Edited by author 03-20-2008 03:44 PM
Give them a break most of them have no comon sense do you think if they have all the academic qualification and experience, will they be working in that place. I have encountered at lot of people like them. Some people when given a small authority to implement they go beyond that and think they are God. I had an encounter with a police officer in New York City. And when I protested a loud and started telling him that I was in contact with my lawyer he back-down and started apologizing.

I had a Colibri that was given to me by a fallen Marine that traveled with me through over 10 airports until I was departing DC. I was informed there that I must give it to the postal service on their premises 5 gates away. I complied & just barely made my flight but I WILL NO LONGER CARRY THAT LIGHTER AS CARRY ON.
A colibri is worth saving at all costs.
~K~

I would be glad if they had drained the gas out of my lighter, they took mine and when I went back to retrive it and mail it hame it was "gone"

The lighter was a gift and I was not happy, to the point that I was almost denied boarding.

I have also had items taken out of my suitcase & it is my opnion that the screeners basicly have a licenser to steal

After 30 years in the security biz, I can tell you that what the person encountered was simply an expression of ego on the part of the screener. There was no need to purge the lighter of butane, but it was done to show that they could. A more interesting note is that such a release of an unburned hydrocarbon into the atmosphere is probably quite illegal in CA, and might even constitute a felony if done with intent, as this was.

The Maddog watches, will YOU be the next one bitten?

Michael Moore, in "Stupid White Men," earlier asked why lighters were not banned on flights:

"A young man walks up to the table, introduces himself, and lowering his voice so no one can hear, tells me the following:

"I work on the Hill. The butane lighters were on the original list prepared by the FAA and sent to the White House for approval. The tobacco industry lobbied the Bush administration to have the lighters and matches removed from the banned list. Their customers (addicts) naturally are desperate to light up as soon as they land, and why should they be punished just so the skies can be safe?

The lighters and matches were removed from the forbidden list."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/st...chapters/part01.php

This is the kind of story that the media like to use as fillers when they cut from "miss texas pageant disrupted by unruly ambulances" to the teaser "bus crash kills 100" before the commercial. You know, the nice banter stories that make the newsbots seem human.

I suggest a book of matches and a baggie of magnesium filings. You'll be sure to get your smokes lit and nobody will worry about you melting holes in the plane.

Edited by author 02-07-2003 03:46 PM
wow. neat story. lucky you didn't find your self "detained" you troublemaker. :)

silly question though... why does one need to carry a lighter on board an airplane? Can you smoke in california airports? I'm in NC and we can't smoke here (ironic?) And of course you can't smoke on the plane. Seems the first oppty you'd have to light up would be when you hit the street at ground transportation. At which point you have your checked luggage again. Course this has nothing to do with having the "right" to carry whatever you can get away with... but I'm wondering if it mightn't be a good idea to prevent foot-long torches on commercial flights?

Colibris are nice, yes.

The security screener probably thought it counted as
a "gas torch" instead of a lighter. (Anything with a
"Quantum SST system" is going to call too much attention
to itself, these days.)


tom
-=W=-

to play devil's advocate for a moment: day before yesterday i watched a youngish tsa girl in the womans bathroom getting ready to go on duty. there was something very hesitant about her, in a kind of normal i dread my job sort of way. i started looking at them differently. i suspect the inconsistancy isn't coming from a single point. i think these are often kids, grateful to have jobs in a failing economy, but as hated authority figures with ambiguous instructions beyond "don't let the passengers get the upper hand." they don't have an escape route when they make a bad call and they are being watched on every side. what's more they are being deployed by an agency that is terrified of not seeing where it could fuck up again. remember, the 9/11 hijackers didn't take any contraband on the planes. it just hadn't occurred to anyone that you could do what they did.

that said, i think what cory did is great. they aren't going to have the chance to learn if people don't point these things out.

i guess i'm saying we should gently correct them. there are a lot more of us then there are of them.

Another pointless shakedown. Smells like black leather to me. Of course, you *are* Canadian, and we all know we can't watch you foreigners closely or arbitrarily enough.

Edited by author 02-07-2003 02:30 PM
Very important that he did what he did. We cannot allow security personnel, bureaucrats, or ourselves to get used to our bending over for whatever arbitrary rules they cook up.

Being challenged and questioned by the public needs to be part of their routine--it's only dangerous if they're allowed to feel like uppity civilians violate the natural order of things. We need to keep them in practice.

Kudos.

We all know this so-called airport security is in reality just a way for the government to make people think they are doing _something_, but the efficiacy of it is highly suspect. It's all a charade, I'm afraid, designed more for its palliative effect than for real security.

A comment and a request, Cory:
You can get the cheap-ass lighters at any smoke shop (most give them away if you buy three packs at once). I usually carry one of those on the plane and put the good lighter in the checked baggage. If they confiscate the cheapy, no big deal.
And please don't point out to them when they're inconsistent. They'll just make the rules equally harsh for everyone.

Cory, Cory.

You still expect logical consistancy in security operations?

Tsk, tsk.

Sounds like you kept your cool. Good man.

One refillable butane lighter + butane + the Norwalk virus = days of riotous fun for everyone who passes through that particular screener's inspection station.

Why, yes, I AM an evil-minded bastard. Thank you for noticing!

Good thing you weren't 7 months pregnant!

Going to take this to the media Cory? It is the kind of thing that needs to be even more public than your blog.

Edited by author 02-07-2003 12:48 PM
Quit smoking? Are you crazy?! They give away free packs of American Spirit at SXSW! ...and free vodka! Sheesh. Next thing you know, we'll all be eating soyburgers and sipping synthahol.

Maybe it's time to quit smoking! :-) </wise-ass>

Jeez, Cory. You narrowly escaped a cavity search. "Well we better see if ya got an Uzi up that smart ass of yours."

Edited by author 02-07-2003 11:52 AM
Here's a good one from the TSA's web-shite:

The prohibited and permitted items list is not intended to be all-inclusive and is updated as necessary. To ensure everyone's security, the screener may determine that an item not on this chart is prohibited.

Translated: If the screener gets a bug up his ass and acts arbitrarily, that's his perogative. He's with the Government, and he's here to help.

I love the motto at the top of the TSA's home page: "Freedom of Movement". I guess that slaps a big happy face on that whole "Papiere, bitte" routine.

Yeah, I feel much safer. I swear, everyday things get scarier and scarier.

---
KA
www.nootrope.net

"We'll harmonize our policies with the gift-shops later."



Some sentences in English just look SO strange.

Edited by author 02-07-2003 11:38 AM
That is so odd. I used to smoke, and I remember once, pre-9/11, a brief hassle when I dropped a lighter in the little dish for pocket change. The supervisor overruled the screener, citing some volume threshold below which it was okay. (nevermind that my carry-on bag had a can of anti-perspirant that contained upwards of 150ml of isobutane as a propellant)

Today, I looked at the TSA's list of prohibited and permitted stuff, and found that fuel of any type or fluid volume is forbidden.

Here's a good one: While firearms can be carried in checked baggage, cigarette lighters disguised as guns are explicitly verboten!

That Collibri ilghter looks cool! I was a Zippo fan myself -- I used to have a 236 (black crinkle enamel) and a 254B (solid poilshed brass).

yeah, there's no consistency--sometimes they get all verklempt over my eyelash curler, sometimes my tweezers, sometimes my nail file (bought at the gift shop), sometimes not.