10) Snakes, turtles, and birds were found at Miami (MIA) and Los Angeles (LAX). I’m just happy there weren’t any lions, tigers, and bears…
9) A science project shut down a checkpoint at Omaha (OMA). I wonder if mentioning the shutting down of the checkpoint added enough flare to his presentation to score him some bonus points?
8) An artfully concealed non-metallic martial arts weapon called a “Tactical Spike” was found in the sock of a passenger at Pensacola (PNS) after being screened by a body scanner. The only thing I keep in my sock is my foot.
7) Inert landmines were found at Salt Lake City (SLC). I always travel with mine, don’t you???
6) A stun gun disguised as a smart phone was found at Los Angeles (LAX). Not very smart to travel with this stunning device.
5) A flare gun with seven flares was found in a passenger’s carry-on bag at Norfolk (ORF). Hmmm… pressurized cabin + 7 live flares = no good can come from this.
4) Two throwing knives concealed in hollowed out book were found at Washington National (DCA). Killer book…
3) Over 1,200 firearms were discovered at TSA checkpoints across the nation in 2011. Many guns are found loaded with rounds in the chamber. Most passengers simply state they forgot they had a gun in their bag.
2) A loaded .380 pistol was found strapped to passenger’s ankle with the body scanner at Detroit (DTW). You guessed it, he forgot it was there…
1) Small chunks of C4 explosives were found in passenger’s checked luggage in Yuma (YUM). Believe it or not, he was brining it home to show his family.

AMERICA's Transportation Security Administration was under fire again this week—this time for letting a passenger with a loaded .40 caliber handgun waltz right through airport security and onto a plane. Houston's KTRK (which I can only assume is Houston's news leader) had the story first.

Before I go any further, the TSA's "Blogger Bob" would probably like me to note that the incident in question took place last year. A lot of the follow-up coverage has missed that point. (The BoingBoing post describing screeners as too busy "ogling" the passenger's penis to notice the gun, for example.) But now, in the wake of the "Don't Touch My Junk" controversy, almost any story about airport security can go viral—even if it's a year old. People will see this story and talk about it, so it matters, and we're going to cover it.

Anyway, here's what happened: a Houston businessman named Farid Seif (more on that in a minute) made it through screening at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental airport last Christmas with a Glock .40 caliber handgun in his carry-on luggage. He didn't realise he had the weapon until he arrived at his destination, where he immediately reported the incident to security officials. Mr Seif says there was "nothing else" in his carry-on besides the weapon. Yet the screeners at America's eighth-busiest airport missed it entirely. But here's the really scary part (via KTRK):

Authorities tell ABC News the incident is not uncommon, but how often it occurs is a closely guarded government secret. Experts say every year since the September 11 attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert tests of airport security.A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA's new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports.

Did you hear about TSA and the cupcake?

That’s right, two week ago guards in Las Vegas took a frosted cupcake away from a woman named Rebecca Hains as she prepared to board a flight to Boston. The frosting, you see, was “gel-like” and thus a potential security threat.
...
TSA confiscates a butter knife from an airline pilot. TSA confiscates a teenage girl’s purse with an embroidered handgun design. TSA confiscates a 4-inch plastic rifle from a GI Joe action doll on the grounds that it’s a “replica weapon.” TSA confiscates a liquid-filled baby rattle from airline pilot’s infant daughter. TSA confiscates a plastic “Star Wars” lightsaber from a toddler.

Safety measures that would actually work are far too invasive and expensive, and in a lot of cases would actually make people feel less safe.

More expensive how?
More invasive than being physically groped at random?
More invasive than going through a body scanner that has the stated purpose of seeing through your clothes?
Feel less safe how? I know I'd feel much less safe if water bottles were allowed on planes, not to mention cupcakes and baby rattles.

We are patting down (or exraying) every single bag and passenger now.

I recently flew out of Cleveland Hopkins Airport and was surprised by the confiscated items on display as I was ushered through the security line. To my amazement, these weren’t all the items confiscated since the airport was founded in 1925 – no, this was a small sample of items confiscated in the last ten years.

Now, I’m not the type to be fearful of flying, airports or airport security – and am not posting this to make anyone else fearful – it’s more out of my sheer interest and curiosity in the stories behind these items.

I can understand the decorative wedding spatula, the wine key and even the Leatherman being honest mistakes. However, the dynamite, throwing star and grenade are harder to pass off as an honest mistake. I imagine what the excuse for bringing such a carry-on would be. Perhaps, “I’m the Miss Ohio NRA beauty contest winner and this is my beautiful ammo bandolier.” Or, “I’m a method actor auditioning for the role of Chuck Norris in the biographical film ‘The life of Chuck Norris,’ so I carry these nunchucks wherever I go.”

This all leads to my question, have you ever had something confiscated by airport security because it may be considered a weapon?

because we want to follow Israel's example on things like human & civil rights?

you really think they're unrelated?
I rather suspect they're just stopping the threats earlier (as in before they get to the airport). Sure they maybe rooting out would-be terrorists, but they're also jailing lots of innocents.

Taly, did you miss the 120+ piece collection of weapons I posted above? All of those would have been on a plane (including the dynamite) without the TSA. I appreciate people don't like the intrusion but it is a balance.

Hopwin, did you miss that the TSA's methods are far less effective than the ISA's less intrusive methods?

I'm not saying we should do without any airport security. I'm saying the TSA's methods are horribly ineffective, and terribly inconvenient. The ISA's methods are unintrusive, efficient, and they are harder to slip past/mess up.

It is not a tradeoff. We don't have to choose between having security or having convenience. We can have far more of both than we currently have.

Despite such tight security, an incident occurred on November 17, 2002 in which a man apparently slipped through airport security at Ben Gurion Airport with a pocketknife and attempted to storm the cockpit of El Al Flight 581 en route from Tel Aviv to Istanbul, Turkey. While no injuries were reported and the attacker was subdued by guards hidden among the passengers 15 minutes before the plane landed safely in Turkey, authorities did shut down Ben Gurion for some time after the attack to reassess the security situation and an investigation was opened to determine how the man, an Israeli Arab, managed to smuggle the knife past the airport security.

What we want to follow is their unrelated example of airport security -- where, incidentally, they treat people with MORE respect and give greater accommodation to their rights than we do here.