My Experience with Airport Security

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 12 Dec 2001 13:00:00 GMT

Last week I went through airport security twice, once at Albany International Airport and once at Denver International Airport (DIA). I put my impact kerambit and my knife in my checked baggage, and checked my coat pockets before travelling for other "contraband". I checked a largish duffel bag and carried on my laptop computer. The duffel bag's two zippers were padlocked together with a cheap combination lock. The only difference I noticed at the security checkpoint was that my pocket change, which used to go around the metal detector, was now required to go through the X-Ray machine, and my laptop, which used to go through in its case, was now required to be taken out of the case and ride through separately in its own airport-supplied plastic tub. I have learned to take the metal buckle off of my military-style cotton belt, so I didn't set off the metal detector, and was not hassled in any way on the other side.

I was required to show my boarding pass and photo ID at Albany airport security. In Denver, they only wanted to see the boarding pass. When I went through security, there was no line at either airport. I showed up two hours before the flight, and waited over an hour and a half after passing security.

Though some passengers were randomly searched before boarding the plane, I wasn't. The searches I saw consisted of looking through carry-on baggage and a body scan with a metal-detecting wand. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten on the plane with both my kerambit (plastic impact weapon) and my CIA letter opener (glass fiber knife) had I attempted to carry them on my person, even had I been "searched". I don't know if they would have showed up on the X-Ray had I put them in my coat. There was no evidence that my checked bag had been tampered with in any way, and noone asked me to remove the padlock.

Because my sister said she was asked to remove pennies that showed up on the X-Ray of her checked baggage in Dallas, I called DIA before returning home and asked if there would be any problem with having a knife in my checked baggage. They said that there would be no problem. There wasn't.

I didn't take any rifles home with me this trip. I wanted to (a 6.5/06 wildcat and a kid-sized .22), but my wife talked me out of it. When I called US Air about their policy for checking rifles, they told me that it had not changed since 9/11. The rifles (a maximum of two) must be in a hard-sided locked container, and you must sign a paper promising that they are unloaded. There is a weight limit on ammunition.

J. Orlin Grabbe - WANTED: John Bin Ashcroft - Hehe. [grabbe]

John Bin Ashcroft is wanted in connection with the post-September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He is believed to be in the terrorist stronghold of Washington, D.C.

Indicted for: murder of U.S. freedoms inside the United States; conspiracy to murder U.S. freedoms inside the United States; attack on principles established by Founding Fathers.

Russell Madden at Laissez Faire City Times - Calling Out the Posse: The War on Terrorism and Posse Comitatus - Why now more than ever we need the Posse Comitatus act to protect us from our own military.

Indeed, how wonderful it would be if sheriffs throughout the country called out the posse -- the adult citizens of their respective counties -- and evicted any and all federal agents engaged in crimes against freedom and the Constitution they once swore to uphold.

That's one posse I would gladly join.

Alan Korwin - Gun-Show Bill Is Not What They Say - The McCain-Lieberman bill, S.890, is a real doozy. It's sponsored by McCain and cosponsored by Leiberman, Schmuck Schumer, Hitlary Rodham Klinton, and three other traitors. It does much more than close the so-called gun-show "loophole". It registers every gun show attendee and imprisons anyone who doesn't follow the new gun show law to the letter. I don't know why this is getting press now. It's been in the Senate Judiciary committee since May. [geneice]

Legion of the Bouncy Castle Java Cryptography API 1.11 - "The Legion of the Bouncy Castle Java Cryptography API provides a lightweight cryptography API in Java, a provider for the JCE and JCA, a clean room implementation of the JCE 1.2.1, generators for Version 1 and Version 3 X.509 certificates, and PKCS12 support. Versions are provided for the J2ME, JDK 1.0, JDK 1.1, JDK 1.2, and JDK 1.3. This release features the addition of the AES, the AES Wrapping function, and El Gamal in the JCE and lightweight API. RSA-PSS is now supported by the lightweight API as well. As well as a few bugfixes, several compatibility issues have also been resolved, the most important being that Elliptic Curve keys are now encoded in accordance with SEC 1."

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair