Oh? Never heard of the IRA? or die Luftwaffe? I think they did, in fact, bomb London and brought massive buildings to the ground. And in return the RAF and its allies bombed Berlin with similar results. Japan bombed Pearl, and in return Tokyo and later Hiroshima were bombed. I think quite a few massive buildings were brought to the ground.

The WTC was nearly brought to the ground 8 years earlier when a truck exploded in its parking garage placed there by a fellow named Mohammed Salameh.

The events leading to the creation of the TSA put us on alert, even while the forth airliner was en route to Washington, the plot was foiled. Even without the TSA/DHS, as the passengers, once informed, thwarted the fourth airplane, having heard the news while still enroute. And this was after the cockpit had been commandeered. This cannot happen now due to reinforced doors. Passengers now know a hijack is not a friendly side trip to Havana, these days, but a death threat and will respond accordingly. This was not the case before.

Should we make it more difficult to attempt a hijack? Yup. Will we ever be completely "safe?" Nope. Is the TSA doing this? Well, I'll let them and their track record speak for itself.

The sight of a smurf shirt so disgusts me that I want it covered in rotten fruits and vegetables.

Technology is cool, I've got a wii, itouch, several laptops, etc.

But not only is every book not necessarily available on Kindle-and mre importantly, it should be my choice if I want to use a kindle or a good old fashion codex.

^ @:-) DING!

So after investing billions in a slew of new technologies to invade my privacy and peek at my balls, you haven't figured out how to identify a book vs. plastic explosive, and haven't got a machine that can?

Awesome job officer...

Calling smurfs officers is like calling an ox a bull.

The TSO job occupation is Clerk. He is an Administrative Search Clerk with the same police powers as an IRS File Clerk. (Except the IRS Clerk handles more confidential information than the average TSO will ever be cleared to see.) He gets paid to be a TSO at a Checkpoint Clerkpoint along with 50,000 of his fellow blue shirted gang members.

An real Officer has a badge that means something. That leaves out the Clerks who paw through dirty underwear in carryons before groping the underwear still residing on the owner. Marching in fake "Honor(sic) Guard" units on 9/11� does not make that gold plated tin badge mean something no matter how much a one striper shines it.

Yeah, I normally carry a dozen or more books when we go visit the relatives, they're always spread out between the shafts for the handle in our suitcases and have never drawn an inspection.

Those who read routinely aren't prone to being sheep. That makes them subversive.

Even if the books look like plastic explosives on the X-ray, so what?

How does that excuse just throwing them willy-nilly back into the box without any care at all?

(Answer: It doesn't - but the slack-jawed blue-shirted mouth-breathers at the TSA couldn't care less.)

It depends on what they're reading, doesn't it?

So what the TSA calls a "TSO" should really be a "DSC" for "Dysfunctional Search Clerk?"

Perhaps tuning the seat to a low D would violate FA regs. Dunno.

But seriously most of the time they handle it like they just discovered some new weapon of sorts and quiz me about it for a few minutes until i demonstrate visually for them what it is.

All kidding aside i totally concur.

Here's an issue: academic books.

Relatively few are on Kindle or another e-reader. Even academic blockbusters like Orientalism by Edward Said and Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia are only available on dead trees. If you're researching in more obscure texts that are still in copyright, fuggedaboudit.

This is a problem for Ph.D. students doing their field work or who are doing their dissertation write ups away from their home country. The books are heavy and cumbersome, flights which don't originate from the U.S. have a lower baggage limit, and some countries will try to hit you with a levy if you ship the books in.

So, to the people who say, get a Kindle: I wish!