I came across and article yesterday in the New York Times that I r aised the obvious points about air travel and put them out there in black and white. 

Paul Smith writes with a candour that I really can appreciate and he raises a few good points that I strongly agree with.

Again I am amazed that the blatantly obvious is standing there right out in the open and yet again we fail to not only realise it but employ tactics to that use the obvious and in the end might only make our lives easier but a lot more bearable as well.

I have highlighted a few paragraphs below of those points I mentioned that I strongly agree with but I still encourage you to read the entire article yourself.

In years past, a takeover meant hostage negotiations and standoffs; crews were trained in the concept of «passive resistance.» All of that changed forever the instant American Airlines Flight 11 collided with the north tower. What weapons the 19 men possessed mattered little; the success of their plan relied fundamentally on the element of surprise. And in this respect, their scheme was all but guaranteed not to fail.

Yet that's exactly what we've been doing. The three-ounce container rule is silly enough — after all, what's to stop somebody from carrying several small bottles each full of the same substance — but consider for a moment the hypocrisy of T.S.A.'s confiscation policy. At every concourse checkpoint you'll see a bin or barrel brimming with contraband containers taken from passengers for having exceeded the volume limit. Now, the assumption has to be that the materials in those containers are potentially hazardous. If not, why were they seized in the first place? But if so, why are they dumped unceremoniously into the trash? They are not quarantined or handed over to the bomb squad; they are simply thrown away. The agency seems to be saying that it knows these things are harmless. But it's going to steal them anyway, and either you accept it or you don't fly.

The fact that crew members, many of whom are former military fliers, and all of whom endured rigorous background checks prior to being hired, are required to take out their laptops and surrender their hobby knives, while a caterer or cabin cleaner sidesteps the entire process and walks onto a plane unimpeded, nullifies almost everything our T.S.A. minders have said and done since September 11th, 2001.¹

Every time I am at a US airport and I hear the automated message about the current «threat level colour» and what-not I can not help but think that is only to add a level of fear in the public to allow them to become only more submissive. 

Don't get me wrong I am all about safety and security.  I have the same right to go to work and now  at I am going to come home at night just like the next person. ²

Anyway I invite you to go over and take and read «Jet Lagged» over on NYT's web site. Feel free to comment either here or there - would love to know what you think.

As well Reuters had an interesting article on the same subject which can be found here at Your Global Travel News

Cheers, tH/out

1. It is required that crews do a complete tactile search throughout the aircraft, of which the exact details I am not going to state here for possible obvious reasons, for every trip into or out of the United States and a complete visual inspection for every subsequent leg that calendar day with certain required tactile searches as well↩
2. This includes gas station and convenience store employees so I agree with their bullet proof cubicles they work in↩