush administration) whose purpose is obviously to mask an incompetent and corrupt government. We can clearly see who it harms; it harms all of us.

Noone with common sense and judgement would feel scared or intimidated by a common 9V battery or a few flashing LED's even if they are pinned to a sweatshirt, in clear view. What are we, COMPLETELY IDIOTIC SCARED RABBITS?

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Chertoff:

Please protect us from ourselves. Forget about Osama, Katrina, and your never ending war; we need to be protected from these lunatic arty nerds. They are the real threat. And to be sure, they may some day threaten your legacy by showing HISTORY just what you really are: Fools.