TSA screening process to change. Small scissors will be allowed on planes again! On the down side, more patting down and random checks.

spend more of their time searching for explosives rather than small, sharp objects that don't pose as great a risk.

Ah -- that explains the new lighter thing. I keep forgetting and losing lighters.

On the down side, more patting down and random checks.

They need to hire a much more attractive group of security agents, and objections to this part of the process will fade.

Maybe they need dogs to sniff out explosives, etc. To relax the public, the dogs could be colored to look like pandas.

OK, so this is what makes me insane. BWI didn't give two shits about my lighter, which I placed in one of those change cups to go through the machine. LAX either didn't or couldn't find it. Chicago Midway couldn't find it or didn't care. Kansas City, OTOH? Got all shirty with me over it.

Oh, and I've been carrying nail files and clippers and the occasional swiss army knife on virtually every flight. One of my cosmetics/change bags is metal mesh, see.

For the record, if you put a lighter in the mesh bag, right next to a metal tube of lipstick, it doesn't show up on xray. I've looked.

Things like that (and getting a patdown in 2002 because I have a large chest- yes, I was told my underwire set off the machine) make my attitude toward the TSA pretty much what the fucking fuck EVER.

Random TSA weirdness - as I got in the line for security on my way to SF, I was given a timecard and asked to give it to the woman on the other side of the screening beepy thingy once I got through. I guess they're tracking processing times, but I still looked around for signs of "let's screw with the customers".

I've been searched a couple of times, and maybe I got lucky, but my searcher was always personable and friendly, which made the whole thing much more bearable.

On my way to the first Buffista F2F, I discovered I was unwittingly smuggling no less than nine nail clippers through security, due to them disappearing through a small hole in my pocketbook lining over a series of months. If I hadn't "lost" my Buffy watch to the same hole, I'd have been wondering why my pocketbook was getting heavier for months more, most likely.

Um... I'm not sure this is helping their cause: Atheist group offers free porn in exchange for Bibles

Atheist Agenda, an atheist group at U Texas San Antonio, staged a "Porno for Bibles" event, where they gave free pornography to people who traded in religious scripture.

From BoingBoing - the link to the originating article seems to be down.

I have at least one Bible, but I sometimes use it for reference so I don't think I'll trade it for porn. Plus, they didn't say what kind of porn....

Speaking as an atheist, I think evangelical atheism is the weirdest thing ever.

Well, okay, possibly Scientology is weirder.

I've always gotten patted down in the airport...chair and metal detectors, you know. ALWAYS a giant deal. Thinking about now, ack. Although maybe all y'all just play Gimp for A Day and it gets spread around.