frightening flight experience

[Carbonated_Brains]

And I can give you 400,000 other instances of a location and method that somebody of any ethnicity could kill you if they were so inclined.

How many drinking reservoirs do we have open to the air? How many stadiums feature 60,000 people packed into a tight area?

I find it laughable that people think once they figure out the whole airport safety thing, they're safe from terrorism.

It's like adaptability goes right out the window. We get a plane-based terror attack and BAM, all future ones must have something to do with planes. How blind is that?

Spend a day with a notebook downtown just walking around, and note potential dangers on-par with a plane hijacking. You'll find dozens. Every day.

The world is a scary place....if you want it to be.

I choose not to live in fear. I don't hate arabs or islam, because I know that the troublemakers are an EXCEPTION to the rule. I know that the probability of being involved in a plane hijacking is about the same as me being in an Oklahoma government building when that WHITE guy blew it up.

Maybe you blokes should investigate why extremists want to kill us in the first place. Because trust me, it isn't because "they hate our freedom."

[wolf]

Originally Posted by jaguar

That said, I fly all the time and I know full well that airport and plane security are a goddamn joke. It is so damn easy to carry on or manufacture weaponry it's not funny, I could list 20 ways off the top of my head.

I've not flown in a long time, but I'm certainly in agreement with you there. I have a couple doodads that would likely get confiscated off my keychain, but have fun collecting things that will make it through my metal detector at work and are still signficantly dangerous.

Like this.

And this.

[jaguar]

CF blades are one thing but when you get creative the opportunites are endless. Matches are easy enough to conceal, buy two large bottles of wiskey, pour both over a row of seats during a long haul flight at night and before anyone's noticed you've got a major fire on your hands.

carbonated_brains, I agree entirely

[DanaC]

Maybe you blokes should investigate why extremists want to kill us in the first place. Because trust me, it isn't because "they hate our freedom."

Oh man I hate that arroganct line. The idea that a whole bunch of people would hate America for it's freedom. Why would they hate freedom? What the fuck is there to hate about freedom? All the reasons that do exist and are relevant stack up to a bloody great mountain of grievances .....but no, the reason Bush and his cadre choose is that they hate freedom. Pathetic. It's like reading a superhero comic book. I am surprised the villains arent bright green and armed with killer frogs.

[wolf]

Nope.

[Kitsune]

Nice.

Of course, someone noted before -- all you have to do is take a knife from one of the restuarants in the airside that exists beyond the metal detectors. Ugh.

[Happy Monkey]

I've been profiled. I have long hair, and I don't shave when on vacation.

First I was profiled by every weed provider in Jamaica, offering.
Then I was profiled by every security person in the US, assuming I'd accepted.

It was sort of weirdly amusing.

[Clodfobble]

In the days after September 11th, a number of pilots requested people who "appeared suspicious" to remove themselves from the flight prior to departure.

As a side note, comedian Dave Attell (host of Comedy Central's "Insomniac") was one of those people.

[Kitsune]

As a side note, comedian Dave Attell (host of Comedy Central's "Insomniac") was one of those people.

What? But Dave would never hurt anyone! That man is my all-time hero! Poor, poor Dave.

Ah, he probably drank his way back across the country and had a good time at it.

"Ahhhhhh... drunks and losers, dwarves with limps..."

[Clodfobble]

"_____s and ho's and one-eyed pimps!"

Anyone who can fill in that word for me will be my hero, I can never understand it clearly.

[Happy Monkey]

Freaks?

[jaguar]

Don't get me started on fucking profiling, might be the fact I carry lots of computer gear, I'm sure the passports thing plays a role (mismatching departures/arivals) but I get dragged aside and questions every second flight, had my luggege pulled apart countless times, had to prove every fucking device I carry isn't a goddamn bomb, be put in rooms and asked to list names dates and times of where I've been and who I've been with, demanding to know where I went on previous trips and drug sniffing dogs going over my clothes. Then they wonder why I get pissed off. The best one was the guy that asked me what the suspicious white pills were, the ones with panadol clearly imprinted on the side.

[Carbonated_Brains]

George Carlin cited exactly that as the reason he carries only Flintstones vitamins on planes now.

[jaguar]

I'm tempted to start packing wierd random item in my luggage just to fuck with them a bit, maybe a single tomato wrapped in gaffa tape or a photo of a picasso.

[vsp]

Originally Posted by jaguar

I'm tempted to start packing wierd random item in my luggage just to fuck with them a bit, maybe a single tomato wrapped in gaffa tape or a photo of a picasso.

To roughly paraphrase Doug Stanhope, buy the largest sex toy you can find. Cover it with a mixture of melted chocolate and ketchup, and let it dry. Find some flesh-colored foam and rubber-cement a few tiny bits onto the side of it. Wrap it in aluminum foil, stick it in your suitcase, and enjoy the spectacle when it goes through X-Ray.