International air travel is somewhat amusing.

[Pacifist Patriot]

My "liquids"...i.e. a lipstick, a small tube of coverup makeup and a teeny tiny bottle of eye drops had to be chemically analyzed in England. I cannot imagine what set off the terror-meter. Was it Mary Kay, Clinique or Bausch & Lomb? Coming back, the Spanish security officer asked if I had any liquids (woohoo, I understood him en espanol!) but when I showed him the plastic baggie he rolled his eyes, shrugged and tossed it aside. I've got to go with the Spanish on this one. I have a hard time believing an almost forty-year old haggard mother of two over-active bickering boys is going to explode a plane from Vitoria to Stansted with Clinique 238 Rose Spectrum.

What exactly is the balance between caution and idiocy? Better safe than sorry of course, but I've seen some pretty silly stuff since 2001.

Again, the blog of my trip is at http://pacifistpatriot.blogspot.com/ if anyone wants to see how an incredibly stupid and spoiled American fares in England. We definitely could learn a lot from their energy-consciousness. Damn do we have ginormous carbon footprints.

Cheers!

[cobalt1999]

1. Actually, it's the haggard mothers I suspect will destroy the plane..

A couple of over-active bickering boys may make any woman snap. I wouldn't be surprised to hear you yell "IF YOU KIDS DONT STOP FIGHTING, I'LL GO UP TO THE COCKPIT AND FLY THIS PLANE STRAIGHT INTO THE OCEAN!". Yes, YOU I'd check thoroughly. :)

One of the silliest examples I've ever seen (true story), I'm flying back home which is also the home of a couple of major military bases, and I'm sitting next to an Air Force General. We started talking about security and he points to the guy across the aisle from him and says "That's my bodyguard and he's packing heat, but they took his grooming scissors away from him at the security checkpoint".

So, we are flying with an armed man who wasn't allowed to bring scissors on board! Like if he has a choice on how to take over the plane, he is going to choose the scissors!

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. Bwa! Now that is a silly example.

And on retrospect you might be right about the haggard mothers. Cheers!