For some reason, going through airport security always reminds me of this song.
Also, too, I’ve always wondered why the MacGyver/Lex Luthor alchemists who hate us for our freedom are capable of creating a mix of exotic explosives in an airplane potty, but they could never do anything with a laptop battery, which contains heavy cylindrical objects connected with wire.
Rafael
Someone else has wondered the same.
http://xkcd.com/651/
Lavocat
They’re just not watching enough “24”.
Thunderlizard
Because they’re not Randall Munroe.
http://xkcd.com/651/
Ash Can
Tom Lehrer FTW! That guy is a national treasure.
edmund dantes
Two people already beat me to the xkcd.
What’s even worse is the stuff anyone could cook up from their Organic chemistry classes that could knock out a plane full of people while flying over a populated area.
Security theater. So pointless, so annoying, and such a waste of time.
Dave
Hilarious. I read the post and thought of the xkcd cartoon, and said to myself, “Oh, I’ll post a link to it in the comments. There are only three at the moment, so it won’t be a dupe.” And two of the three are… links to it.
Edit: and now it’s gone meta; six comments: two with the link and two more taking about the two with the link.
Rafael
I should have guessed that half of this blog’s readers would know XKCD. Oh well, at least I got there first.
WereBear
Sad part is, a big chunk of the population, confronted with the fact that it is simply Security Theater, would clamor for it anyway, saying, “Well, it makes me feel safer!”
Sometimes, I feel like Mr. Spock on The Planet of Hysteria.
Cat Lady
@WereBear:
Did you read through the earlier thread about Obama not “leading”? Security Theater is exactly what people want. We’re a country full of fucking 2 year olds.
BigHank53
Never mind your laptop–every airplane has a first aid kit with a nice, heavy oxygen cylinder in it. Cage match at 30,000 feet and you’re the one with the club…
Bonus points if you can figure out how to make an oxygen lance for cutting open that pesky cockpit door.
WereBear
@Cat Lady: Yes, I did, and we are at least traumatized 2 year olds, because W left a lot of people with the impression government can’t do anything right…
And that was his true purpose, I’d bet.
Ash Can
@Cat Lady: This. As I waded through all that “leadership” crap, I started flashing back to 1979. Whenever I’d hear someone whine about Jimmy Carter not being a “leader” I’d ask the person what he should be doing, and what “leadership” really was. I never got a coherent answer. Not once. And the result of all the pining for a “leader” was Ronald Reagan getting elected. Fucking swell.
When I’m feeling pessimistic, I think about how way too fucking many Americans don’t consider the president a “leader” unless he’s making saber-rattling speeches and bombing the shit out of someone (whether it’s countries populated by brown people or corporate entities that are the target). Just plain doing the damned job just isn’t enough.
El Cid
AAAAAK! Yur tryin ta send advis messjes to Al Kayda!
WereBear
@Ash Can: Funny, that: Mr WereBear said the same thing about Jimmy Carter.
Plus he was a victim of the as yet unnamed Right Wing Attack Machine.
mistermix
@WereBear: When I was in line this morning, the lady in front of me remarked on all the new equipment TSA was using, and added “glad to see it.”
WereBear
@mistermix: Yup. And yet if you asked her, in a right wing context, if government could do anything right, she’d probably answer “No.”
Wingnuts. NOT putting coherent thoughts together for as long as I’ve been alive.