Friday, July 20, 2007
TSA Allows Lighters on Planes
U.S. Will Allow Most Types of Lighters on Planes - New York Times: "Federal aviation authorities have decided to stop enforcing a two-year-old rule against taking cigarette lighters on airplanes, concluding that it was a waste of time to search for them before passengers boarded."
Good thinking. Question: Why did it take so long? Why wasn't this seen as a major waste of time to begin with? And in all of this, I saw no apology, no real mea culpa, just a change. I guess the apology does little for all of us, but you would think that wasting the flyers' money by throwing lighters away and the taxpayers' money for the time it takes to search is worthy of a "we were so very stupid, and promise not to be that stupid in the future" type of statement. Although that may be dangerous as they are quite likely to be thick in the future as well.
Good thinking. Question: Why did it take so long? Why wasn't this seen as a major waste of time to begin with? And in all of this, I saw no apology, no real mea culpa, just a change. I guess the apology does little for all of us, but you would think that wasting the flyers' money by throwing lighters away and the taxpayers' money for the time it takes to search is worthy of a "we were so very stupid, and promise not to be that stupid in the future" type of statement. Although that may be dangerous as they are quite likely to be thick in the future as well.
