Dangerous Jam

[rachelmanija]

I spent the weekend attending

Comments

[arielstarshadow]

A jar of jam is a blunt object! Very dangerous, you could pummel someone over the head with it!

[evewithanapple]

Think that's bad? When my parents and I flew to the States a few years ago, we had a jar of peanut butter confiscated by customs. Apparently they were afraid that we had planted a bomb in the peanut butter.

[thomasyan]

Actually, peanut butter could be really dangerous. There is a super carcinogenic mold that peanuts are subject to. So the security agents must have been afraid you'd kill tons people with cancer. Um, yeah, that must be it!

[spectralbovine]

I was just warned about peanut butter! It's drugs, not bombs.

[tool_of_satan]

It's all very ridiculous.

One of these days, someone will improve chemical sniffers enough to get rid of X-ray/visual attempts to detect bomb components, silly or not[*]. But I don't expect it to happen soon.

[*]Silly detection attempts, not silly bomb components. Although now I am imagining a scenario where someone disguises plastic explosive by coloring it pink and claiming it's Silly Putty - those little eggs are each much less than 3 ounces.

[thecityofdis]

Yep, I've accidentally gotten through airport security with lighters, fingernail clippers, and swiss army knives - but stopped and searched the time I tried to get through with my typhoid medication and a pack of tissues.

THEY WERE VERY DANGEROUS TISSUES, OKAY.

[wordsofastory]

Yeah, the whole thing is just Security Theater- it's there to make people feel better*, not to actually prevent hijackings and so forth. What makes it especially infuriating is that all the people in charge know it's just for show, and freely admit it, but don't actually want to change the rules. I go through airport security often enough that I know all the tricks and so things like this never happen to me, but it does still frustrate me.

*It doesn't make me feel better, and no one I know likes it either. But clearly some people are reassured by all the drama and show. It reminds me of that article in last week's Onion: Smart Qualified People Behind the Scenes Keeping America Safe Don't Exist.