Airport Insecurity Strikes Again

All airline passengers can feel safer now. The Guardians of Air Safety just confiscated a small screwdriver bit I've carried for thirty years.

The rules, according to the screener in Cincinnati yesterday, prohibit tools except for those little screwdrivers that come with eyeglasses repair kits. So they took my unsharp, handleless screwdriver bit and left me the miniature stiletto in my glasses kit.

The screwdriver bit they took is less than two inches long, a quarter inch in cross section, with a slot screwdriver on one end and a Phillips on the other. It's the one that comes as part of a small-airplane fuel tank sampler. Years ago, when I no longer had need of the sampler, I bored a hole through the center of the bit and put it on a key ring with my fingernail clipper, and I've carried it in my toilet kit ever since. It's been through security many dozens of times since 9/11.

I explained why I carry it. I used to be a plumber, and loose fixture knobs in hotel rooms drive me nuts. I use the screwdriver bit to tighten them when I check in.

The Guardian of Air Safety was apologetic. He told me I could go back out of the insecurity check area, go upstairs to a US Mail station, mail it to myself for $3.85, and come back to go through insecurity again. I declined.

After I tied my shoes and picked up my bags, I told the Guardian of Air Safety that I was very glad that Richard Reid carried his bomb in his shoe and not up his ass.

Anybody know where I can get a carbon fiber screwdriver?

Void in Washington

Next time you see an advertisement in a magazine for a raffle, look at the fine print at the bottom of the page. Often you'll see "Void in Washington and where prohibited by law."

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, among others, sponsers drawings for such things as new trucks and hunting trips. The money spent on tickets supports RMEF programs. So why are we Washington residents not allowed to participate?

Washington law prohibits raffles in which the prize comes from out of state! After all, we can't have Washingtonians sending a few bucks out of state if the state isn't going to get a direct benefit from those dollars.

I'm writing to my state legislator today, asking him to change this stupid law.

Social Security Ain't the "Crisis"

The President is worried because Social Security will go into the red some years down the road, and he wants to fix it right now. Meanwhile, his fiscal policies have put the entire nation deeply in the red with no foreseeable turnaround.

If our President had been the captain of the Titanic, he'd be urging the crew to fix a leaky faucet in a passenger's cabin right after he ran the ship into the iceberg.