A potentially useful illegal protest against the federal government.

But will anyone pay attention to it?

 …[T]he [Transportation Security Agency] officer chicken-scratched onto our boarding passes what might have been his signature, or the number 4, or the letter y. We took our shoes off and placed our laptops in bins. Schneier took from his bag a 12-ounce container labeled “saline solution.”

“It’s allowed,” he said. Medical supplies, such as saline solution for contact-lens cleaning, don’t fall under the TSA’s three-ounce rule.


“What’s allowed?” I asked. “Saline solution, or bottles labeled saline solution?”


“Bottles labeled saline solution. They won’t check what’s in it, trust me.”


They did not check. As we gathered our belongings, Schnei er held up the bottle and said to the nearest security officer, “This is okay, right?” “Yep,” the officer said. “Just have to put it in the tray.”


“Maybe if you lit it on fire, he’d pay attention,” I said, risking arrest for making a joke at airport security. (Later, Schnei er would carry two bottles labeled saline solution—24 ounces in total—through security. An officer asked him why he needed two bottles. “Two eyes,” he said. He was allowed to keep the bottles.)


Worth reading.

Comments

One response to “A potentially useful illegal protest against the federal government.”

  1. Christy P Avatar
    Christy P

    My husband used to shave with a straight razor. Flying to his sister’s wedding (yes, post 9/11), he wanted to travel light and packed everything in a carry on bag. He remembered the razor while in line and reported it to the first security person he encountered. The response? “If it doesn’t show up on the x-ray don’t worry about it”. Nice. This from the same people that remove Robeez from babies and tried to tell me how many cups of applesauce was really appropriate for me to bring through security based on the age of my child and my destination. The agent thought that 2 cups of applesauce (individually packaged) was too many since I was only flying across the country (SLC-BWI). I guess he has never been delayed. Fume.

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