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News & ArtsMonday, December 26, 2011
Transportation / Panic First They Came for the Cupcakes, and I Didn't Speak Out Because I Wasn't a Cupcake
Posted by Goldy on Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 7:00 AM
Um... these are the people we're supposed to blindly trust to bathe us in radiation?
An airport security officer confiscated a frosted cupcake amid fears its icing could be a security risk, according to reports.
Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas took her cupcake Wednesday. According to Hains, he told her its frosting was enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives.
Hains said the agent didn't seem concerned that the red velvet cupcake, which was packaged in an 8-ounce mason jar, could actually be explosive, just that it fit some bureaucratic definition about what was prohibited.
"Once he had identified it as a security threat it was no longer mine and I couldn't have it back," Hains told NBC station WHDH.
Of course, as Hains points out, "It's not really about the cupcake." It's about our willingness to tolerate ever greater encroachments on our civil liberties, no matter how fucking absurd.
1
She couldn't have even taken a bite to show it was edible? I've heard that many new moms have had to take a swig of their bottled breast milk for the same purpose.
3
Come on, everybody knows that exploding confections is al quaeda's next move and the TSA is on top of it like chocolate raspberry frosting on a vanilla espresso cupcake. You watch-- next headline will be about a national guardsman throwing himself on an eclair and winning the medal of honor.
4
@1 That is not a good test to determine if something is not poison or a bomb. A suicide bomber would happily drink explosives knowing he is going to die soon anyway.
5
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but rules are rules. Do have a pleasant flight, though, won't you? .....................[psssst, hey, cover for me a minute, okay? I need a bathroom break!]"
Somebody should post a recipe for cupcakes with an invisible dye that colors lips and tongues fluorescent green for a week or so. Harmlessly, of course.
Somebody should post a recipe for cupcakes with an invisible dye that colors lips and tongues fluorescent green for a week or so. Harmlessly, of course.
9
This type of security theater is imposed because the voters demand it. Can you imagine what would happen to Obama's reelection bid if he relaxed airport security? Next time your waiting in line at a TSA checkpoint say to yourself "This is what democracy looks like."
11
#9 Nonsense of the first water.
But whatever you do, don't submit to the bodyscan. The FDA warning was ignored, and what were medical devices meant to be used sparingly, became a boondoggle (a corporation buying Congress) -- there's money to made irriadiating you willy nilly.
I insisted on the pat down, instead. Which wasn't particularly invasive, and less likely to cause cancer as well.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-12…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_body_s…
But whatever you do, don't submit to the bodyscan. The FDA warning was ignored, and what were medical devices meant to be used sparingly, became a boondoggle (a corporation buying Congress) -- there's money to made irriadiating you willy nilly.
I insisted on the pat down, instead. Which wasn't particularly invasive, and less likely to cause cancer as well.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-12…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_body_s…
12
Well...at least I can still bring my fruitcake on my next flight...my fruitcake MADE OF PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES!!!!!!BWHAHAHAHHAHAH!!!!!!
13
All REAL scientific investigations uncover no evidence of radiation risk from the airport machines. That said, I fly often and always opt for the pat down. Not only do I wish for everyone to join me and thereby bring security and flying to an abrupt halt but... it feels real swell too.
14
@13: I've learned to scout out the security lines at SeaTac, and pick the ones that are not using the body scanners. (Invariably, there's always one or two out of commission.) Presumably, dedicated terrorists are too stupid to do the same, so there's no flaw in our security system here.
16
This story reminds me so much of flying (years before the TSA) between SFO and SEA with some handcuffs and other toys in my backpack.
Leaving SFO? "Sorry, sir, you have to check your bag, those are dangerous"
Leaving SEA? Phone number, ten minutes or so of flirting with the baggage scanning person.
Airport security (like 911) is a joke (all glory to the prophet Flava Flav). Has been for the 20 years I've been regularly flying.
Leaving SFO? "Sorry, sir, you have to check your bag, those are dangerous"
Leaving SEA? Phone number, ten minutes or so of flirting with the baggage scanning person.
Airport security (like 911) is a joke (all glory to the prophet Flava Flav). Has been for the 20 years I've been regularly flying.
17
@11 "there's money to made irriadiating you willy nilly." Maybe so, but not that much money. As we've discussed before on this blog federal spending on food stamps exceeds the entire homeland security budget. The TSA'S budget simply isn't big enough to buy much in the way of good will from greedy corporations.
18
Once when flying out of Chicago Midway, the ticket dispenser jammed. The ticket agent had to open the lid and hand me a temp boarding pass with the instructions to exchange it at the gate. I went through the TSA first line of defense, and then the security area. Showed my pas and my id once, I think, to an indifferent guy who went through the motions of checking it against my id and then checked off the pass. I get to the gate and the agent at the desk is exasperated because I am the 2nd person through that day whose boarding pass did not match her name on her id. The pass I was handed said "Oscar Hernandez." Laura Mae isn't Oscar Hernandez.
19
What I want to know is how this woman managed to get this story picked up, since they've been doing this shit for years.
I once got a small jar of homemade peanut butter confiscated as I was traveling with my elderly mother, who was the one who made the peanut butter. I told them what it was and they said they couldn't let me through.
As for the pat downs, I always ask for them, too. Have you noticed that the TSA personnel call this an "opt out," though?
I once got a small jar of homemade peanut butter confiscated as I was traveling with my elderly mother, who was the one who made the peanut butter. I told them what it was and they said they couldn't let me through.
As for the pat downs, I always ask for them, too. Have you noticed that the TSA personnel call this an "opt out," though?
20
“The TSA supervisor, Robert Epps, was using really bad logic – he said it counted as a gel-like substance because it was conforming to the shape of its container.”
Well shit. My toothpaste gel conforms to the shape of its container. Might as well take all the toothpaste and make everyone have bad breath on the plane.
Well shit. My toothpaste gel conforms to the shape of its container. Might as well take all the toothpaste and make everyone have bad breath on the plane.
21
@17 the difference for me is that the food stamp program, which helps millions of Americans, is precisely the sort of thing the terrorists don't want. The TSA program, which doesn't help anyone, is also precisely the sort of thing the terrorists *do* want. Which leaves me with the question, Why do you hate America? Why do you support the terrorists?
22
The "why" is obvious: the TSA agent wanted the cupcake, and he had a threat of dire consequences that allowed him to steal it. After all, what was the alternative? To be locked up in a tiny room, with her kid and husband who knows where, while she missed her flight?
23
@19: Because it was a "cupcake." There's just something inherently absurd about confiscating a cupcake. The media are funny that way.
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