At Seattle-Tacoma International last month, a pair of soldiers, in full dress uniform, were escorting the body of a comrade home for burial. They loaded the coffin aboard the Iowa-bound plane, with proper ceremony, then returned to the jetway to board themselves. The metal in their ribbons set off the metal detector.
The TSA screeners required them to strip to T-shirts and undershorts and submit to pat-down and wanding, right next to the metal detector, in full view of everyone else waiting to enter the terminal. When first confronted about this situation, the head of the local Homeland Security office defended this action. Apologies were not forthcoming until both a local news program (on KOMO, Seattle channel 4) and Rep. Norm Dicks, on the House Armed Services Committee, were called in.
These were combat veterans, in uniform, displaying their decorations. What are the odds that a scruffy ol' civilian like me will get any better treatment, in Homeland Insecurity declares one of my tics to display my obvious terrorist sympathies?
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Sodium is a metal that reacts explosively when exposed to water. Chlorine is a gas that'll kill you dead in moments. Together they make my fries taste good.