whirledtraveler

I heard it as I was passing through. What caused it? They looked real serious. Making people take off their shoes at checkpoints even.

FoxNews isn't saying anything.

GoGiants

That's music to my ears. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

thenewbie

We've been at threat level "Chicago Dog" for a number of years. Luckily we're not at level Elmo. ^

IslandBased

The threat level is the same for Vegetarians

n4zhg

I prefer this Firefox extension:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1501

SUSPENDED

Stupidity

shell nyc

Big signs on the drive to RDU Friday also proclaiming the threat level is at Orange, but I didn't notice any difference in security.

gj83

This isn't new. It has been Orange for airports since the liquids fun in August 2006 if not before then. For non-airports I believe it is still yellow.

I thought you were making fun of the voice at ORD that repeats that message every 5 minutes.

wildcatlh

I'm not sure if this is serious or not, but just in case, airports have been at orange since the day the stupid color code system was invented.

iluv2fly

Can you explain what this means?

whirledtraveler

Just what I said. They made everyone take off their shoes and put them through the x-ray at the checkpoint.. like there was some terrorism thing going on. It was freaky.

And, the screeners were gruff.. trying to convey the seriousness of the orange alert.

The passengers, though, they were great. They submitted to the extra screening out of a sense of duty to the homeland.

m60521

Where have you been?

They have been doing this since Mr. Shoe-bomber Reid tried to smoke out the cabin by igniting his Pro Keds. It is a circus, a show. Enjoy it or not, it is what's playing across our country.

They take our freedoms by claiming they are protecting us from a "threat".
They are the threat!

NY-FLA

I think you're missing the sarcasm.
And to be exact, they have not been doing this since the Reid incident of 2002. After Reid, airport security started requiring all shoes off but those with soles < 1" at the check-point. When the arguing between pax and "officers" over what constituted 1 inch got too bothersome, the great liquid panic of Aug. 2006 became a convenient time for TSA to institute all shoes off all the time except for the usual list of 3 dozen exceptions. Threat level has been orange at airports since that sad day in Aug. '06 when TSA reintroduced alchemy and American Idol brand science and determined they could discern explosiveness strictly through physical properties of the "contraband".

True dat.
Well if liquids=potential explosives, I guess ID=security.
Clownfare at its best.

Dole

I suppose the OP was trying sarcasm. The humor about the threat levels was already exhausted years ago when the five colors were announced. Saturday Night Live and other shows poked fun at it and have moved on.

After reading the post I laughed as hard as I do watching Adam Sandler movies (which is not a all)

jib71

And you can thank your lucky stars
He hid it in his shoes
And not up his a***

(apologies to Dean Friedman)