Who the HELL "needs" to carry an icepick on a flight?

[SoCalDem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/12/AR2005081201557.html


Airline Security Changes Planned
Threats Reassessed To Make Travel Easier for Public

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 13, 2005; Page A01

The new head of the Transportation Security Administration has called for a broad review of the nation's air security system to update the agency's approach to threats and reduce checkpoint hassles for passengers.

Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley, an assistant secretary of homeland security, directed his staff to propose changes in how the agency screens 2 million passengers a day. The staff's first set of recommendations, detailed in an Aug. 5 document, includes proposals to lift the ban on various carry-on items such as scissors, razor blades and knives less than five inches long. It also proposes that passengers no longer routinely be required to remove their shoes at security checkpoints. After Sept. 11, 2001, many personal items were banned from flights. (By Shawn Baldwin -- Associated Press)
Agency officials plan to meet this month to consider the proposals, which would require Hawley's approval to go into effect.

Since his confirmation in June, Hawley has told his staff that he would reevaluate security measures put in place since the terrorist attacks in 2001 and ensure that they make sense, given today's threats. The TSA is struggling with new cuts in the screener workforce imposed by Congress while its new leaders hope to improve the agency's poor reputation among air travelers by introducing more customer-friendly measures. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff signaled the effort when he announced that the agency would eliminate a requirement that forced passengers to remain in their seats during the first and last 30 minutes of flights using Reagan National Airport.

"The process is designed to stimulate creative thinking and challenge conventional beliefs," said TSA spokesman Mark O. Hatfield Jr. "In the end, it will allow us to work smarter and better as we secure America's transportation system." The TSA memo proposes to minimize the number of passengers who must be patted down at checkpoints. It also recommends that certain categories of passengers be exempt from airport security screening, such as members of Congress, airline pilots, Cabinet members, state governors, federal judges, high-ranking military officers and people with top-secret security clearances. The proposal also would allow ice picks, throwing stars and bows and arrows on flights. Allowing those items was suggested after a risk evaluation was conducted about which items posed the most danger.

snip

[Caleb]

1. An Eskimo?

[Bluebear]

2. Or a damn THROWING STAR?????

[SoCalDem]

3. Exactly.. If you are attending a martial arts symposium,

you could surely pack them as baggage or send your stuff ahead..

This is what's INSANE.. bow & arrows in the cabin././scissors..icepicks.. ??? why not just leave that crap at home?

If you're afraid to travel without your bow & arrow, you jave bigger problems ..

[Caleb]

4. And who carries a Bow and Arrows

These new rules are pretty messed up, IMO.

[charlie]

7. Probably exempted

to keep Ted Nugent happy.

[DistressedAmerican]

16. Just For The Record, I Have Flown With Bow And Arrows.

I bought a set of handmade bow and arrows that were made by the Lacondon Maya living and hunting in the jungles of Chiapas Mexico (I am an anthropologist, I study the Maya). Beautiful set with hand worked stone tips and extrememly colorful tropical bird feathers.

I had to get it back and the shipping would have tripled the price. It is hanging on my wall right beside me as I type this and it is beautiful. This was after 9/11 so I was really suprised I was allowed.

Just a note that at least once someone has flown with bow and arrows with decent cause.

Throwing stars and ice pick. Got no examples of that. Over all very odd decision!

[leesa]

25. Why couldn't it have been packed in luggage and put in the storage

area? So I have to remove my shoes and suffer the abuse of power-crazed inspectors and people can bring ice picks and throwing stars into the cabin?

[DistressedAmerican]

29. It was 7 feet long. Didn't begin to fit. And It Was Fragile As Hell.

Lost one point in transit as was.

[RebelOne]

23. There are bowhunters who travel out of state.

That would be one reason to carry a bow and arrow on a plane.

[Caleb]

5. dupe

delete please

[hlthe2b]

6. Sharon Stone?

:evilgrin:

[Skidmore]

8. That's the first question I had when reading that

article. Was too lazy to post it at the time. Thanks.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. An artist.

http://www.lalloronagallery.com/artists/ignacio_farias.htm






Ignacio Farias uses mainly acrylics with a diversity of tools like spatulas,
icepicks, combs, syringes, forks ans some
widgets that he designs to achieve some peculiar effects.
He learns as he goes and the techniques develop themselves from
all of that. He always seeks to achieve very little details only visible with a magnifying glass.

[Swamp Rat]

10. Very interesting

... but I doubt he will need those implements in the cabin. No artist I know has set up an easel in the isle of a passenger plane.

[Silverhair]

15. That's some damn ugly art.

It reminds me of a time in the 50's when some guy was having a chimp smear paint on a canvas and was selling them for some really big bucks.

[Mairead]

19. It's some damn nice art

Don't look for images, look at the dynamic balance of forms and colors, and the way that he uses toothed applicators to simultaneously achieve both texture and an optical blending of the colors and shapes.

[DistressedAmerican]

30. I Am With You!

[Silverhair]

33. That's the same stuff that was said about the ape's art in the 50's

Sorry, but all I see is pretentiousness. If one wants to be part of the artsy set, then one has to hold the same opinion, in exact lockstep, as the trendsetters of the artsy set. By repeating the same bullcrap, one is supposed to show that one is a member of the elite who are able to appreciate it.

In my case, I am the boy who says, "Hey, the emperor (Art trendsetter) has no clothes."

It is damn ugly.

