This past week I went on a trip to escape from Wisconsin to someplace warm. So we flew out from Madison, had a layover in Detroit, and then headed to Las Vegas, Nevada (airline routes are an eternal mystery). We had a great time in Vegas—took in some shows, did some people watching on the strip, and went shopping. Which brings me to the photo above. I have a teenage son who has the sense of humor of a teenage boy. He also happens to like hot sauce.
There is a little shop on the strip that sells every hot sauce you could ever possibly imagine, so after spending about a half hour trying to find one with the perfect hotness and the perfect name, I settled on the one you see in the photo. I paid for the hot sauce, put it in my camera bag, and went on my merry way.
Two days later and I was going through McCarran Airport, carrying my camera bag. I went through the TSA checkpoint, emptied my pockets, took my shoes off, removed my belt, put my camera bag on the belt, and shuffled through the metal detector hoping my pants would not fall down.
When I got through the metal detector and on to the other side I gathered my belt, shoes, pocket change, phone, and keys. My camera bag had been taken off to the side. This had happened before so I wasn't too concerned—for whatever reason they always seem to have an issue with one of my bigger lenses. This time was different, though.
I got pulled aside and was asked several questions about my bag. Any needles or anything that can harm the agent? Has my bag been in my possession all day? Is there anything I want to tell the agent before he opens my bag? I was getting the idea that this was about more than my camera lens, but was dumbfounded as to what it could be.
The agent opened my bag and started taking everything out. I stood there watching, holding my pants up because I had forgotten to put my belt back on. He emptied the first pocket, then moved on to the second pocket. He took out a bag containing the factory-sealed five ounce bottle of hot sauce I had bought for my son days earlier. It was confiscated because it was a whopping 1.6 ounces over the 3.4 ounce liquid limit.
I have never had anything confiscated at a TSA checkpoint before, and I concede that I was over the liquid limit. But for some reason, this really pissed me off. I’m tired of living in an age where we are paranoid of every single little thing. This is the same line of thinking that has created Trump’s travel ban on select Muslim-majority nations. No one from any of those countries has ever perpetrated a terrorist attack against the United States, but because of fear and paranoia we have a ridiculous executive order than does not make us any safer.
Why do we have a limit of 3.4 ounces of liquid on a plane?
The 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot was a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives carried on board airliners traveling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada, disguised as soft drinks...
...each bomber would board a plane with the "necessary ingredients and equipment". They would then construct the devices mid-flight and detonate them. The hydrogen peroxide would be placed in 500 ml plastic bottles of soft drinks. A sugary drink powder would be mixed with the hydrogen peroxide to color it to resemble a normal soft drink. The mixture would be injected into the bottles with a syringe. The bottle's cap would not have been removed and the hole would have been resealed, thereby allowing the device to resemble a normal, unopened drink bottle when screened by airport security.
A second substance, a type of high explosive, would be hidden within a battery casing; this small explosive charge would detonate the main bomb. The charge would be detonated by linking the bottle of explosives to a light bulb and a disposable camera. The charge from the camera's flash unit would trigger the explosion.
Having been on a few airplanes in my day, I’m not sure where you would find a place on a plane that would give you the privacy and space to build a device like that. Even the TSA admits that it would be damn near impossible to pull off. In an interview by Ars Technica and re-posted on the TSA blog, TSA administrator Kip Hawley stated:
The preparation of these bombs is very much more complex than tossing together several bottles-worth of formula and lighting it up. In fact, in recent tests, a National Lab was asked to formulate a test mixture and it took several tries using the best equipment and best scientists for it to even ignite. That was with a bomb prepared in advance in a lab setting. A less skilled person attempting to put it together inside a secure area or a plane is not a good bet. You have to have significant uninterrupted time with space and other requirements that are not easily available in a secured area of an airport. It adds complexity to their preferred model and reduces our risk, having the expert make the bomb and give it to someone else to carry aboard. They are well aware of the Richard Reid factor where he could not even ignite a completed bomb. Simple is truly better for them. Also, bomb-makers are easier for us to identify than so-called clean 'mules.'
Two things: first, notice the mention of failed “shoe bomber” Richard Reid. He tried putting a bomb in his shoes, then he tried to light the fuse with a match. The passengers took matters into their own hands and subdued the man. The plot failed—and this was in December 2001, when paranoia over another attack after 9/11 was high. Second, the former TSA administrator says that a plot using liquid explosives would be far too complex to pull off.
This is really not about my having a bottle of hot sauce taken away at the airport. This is about who we are as a people. We can either be afraid of our own shadows, or we can we stand up and take our freedoms back. Do not confuse this with the current bullshit calls for “freedom" from the tyranny of healthcare.
Shortly after 9/11 I changed my email signature to a quote from Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Taking our shoes off, having to deal with arbitrary rules about liquids, banning people from entering the country for no reason other than skin color and religion, the militarization of our police forces—this all encroaches on the very liberties that Ben Franklin was talking about.
It is time to move beyond the paranoia and fear. That bottle of hot sauce was no threat to anything but my son’s tongue. The refugees trying to escape their war-torn homes? They are no threat. They just want a better life.
And as for me? I would just prefer to walk through airport security without my pants falling down.