NOW what? No more lighters/matches on commercial flights

[Bluebear]

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/nation/10539621.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - In what could become a major hassle for air travelers who smoke, the Homeland Security Department will ban all cigarette lighters beyond airport checkpoints beginning Feb. 15.

The Intelligence Reform Bill that President Bush signed Dec. 17 orders the Transportation Security Administration to review its banned-items list and to prohibit passengers from carrying butane lighters aboard planes. Legislation stipulates that the ban must be in place in 60 days.

"We are reviewing the necessary changes that the Transportation Security Administration will need to make based on the new intelligence legislation," TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said.

The TSA may also expand the banned-items list to include matches, aviation industry sources have said. No decision has been made, according to one TSA official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[Worst Username Ever]

1. a la F/911

[LisaM]

2. They would have been banned before but for the tobacco lobby

Frankly, I always thought it was strange they were allowed at all.

[MADem]

5. They're just saying BUTANE, so far

...is the old ZIPPO safe? Hmmmm...is that a GOP company?

[Salviati]

7. Doesn't matter...

If any type of lighter is banned, it won't matter what kind of fuel goes in them, they'll be confiscated at the screening.

Why? Because they can. Have a problem with that? Congratulations, you've been 'randomly' selected for 'special' screening

[MADem]

11. I am never randomly selected

I am ALWAYS selected. I'm on the list. It's tiresome. It's annoying. And given the fact that I held a higher clearance than the idiot boyking before he became chimperor, it makes me wonder what the fuck my government is thinking. Spending half a lifetime in service to your nation doesn't exempt you -- hell, all of those shitty deployments, the family separation, the brutal conditions...I put up with all that shit so I could one day become an enemy of the state...PLEASE!

Believe me, I don't like it either. If I were stinking rich, I'd start chartering.

[superconnected]

3. must keep fear alive

and bans going so people are used to them.

When they get to the big bans like... oh say.. homosexuals, un-wed mothers, Muslims, Mexicans etc., most of america will say... "I didn't see it coming!"

[MADem]

4. Hey, it's an opportunity for the UNEMPLOYED

...that's how BUSHCO looks at it! Go buy packs of five lighters for three ninety nine, and sell them individually for five bucks a pop in the arrivals section!!! Put that food on your family!!!

You go to third world countries, you see these guys selling kleenex, lighters, single cigarettes all the time. Gee, soon we can be JUST LIKE THEM!

[Bluebear]

6. Freedom is on the MARCH!

[Colorado Blue]

8. There is always THE BUS. It is beginning to look GOOD.

[InternalDialogue]

9. Bans on flint and tinder coming soon n/t

[ClintonTyree]

10. Batteries too then..............

they certainly shouldn't allow batteries, the easiest way of all to detonate explosives. Hell, soon we'll all be just like the people in the cartoon. Maybe if they shrink wrap us all before we embark we'll be safe then?

[spunky]

14. Nah, batteries will never be banned

think about it, no cell phones, no laptops, no pda's, no mp3 players, etc. etc. etc.

[LisaM]

16. What heaven THAT would be!

Sigh. A flight without all that blinking and beeping.

[eyesroll]

12. This is actually long overdue

Sorry, smokers -- but this is an ACTUAL preventative measure based on a realistic threat. During that whole "shoe bomber" thing, we all had to start taking off our shoes for screening -- but the lighter he was going to light the explosives with was still permitted.

I do wonder how they are going to completely prohibit matches, if they do -- would the little cardboard packets show up on a bag x-ray or get caught by the metal detector?

[Bluebear]

13. No those little cardboard packets will not show up

Plus Bush will not support X-raying of domestic cargo bags, "no money", so this is all a safety smokescreen, pardon the pun.

[AlCzervik]

15. I bet Bic lobbied hard for this one

[regnaD kciN]

17. Time to form the NLA...

They'll get my lighter when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.

When lighters are outlawed, only outlaws will have lighters!

;-)

[KitchenWitch]

18. Now the airport newsstands etc will have something else

that they can mark up 5000%

[ramadoss]

19. Who cares?

It's a freekin lighter. You can't smoke on the plane so why bring it on the plane with you. Stick it in your checked baggage and you have a lighter at the other end. Easy.