I was just pondering the shortsightedness of the liquid ban when I had a flashback to college.

At one point during my senior year, an ex-marine administrator joined the campus life and housing office. His name wasn't Kip, but it did start with a "K." He announced that the University would be instituting a ban on posters in the residence halls.

This administrator claimed that he'd watched a film about fire safety. "I saw footage," he said, "of posters catching on fire and falling on to dorm room beds." So naturally he needed to ban posters.

Little punk that I was (and still am), I wrote an editorial in the school paper, decribing posters as a "fiery highway to hell." I recommended that the University consider banning other highly-flammable paper products, such as books, term papers, and Post-Its. After all, safety was at stake!

The Administrator summoned me to his office and told me that I was "threatening and offensive." He then quietly reversed the poster ban.

It occurs to me now that it is the likes of that administrator who are running the TSA. The liquid ban--like the poster ban--derived from questionable science, a narrow-minded view of safety, and a condescending "don't question me" mentality.