Fear of flying

Hi all,

Everyone who flies knows what a pain flying has become. The number of complaints about lost luggage, bumped passengers, late or canceled flights, etc. have significantly risen in 2007 from levels in 2006. In addition, we face the hassles of security: removing your shoes, removing your outerwear (even the scarf around my neck), removing your laptop, to say nothing about limiting carry-on liquids and gels to less than 3 oz apiece, putting these into a 1-quart clear plastic bag, and removing it from your carry-on bags. This has also created a market for "travel-size" personal care products that are both economically and environmentally wasteful.

Thanks to Richard Reid, a marginal, alienated criminal who tried to detonate an explosive hidden in his sneaker, we are now obliged to remove our shoes at the security checkpoint. Lost among current news is the trial in the UK of eight men on conspiracy for murder through a plan to detonate explosives assembled from from liquids that would pass security on several transatlantic flights. According to this report, "Their explosive of choice had been nitrocglycerin mixed with contact lens solution. On board the aircraft, these would be assembled, using a battery powered detonator which would be hidden inside a shoe."

You can thank these eight accused for obliging you to remove your personal care items for security and making your flying experience more difficult.