Frosted Cupcakes - A Very Real Terrorist Threat

[shadowgrin]

BE AFRAID!

A Massachusetts woman who flew home from Las Vegas this week says an airport security officer confiscated her frosted cupcake because he thought its vanilla-bourbon icing could be a "security risk."

Hains, a teacher, said the cupcake was a gift from one of her students. She was traveling with her husband and toddler, and thought her young son might get hungry on the long trip home.

The cupcake was packaged in a glass container with a metal lid, which was why it attracted the attention of the scanner in the first place.

The TSA agent didn't know what to do with the cupcake, so she called over her supervisor, Hains said.

"The TSA supervisor, Robert Epps, was using really bad logic - he said it counted as a gel-like substance because it was conforming to the shape of its container."

Hains said she had flown from Boston to Las Vegas with two cupcakes without any problems.

"The TSA at Logan Airport said the cupcakes looked delicious and told us to have a great trip. But in Las Vegas, they were dangerous. They shouldn't be delicious in one part of the country and a security threat in the other."

[benji]

You jest:

The United States is fighting terrorism — one snow cone at a time.

Montcalm County recently received a $900 Arctic Blast Sno-Cone machine.

The West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission (WMSRDC) is a federal- and state-designated agency responsible for managing and administrating the homeland security program in Montcalm County and 12 other counties.

The WMSRDC recently purchased and transferred homeland security equipment to these counties — including 13 snow cone machines at a total cost of $11,700.

http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/07/the-u ... -terrorism

To be honest, the TSA people will always overreact, there's no reason for them not to. This is government, this is bureaucracy. You can't look at something and say "oh yeah, cupcakes" and not care. You have to follow procedures no matter how insane or absurd. The procedures make it normal. Almost none of these TSA people have any security training, it's not like Israel or hell Europe, they are basically just mall cops. They are like any government lackey just there to follow orders and hope nobody notices them. They have yet to stop a single terrorist attack, yet they're praised. It's been, as it was before 9/11 and always will be, up to the passengers and anyone else to notice and react.

Another delusional belief in government being able to do something right.

[Andrew]

Reminds me of that old Jerry Seinfeld routine. "What's that, a hair dryer with a scope? Some sort of bowling ball candle? That's fine, move it along."