The Razor issue... again
 

Just when I thought the razor issue had been settled, I had all of my razor blades confiscated at FRA this morning.

Are we ever going to get any consistency on this? We need a database of security inconsistencies so we can know what not to take where.

FRA isn't in the US. What do you expect?

yeah dum-dum!

Don't expect consistency any time soon ... the FAA has one set of rules, each airline can adopt its own, and all 50 states are free to add still more.
When the FAA published its list of banned items a week or two ago, I thought that would streamline everything. The next day I learn that the state troopers in Connecticut have ordered security to pull additional items out of carry-on luggage ... the state police acknowledged in the press that the FAA didn't ban those items, but said "We're taking it a step further."
And of course, my ATL-BDL flight Sunday featured SkyDeli with ..... a plastic knife.
Oh well.

I would believe that not having consistancy is in itself a secrity feature, never knowing what will be able to go through or not. I seriously doubt a database of what can get though at what security checkpoints would be a good thing to have at all. I believe one of the reasons some of the people from the 11th drove to Portland the night before from Boston to get on the plane back to Boston had to have something to do with not wanting to go through security in Boston for one reason or another.

My wife had a pen at one airport on Friday generate a full search of her carry on while the offending writing implement was wresteled to the ground and searched, then held up to show the National Guard and the rest of the security people it was OK, it was just a pen. On the way back it wasn't even noticed.

I have a scar from a cut from a plastic knife, (don't ask), so some of them can be incredibly sharp, and I've had butter knives that couldn't cut anything in the air. As a stabbing implement though I don't believe they would count.

I don't think the lack of consistency is a "security" measure. Either a nail clipper is a threat or it's not, either a pen is a threat or it's not.

They need consistent standards, period.

We don't need some $7.00 an hour felon who doesn't speak English deciding on whether or not a specific item should be allowed.

No, instead we have a $100,000 FAA official making even dumber decisions.

And none of this makes us any safer. Just an illusion.

And when they add a security charge to each ticket, we'll have higher paid idiots. Stupidity isn't illegal, but it should be painful.

I've approached this in a whole other way. When I check in, I hand over my very small beard trimming scissors and my 15-cent bic razor [I still shave under the neck and a few square centimetres of my face] and ask them to find a small box and check it through as baggage. In this way, maybe they will learn how stupid it is to restrict such items from their best customers who fly over 150K miles each year. The packages always come out at the special handling belt before the rest of the bags for a flight. The alternative on a 2 or 3-day trip on which I have all the clothes I need in a small shoulder bag, is to buy a new pair of scissors every time I arrive somewhere, and leaving them behind as a tip to the housekeeper in the hotel.

And I said that we should have this where?

I'm sure you don't think we should have some $7.00 an hour felon making security decisions, whether he's employed by a contractor or the feds.