"Airline safety" + a cigarette lighter = Bush's color-coded "War on Terrorism"

Friday, October 17, 2003 on FoxNews.com:
"WASHINGTON - Authorities were searching every commercial airplane in the United States on Friday after someone left three suspicious bags filled with claylike material, bleach and boxcutters on two Southwest Airlines flights, U.S. officials told Fox News."

The person who left the bags also left a note citing his (or her) concern about airline security.

(click HERE for the fox news story.)

So, what specific items are banned from planes?

In an online bonus chapter from Michael Moore's book "Stupid White Men", Moore has a list of banned items, including:

No guns. (Obviously)
No knives. (Ditto)
No boxcutters. (Certainly now justified)
No toenail clippers. (What?)
No knitting needles. (Huh?)
No crotchet hooks. (Now, wait a minute!)
No sewing needles.
No mace.
No leaf blowers. (OK, now it's personal)
No corkscrews.
No letter openers.
No dry ice.

What would a terrorist do could he not knit a sweater or blow leaves from the aile of the plane?
Maybe....hhmmmm.....I dunno........attempt to set his shoes on fire?

Cigarette lighters and matches are (still) not banned from airlines! But why?
Does the name "Richard Reid" mean anything?

Moore asks the obvious:
1. "If all smoking is prohibited on all flights, then why does ANYONE need their lighters and matches at 30,000 feet ?"
2. "And why is the one device that has been used to try and blow up a plane since 9-11 NOT on the banned list?"

According to Moore, the original FAA list of banned materials had the butane lighters on it, but that item was removed before the list was approved by the White House.

So, Bill O'Reilly asks in his new book "Who's Looking Out For You?", It is safe to assume that it's not George W. Bush's administration. Apparently, the tobacco industry lobbied the Bush administration to take the lighters (and matches) off the list because their customers (addicts) are desperate to smoke as soon as they get off the plane.

So, if there really is a daily terrorist threat that has been color-coded "yellow / elevated" (well, sometimes, it goes up to "orange / high"), why would the Bush administration put so many people's lives in danger by allowing matches and lighters on a plane? Could the Bush administration be implanting fear into the minds of Americans in order to scare us into giving up some of our Constitutional freedoms (read up on the "Patriot Act")?

Here's to fear and another yellow day!

Links:
Read the additional chapter from Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men" here
Get information on the USA Patriot Act here
Get Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men" and his new book "Dude, Where's My Country" here
Get Bill O'Reilly's book "Who's Looking Out For You?" here
Click here for "What Terrorist Threat Colors Mean"