When I was waiting at the KC airport to fly to South Carolina to go to basic training for the Army, the other recruits and I all had to put our razors into a girl’s bag that she was checking so they wouldn’t be taken away. A little bit of contrast for you.

I would prefer airport security the way it was before 9/11 over the mess we have today. It’s too much of a hassle. All it does is make us more obedient and complacent to government intrusions in our lives. How much more are we going to take so we can “feel” safe, but not actually BE safe? Where do we draw the line?

If we keep being nice, good, obedient citizens who blindly obey all these stupid rules without question, then we can kiss our country goodbye.

I don’t get the sense that the American population is fearful. Confuzed & frustrated for lack of a solid target, but if terror was the goal I think they’re as far from it as possible. Admiral Yamamoto worried about awakening a sleeping tiger on 7 December ‘41 & I believe the terrorists have learned the same lesson. Terrorism by definition is sneaky & de-centralized though, so cranking up the war machine & pummelling an enemy into submission is virtually impossible. What we’re faced with now is insidious complacency which will provide the avenue for another attack. I don’t disagree that sacrificing freedom for security is a execrable idea & counter-productive exchange, but in that case we’re talking about warrant-less wire taps & domestic spying, not common sense safety. There are many options, most of them unpalatable, but that shouldn’t deter us from doing the right thing, especially when the other choices are convenient but unwise.

[sadheadshake] Everybody is much too emotional about this. The truth is, until & unless we take airport security seriously, like Israel, we’re still horribly vulnerable. Nasty things can & will happen, it’s just a matter of time.

Before you jump me, consider this. I’m a career medic & firefighter. Born & raised in New Hampshire, Yankee native & right on site for the main event. I lost friends, professional & civillian. I remember the spate of hyper-patriotism immediately following & it disgusted me because I KNEW it was shallow & hollow. Look at how little has been done once the immediate evidence of the aftermath was removed.

The dead know only one thing; it is better to be alive. Were they able to view & comment on our dissension they would encourage us to put away our egos & work together to make things right. Unfortunately, with politicians instead of leaders & statesmen, we’ll never have the unity of purpose & global effect that America’s Greatest Generation achieved.

Far more effective than silly carryon restrictions would be periodic ad campaigns reminding people that cooperating with hijackers is no guarantee of safety and may well assist them in killing more people. Such a campaign serves as a deterrent as it makes hijackings less likely to succeed.

I’m actually old enough to remember the incident portrayed in the film…

The problem with post-911 security is that it prevents many people from being able or wanting to fly. Honestly, who wants their vacation to start and end with being treated like an inmate at the state pen? For people with just about any kind of significant health problem, air travel becomes almost impossible. And then they wonder why the airlines are going broke…

It seems to me that trying to stop terrorists is like trying to stop hackers, botters, god-moders, and gold farmers on just about any MMORPG. If you try to catch every single one, you will just waste a lot of time and resources. The best option seems to be reducing the benefit of using such things. How about locking the captain and copilot in the cockpit from takeoff until landing? If no one can breach the cockpit, no one can take control of the plane. As for bombs, I doubt that you could stop them by catching all the pieces. It seems more reasonable to try and find out why people are taken in by radical whackos bent on destroying other people. Maybe there is no way to make peace with people who think of terrorism as a reasonable action, but it can’t be any less effective than what we’re doing now.

~Quag

9/11 was horrid, regardless of who was at fault. The fact that it is being used to fear-monger and limit the freedoms of America and the world after the fact is truly tragic.

Remember, there is a distinct difference between remembrance and living in fear.

If it was a massive government conspiracy, why would they make such a basic error? If it was to be used to justify the invasion of Iraq, why not make the hijackers Iraqis rather than having them come from a country which is a bosom buddy of the Bush Mob?

Being forced to take your shoes off, remove your laptop from its bag, and not take any drinks, nail files, razor blades, etc., through security has not stopped a single terrorist. Nobody has ever even /tried/ to use any of those things.

Remember terrorists are about striking fear in society – not about killing the maximum number of people. Terrorists target airlines because we all act paranoid about airline security. If airline security was the same as at the bus station and we weren’t so uptight about it, we’d probably be just as safe.

Some years back (?pre 9/11) 60 Minutes interviewed a man who was (?Israel’s, ?El Al’s) security chief. I think he’d been paid by the U.S. to assess and advise on air travel security. He had identified some gaping holes and suggested fixes and, if I remember correctly, the U.S. ignored them.

IMO, most of the Homeland Security Act (a title so reminiscent of something out of Nazi Germany it makes me shudder) was designed to allow the government nearly unfettered access to information and nearly unlimited power over individuals. I find that idea more frightening than terrorist attack.

Before I was married and long before 9-11, my then husband-to-be travelled to Oklahoma to visit me and my family. I had asked my mom to take her phone with me, which she let me. When I went through the security checkpoint, I was asked to turn the phone on to show that it was truly a phone. With a chuckle I glibly said, “Lucky for you it really was a phone!” The security guard laughed and agreed and waved me on. Now can you imagine what would have happened if I had said that now? My goodness! They’d have me pinned to the ground and a swat team swarming on me in a matter of seconds!

As for surviving security, my top tip is wear shoes that you can slip on and off easily. It saves both you, security and the people behind you a bit of time. Sadly, it doesn’t really help me now because I have three lit’luns to haul through security.