[Hubert Flottz]

11. dAnn Coulter's Doctor!

No tellin' when he might run into one of dAnn's converts, and they are all overdue for their lobotomy appointments...

[liberalitch]

12. A hairdresser buddy of mine went to a trade show in.....

Chicago..... she said before 911 she used to be able to make a few extra bucks drinkin' money by offering "neck clean ups" and haircuts to the business men IN FLIGHT....once even a co-pilot took her up on it!
Now she has to pack her gear in the checked luggage.

[Trillo]

13. The ice picks, etc., appear designed as a rule complement

to those who are exempted, mostly high-ranking government leaders and security people. In practicality, no matter what the "rules" are, if some are exempted from screening, then what they carry isn't limited.

[SoCalDem]

14. So if you are a CIA hitman, your icepick is Okee-dokee

That explains it all :)

[Trillo]

34. Not quite the way I read it, but almost.

Why would a high-ranking CIA official, or a Congressperson, who doesn't need to go through a security check be limited to an icepick? Why couldn't they, in practice, carry much more? If they're not checked, then who would know a rule was or was not broken?

(this is based soley upon what I read in the OP)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. especially after global warming.

what pisses me off is that I have always carried a knive with me. swiss army or similar and I find myself using it every day.
Now, that makes me a criminal.
insane.


we are a country of 280,000,000
a very small percentage died in NY because of a dozen and a half Saudis attacked us.
More people die in traffic accidents each month.
More people die in domestic violence each year.
More people die of medical malpractice each year.
More people die of hunger and malnutrition each year.
More people die of bad drugs (prescription ones!) each year. (vioxx alone killed 138,000)
So where's the outrage?

Yet, this administration has turned 280 MILLION people into scared little rabbits, afraid of our own shadows.

If we lifted our littlest finger just a bit, each of those causes of death could be prevented or lessened, especially hunger, malpractice and bad drugs. But that would make us socialist according to the neocons.
Is being socialist all bad, if we feed the hungry, treat the sick and ailing and practice respect for all people?

[Mairead]

20. Well said! VERY well said.

As long as we allow the wealthy elites to run things, this is what we'll get.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

22. there is a difference

100 yrs ago, our robber barons turned new leafs and built libraries, schools, museums, hospitals and more. Carnagie, Ford, and many more examples.

OK, Bill Gates sells shitty product, and donates billions, but he is the exception.

Can you see Dick Cheney doing anything socially responsible? Or any of the Exxon thugs? or Anyone on the board of Haliburton?

[SoCalDem]

24. Donations of a few bucks from poor people are more meaningful

than mega-bucks given for a tax write-off..And think about this.. Gates and the others who donate a ton of money to foreign countries 9and here too), give the government excuses to NOT fund those things, so when the largess of the "patron" gives way, those services go UNDERFUNDED or ignored completely..and during the time of generosity, there are LOTS OF DOLLARS missing from the tax bills that they would have/should have paid..

Nothing is free:(

[ChairmanAgnostic]

27. Very true

Interestingly people below the median income level in the US donate a greater proportion of their income to charity.

how's them apples?

But, today's rich are ruder and more mean spirited. There are a few exceptions.
Compare Ken Lay with the Pritzker family.

Lay contributed enough to get headlines, newspaper photos and awards. It was all about him, a promo job, really. (and just as fake in substance as his whole company)

The Pritzkers have set up foundations, libraries, medical schools, scholarships, art centers, and $$$ for poor without access to healthcare. They go out of their way to avoid the media and shun the awards crap.

[matt819]

18. I was at the town dump the other day

And one of the workers there showed me a box of throwing knives that someone had left in the swap shop area. Now I'm not exactly sure what thowing knives are or why anyone would make or buy such items, but there you have it. The dump guy shook his head and marveled at how this nut would have thought this would be a suitable item to leave in the swap shop area where kids might get it. So he took it off the shelf and threw them in the dumpster.

So, dangerous items that we would not permit in our dump are being allowed on planes. Amazing.

[Historic NY]

21. very popular with this crowd......

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/255214p-218457c.html

On the night of a May 1992 slaying of a suspected mob turncoat, Lino left the getaway car on the street around the corner from the spot where the victim was to be dispatched - a bar above a nail salon in Bensonhurst.

Lino entered the bar after the associate had been shot in the head. To make sure the victim was dead, one of Lino's cleanup crew stuck an icepick in the victim's ear.

The body was wrapped in a rug and then Lino stood outside, making sure no one exited a nearby subway. In the dark, they brought the body down.

The carefully parked getaway car would not start. The gang then scrambled around with a very bulky rug in the dark to find another car that would.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

26. Is the jury still out on the optional goalie's mask?

:evilgrin:

[K-W]

28. "exempt from airport security screening, such as members of Congress"

Those jerks.

[Eric J in MN]

31. I disagree with that. Make officials experience the same procedures

as the average person, so they keep in touch.

[K-W]

32. It would be nice if we had a democracy, wouldn't it? EOM

[evilqueen]

35. a Bic Stic pen can serve the same purpose

If you are planning to fly, it is probably well worth spending a little time thinking about ordinary household objects with which you might defend yourself in the event of a hijacking.

- roll of quarters
- computer cable
- your shoe
- briefcase/computer case (effective if hard-shell)
- keychain
- hairbrush
- baby powder (any kind of distracting thing can work, even a rolled up newspaper flung in the face)
- nail file
- your imagination and quick wits

You can think of more.