Agreed. I don't think the average Blue Zeppelin is intelligent enough to formulate their own rules. It's being pushed down from somewhere above.

One "problem" with what happened here, is a person like myself could easily fake a TSA website printout. I could make the printed page contain all the correct markings in all the correct places. It's very easy for a "geek" to do this. It would be completely indistinguishable from a genuine printout of the genuine website, except that whatever text I wanted to change would be different.

However, I'm not sure I could come up with a suitably creative idea, as far as what to change, to be useful or demonstrative at all. Plus, there's the 0.00001% chance of getting caught, and this is probably a huge crime - though they may have a tough time proving you actually did it, since it is easy to blame it on other types of electronic abuse by an unknown third party. Somebody who's actually attempting to do something illegal would obviously not care about the legality much.

How about emphasizing that pies or certain sterile medical liquids are not to be treated as liquids and therefore do not need anything more than x-ray.
The two alternatives for medical liquids are x-ray or visual screening, and if they can't be cleared visually, they don't fly. Per http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtrav...al_1374.shtm#4 it's visual or x-ray -- you can't sample and swab a hypochondriac's PETN-cut and sealed homeopathic remedy without letting him choose the other alternatives of x-ray or refusal. Adding that same language to BB's foodie posts would help "clarify" the ill-specified additional screening procedures for the under-trained TSOs and allow the passenger to walk back out of the X-ray with a suspicious but un-swabbed terror-pie, exactly as they commonly allow the potential terrorists carrying suspicious, but un-swabbed high energy drinks.

And hey, if you are one of the less-than-1-in-a-many-billion mythical terrorists that actually manages to get caught by TSA, a forged blog post will be the least of your worries.

It's not that they haven't been told what's prohibited and what's not. It's not that they can't remember the rules. It's just that some people enjoy hassling other people. That's all it is about with these fake rules at the checkpoint.

My niece read the TSA website and chatted up a rep at SWA before she booked a return ticket home. She had ridden with family members in the car when she came to visit me and didn't bring her DL on the trip, and she was trying to sort out whether she might be able to fly back without ID.

When we got to the airport, the document checker acted like he had never heard of such a thing as flying without ID and basically told her that until she produced ID she wouldn't be flying. She heard him out, let an awkward pause pass for a few seconds, and then said "I've read the TSA website; I've talked to Southwest; I know this is do-able; I'm willing to undergo additional scrutiny."

I was busy calling up the TSA website on my phone and was going to show it to him, if he didn't back off. He called for a supervisor and it was resolved, but it was pretty clear he was just getting his jollies making up a rule that resulted in hassling a young woman. He wasn't stupid, he wasn't ignorant...he was just small and needed to feel willy, willy big for a few seconds.

Was it a fake rule or one that was made up locally by the FSD.

It was made up by somebody, and I'm not sure it matters who made it up.