fdecarlo

Just one question: are we winning or losing the war on terror?

I especially love the picture to the right of this paragraph, which shows a little gun-shaped lighter. Run for your lives!!!

http://www.tsa.gov/public/

Lighters Added to Prohibited Items List

In response to a provision in The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, TSA has added all lighters to its Prohibited Items List – which means they will soon be prohibited past the security checkpoints at the nation’s airports. The ban is effective immediately, but TSA will not begin enforcement action until Thursday, April 14, 2005. On that date, lighters will be treated as any other prohibited item and passengers will need to surrender them to the TSA or leave them in their vehicle or with someone who is not traveling.

LoveItaly

Yes, all butane items will not be allowed, including butane curling irons.
Not even in checked in luggage.

And our local news station said that the fines for being caught with anything illegal is going to be quite high. Something like $200.00 to $10,000.00 Guess they are tired of passengers trying to get through security with all kinds of nonallowed items so they are really going to crack down.

Now what a smoker does is a good question. Are they allowed to bring a book of matches so when they get off the plane and depart the terminal they can light up? Haven't heard anything about matches.

Just a thought.

fdecarlo

That question is covered on TSA's website. You'll be able to carry up to 4 books of matches, but the strike-anywhere kind (with the self-igniting tips) will be prohibited.

I guess my real question is, where and when is this nonsense going to end? Does anyone with half a brain honestly believe banning lighters from airplanes is going to make a difference to anything?

gail

I wonder how they decide what is dangerous. I just took a chance at bringing 12 inch metal knitting needles on 3 flights in past week - knowing that sometimes they are confiscated and sometimes they are not. No problem on any flight - no one even looked in my carry-on beyond the xray.

Last summer, though, a flight on an adjacent gate to our was delayed because they found a propane torch in someones checked bags - maybe they are thinking butane lighters are just mini-torches? Heard a story on news that Zippo lighter company is really mad about this.

Barbara

Well, I can't for the life of me understand why lighters and matches weren't banned at the same time as everything else. We remove our shoes for examination because of the failed (fortunately)shoe bomber. But he failed because he couldn't light a fuse...and the fire part wasn't banned. Anybody who can't get by without smoking a cigarette has to go outside the airport building anyway, and on the way out will pass several places where matches and lighters can be bought. This just highlights, once again, how arbitrary and stupid and worthless our homeland security actually is.

Ryan

Might I be able to say, new heights of complaining from smokers?

Given that you can't smoke on the plane and you'll be able to bring up to 4 books of matches - are you REALLY inconvenienced?

So what, they banned lighters. Unless you're a traveling lighter salesman - does this ban really hurt anyone?

tuckerdc

What else have folks gotten through with, I wonder? Those knitting needles sound scary enough. Last year, my carry-on bag was the multi-tasking tote that goes everywhere around town with me (Y, jobs, etc)and I inadvertently had in it both a hair-cutting scissors (with about a five inch set of blades)and a very sturdy metal dinner fork (leftover from eating lunch on the run). I was embarrassed by both. BUT...although they made me get rid of the scissors (I mailed it back home, I was astounded when I got to my destination to discover that the fork had been put back in my carry on!

Shane

Two additional "New Heights" of DC stupidity. First, many of DC's streets could pass for the bomb-cratered streets of 1945 Berlin due to incompetent, but politically networked, paving firms. Second, in downtown Washington, the powers that be insist on stationing traffic wardens in the middle of the road, not only duplicating the traffic lights but almost getting themselves killed by many of Washington's notoriously unsafe drivers.

PS- An honorable mention DC stupidity was the painting of traffic lanes on Rhode Island Avenue last year. Though it has been since rectified, it was as if the traffic lanes of Rhode Island Avenue were painted by a drunk man.

fdecarlo

Ryan: I'm not griping about lighters per se -- I'm asking the larger question, i.e. at what point can we start claiming victory in this war on terror? I suspect it won't be until January 2009.

E

While shuffling along in an endless security checkpoint line at the Tampa Airport, we passed a smile pile of stuff obviously jettisoned by travelers in advance of the x-ray machines: a nail clipper, a plastic toothpick, and a disposable plastic razor. Need I point out that none of these items, together or individually, could possibly be considered dangerous by anyone with half a brain?

When we finally got to the checkpoint, they made me take off my Tretorn sneakers--they're like Keds, flat, all white, rubber-n-canvas. All I can say is, thank the deity that the shoe-bomber didn't hide the bomb in his underwear instead.

I'm with Barbara--this so-called security is indeed arbitrary, stupid and worthless, and it is SO humiliating to me that this country can't seem to do any better.

Ryan

FDECarlo,
How am I to interpret your comments?

One one had, you complain about a regulation changing to improve security and then ask about when we can claim victory in the war on terror.

Should we remain vigilant and update our thinking or should we remain static in our view?

Look, I didn't vote for Bush. But, you're seriously mistaken if you think the war on terror BEGAN on September 11, 2001 or that it will end on some finite date in the near future.

The reality of life in the US and Western Europe is that we are in a perpetual state of war.

fdecarlo

President Truman once said, "You don't 'prevent' anything by war...except peace."

I suggest if the only way we can maintain our freedom is through perpetual war, we are in fact slaves to a much more harsh master.

uuhhhh

"are we winning or losing the war on terror?"

hard to say... but you're looking to the wrong place for evidence. what's going on in iraq and afghanistan is much more relevant to your question.

Ryan

FdeCarlo,
Do you REALLY think these people want to negotiate with the West?

How we approach the terrorist threat is open for debate. What isn't debateable is THEIR motivation. This isn't about leaving Saudi Arabia (which we did) or exiting Iraq (which the Spanish did.) This is about the fact that a branch of Islam has developed that views REVENGE against all past injustices against Islam require Jihad.

People are people. But, it is a fallacy to assume people think the way we in the West do.

So are we in a perpetual state of war - you bet. What matters is not that we as a nation are, but whether YOU as a civilian will be on the front lines.

If you thought electing Kerry ended the war on terror, than you didn't LISTEN to what he said.

greenfieldhunter

The wierdest thing about the recent lighter ban was learning butane lighters were already banned from checked luggage.
As an ex smoker I can assure you that most smokers did not know this nor is this rule enforced whatsoever. Try it.
After 911 you could fly with up to 3 lighters in your carry on. This rule wis enforced.
Once my wife had too many lighters and was able to remedy the situation by giving a few to me. Seemed odd in the post shoe bomber travel world and everybodys favorite patriot Mike Moore had a little to say on the subject.

I do think airport security has greatly imporoved but has a ways to go. My father was an airline pilot until the late 80's. Airport security was so bad then it could only improve.
911 was an accident waiting to happen.

Gekko

I'd vote for no lighters, no matches. You can't smoke on the plane, and you don't need to be starting fires (and the cargo area doesn't need flammable items).

I imagine only smokers will complain about this all-too-obvious prohibition, a small minority of the population.

Hey, if your nicotine addiction can't wait, you can buy a lighter at the other end.

Or maybe just quit smoking. Your family will thank you.

ronkala

The stupidity of it is that it won't be enforced until 14 April. Why not now?
Typical Bush Administration decision making. We're doing it for your safety but don't want to hurt your feelings while we are doing it, so we will give you time to adjust. Too bad the lighters can't sniff out WMD.

Gekko

Or cowards.

But, then again, we wouldn't need the prohibition but for the cowards.

TxTravelPro

Now I am not really a political person but I notice something here that is interesting.
The comment "it is SO humiliating to me that this country can't seem to do any better"
It seems to me that anytime someone suggests to do something more drastic, all the ACLU types get their panties in a wad.
If you are not allowed to profile or do anything that even remotely offends someone, how can you implement effective antiterrorism tactics.
Seems pretty obvious to me... maybe because I generally fall smack dab in the middle.

uuhhhh

"Typical Bush Administration decision making."

agree.... he would have preferred immediate enforcement, but went with april 14th as a compromise to the other side of the aisle.