Apparently nail clippers are more dangerous than machine guns

Soldiers returning from Afghanistan told to empty their nail clippers and such to the TSA but they were still carrying their military-issue weapons including 7.62mm machine guns. ("Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: This actually happened.)

The TSA obviously doesn't know what the fuck it's concerned about. You can do more damage with a pistol butt than you can possibly do with a nail clippers.

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(can't fomrulate a coherent response, so I'll give up trying to..)

Ahh, but if you brought five hundred nail clippers, a portable mini-smelter and mini-forge, an anvil and hammer, and a large bamboo screen to shield your activities from your fellow passengers, you could create a reasonably effective (though probably somewhat flimsy) machete, in a matter of mere hours.

Don't forget about bottles of dangerous water.

And earplugs for all the other passengers so they don't hear you hammering the blade into shape, too.

The bottles actually have a purpose in the general sense. This is Lawful Stupid at work.

So, how much stupider do these safety procedures have to be in the name of theoretical safety before we actually bother putting sensible regulations in place?

I was willing to tolerate this sort of thing in the aftermath of 9/11, but at this point, there's no excuses anymore. The entities in charge of keeping our airlines 'safe' are power tripping in the most incompetent ways possible. How much further do we have to go before passengers are just handcuffed to their seats mid-flight and have to ask permission to use the restroom like kindergarteners?

3 months, sixteen days, and four hours.

End of lame duck congressional session, correct?

Might be sooner.

No, I pulled a random number out of my ass.

If this shit goes on long enough, it'll end up being the biggest impetus for high-speed rail that the US will ever have. No one will want to fly anymore.

^^ Gah! I've been Dan Browned!

edited 19th Nov '10 2:05:20 PM by pvtnum11

^^ More like the death of public/mass transportation period.

Bullets move extremely fast, and particularly in an adrenaline rush, the pain from being shot may not even be noticed until well after the fact.

Clipping a nail to the quick, by comparison, invariably hurts like hell.

Getting hit by the buttstock of a rifle hurts much more and can kill you quickly.

Well clearly that's why they're more afraid of letting people on with nail clippers. Those can only kill you very slowly.

And slow deaths are no fun.

Did those guys have their bayonets with them? (I doubt it) Now ''that' would've been a crowner for stupidity.

I think the security measures are pointless. Any terrorist that gets ALL THE WAY TO THE AIRPORT WITH A BOMB will probably not be stopped by a body scanner. Obviously the Christmas underwear bomber got through the metal detector, and it seems like now they're not even trying to use planes. All they probably will catch is some drug dealer trying to hide crack in their butt hole or something.

Let's also not forget that if this marine had decided to hijack the plane with his nail clippers, he would of course have had to go through two hundred marines in order to do it.

^^ If that, even.

I don't see why so many people are freaking out about the body scans and patdowns, to be honest. Maybe that's because I don't care if some TSA flunky sees my x-ray'd image and I've been searched with complicated 10 minute searches where they get everything is why, but it seems like a minor thing.

Last week we did search practice, which constitutes being laid on your stomach, cuffed, and having every part of you manhandled and searched, and then doing that to your partner when they are done. So yeah, I got my shit groped by another dude, it's part of the search, no big deal.

Maybe it's not a big deal, but it's invasive, and more importantly, *pointless*. There have been, what, half a dozen or so attempts to pull something off via airliner since 9/11, give or take, right? Not a one of them stopped by airport security, regardless of the country of departure.

If there was any actual demonstrable benefit to the TSA's bullshit, I could at least see their side of the argument, but so far it seems like their every attempt to ramp up security is more about *appearing* to do their job than actually *doing* it, and I don't see that as sufficient reason to be manhandled by members of a security organization that is notorious for its incompetence and frequent inability to treat people with a basic level of decency.

Let's also not forget that if this marine had decided to hijack the plane with his nail clippers, he would of course have had to go through two hundred marines in order to do it.

Man, if you can fight your way through two hundred marines using only a pair of nail clippers, you deserve to be in charge of the plane.

^

Seriously.

If that were me I would have caused such a stink, at least until my supervisor told me to cut it out.

"I get to keep my machinegun but you want my 80 dollar multitool? Go fuck yourself retard!"

It's already been mentioned, but it's worth reinforcing with a link-the TSA security has proven time and time again to be nothing more than an expensive security illusion that hassles everyone legitimately flying. It is, quite frankly, a ridiculous farce.