Toy Soldier disarmed at LAX airport
 

A doll caused a security alert at an American airport because its two-inch plastic gun was considered a dangerous weapon. <BR> <BR>Judy Powell, 55, from Walton on the Hill, Surrey, bought the GI Joe toy in Las Vegas and packed it in her hand luggage. <BR><BR>But security staff at Los Angeles International Airport refused to let Mrs Powell on board the plane with the replica rifle. <BR><BR>Mrs Powell had to put the gift - minus the rifle - in her suitcase so it could go in the aircraft's hold.<BR><BR>*****<BR><BR>I feel so much safer now.<BR>

Apparently this is a "no tolerance" policy and it is stupid. They know it is a toy and not a two inch gun what in the world are they thinking. Oh yes, they aren't thinking.

I heard they also confiscated tiny nailclippers from Malibu Barbie.

Zero tolerance .... and<BR>Zero common sense.<BR>'nuff said.

SOunds like these screnners used to work at our public schools. They still have no sense.

But soon they'll be well paid federal employees, and it'll be very difficult to fire them. And they still will have no sense.

Some of you may be old enough to remember about 20 yrs. ago when hijackings were a major worry.<BR><BR>My son had been given a "transformer" toy that looked like a robot, but if you fiddled and twisted its parts, it would be "transformed" into a gun-like thing. I had not been pleased with the gift but did not want to offend the giver nor upset my son, and at least it was something new for a 4-yr.-old to play with during the flight.<BR><BR>When we got to the gate, one of the agents started to chat with my son as a matter of friendliness, and my son started the "look what I've got" chatter about his new toy. Before I could stop him, he'd transformed it into the gun, and the agent had to confiscate it. They gave it to him at the end of the flight, but he was tearful for about a half-hour after that.

Isn't it fun with all these gun and weapon toys for our kids?<BR><BR>They can play and pretend to start wars against Irak, Panama, Grenada, to bomb Afghanistan, Serbia, Sudan....<BR><BR>Oh, wait a minute, we did all that already....

Lucille,<BR>Nice spelling, moron. It's Iraq. And I hope we blast them again.

For all the adolescent, utopian, "give peace a chance", stick your head in the sand people: Either we blast them now or we will be blasted by them later. Is this war-mongering? Did you ever hear of 9/11?

Art=Jed=Uncle Sam = ....<BR><BR>Re:spelling Arabic names: you can transliterate names however you want to, since there's no sound in English that equates to the back-deep-in-the-throat sound at the end of "Iraq." Spelling it with a Q is a convention, but it isn't anything the Iraqis have a rule about. My own pet peeve is people who pronounce it Eye-rack (and Eye-ran) instead of with a short "i" and a less flat "a" -- Ear-rock, and Ear-ron is closer to the Arabic/Farsi.<BR><BR>Now then, yeah, you find the "head" of the al Qaeda and decapitate it, and that'll do you not one bit of good. And much as I despise Saddam H., we lose what little moral highground we ever had by invading another country. I'd love to see him gone, but there are other/better ways than marching in like General Cornwallis in the Revolution.<BR><BR>Grow up and join the 21st century, Art/Jed -- warfare doesn't look like Nagasaki any more.

Lucille and Spellink -<BR>What do you think we should have done after 9-11? Nothing?!? You people enjoy the freedoms we have in the USA, but God forbid we should defend ourselves. You guys fit in with the Clinton bunch and I'm sure your happy he did nothing when the Cole was bombed.

Gee, I know you miss being able to bash Clinton. Get over it.<BR><BR>My point was that there is no country where all the terrorists live together with a head of state in a capital city -- they are everywhere, in every country, including ours. Just as the British had to learn not to wage war by marching in a line of red-coated soldiers, we are still learning that you can no longer wage war by picking some one or two targets and bombing them to hell. I know you are itching to "nuke" somebody somewhere and you think that'll solve our problem, but you are more than a half-century out of date. I'm not saying do nothing; I'm saying don't waste money, weapons, and lives on something that doesn't work. First and last line of defense? Intelligence (hope you find some somewhere).<BR>

Spellink, I bash Bill Clinton and his bunch every chance I get. He was the worst do nothing president I have ever seen. He was an disgrace to our country along with his wife. <BR>Now, just how would you propose to get Sadaam removed from office? Have the people vote him out of office? That's a joke. If you think this world will just get along and love each other, you are mistaken. What do you think our country should have done after 9-11? I am anxious to hear this.<BR>I have no nukes in my garage, so I haven't given any thought to nuking anyone. I know, believe it or not, that all the terrorists are not in one country with a head of state. But, we went after Osama and he was based in Afghanistan, don't you remember? <BR>Since you seem to have so much intelligence, why don't you tell me how we should have handled this situation. I await this with anticipation.

I think every time we make a big deal about one of these stories it is a disservice to the security agents. They go through thousands of bags for impatient people who try and pack all types of stuff. So once in awhile their judgement is off and they take something that is ridiculous such as a 2 inch plastic gun. Would it be better if they sat around a questioned each and every thing...they are dealing with mass quantities of items, give them a break sometime instead of mocking them!