Let's hear it for shampoo!

I know, I know, the first response to the announcement that all liquids were banned on airplanes should not have been my grumbling about how I couldn't bring the chocolate milk I had intended to pack with my lunch aboard the flight, but being scheduled to fly two days after the intial arrests by British intelligence agents, I had to take into consideration how the new rules would affect me.  One of the things I most wanted to know was what they were going to smuggle aboard, and how they were going to blow up a plane with it.  Surely, I mused, there must be some way to allow people some amount of liquids aboard a plane. 

Sure enough, shortly after I returned from my trip, I started seeing blog posts that mentioned that the feasibility of the whole "blow up a plane with hair gel" plot was a bit thin.  Given the TSA's new policy today, it seems pretty evident that the initial response was a bit overblown.  Especially for someone flying on Southwest (which seriously does not keep planes in the air for more than 3 hours at a time, and does not stock much ice).  For a detalied examination of the who, what, and how to make a bomb mid-flight, I'll hand things over to the UK's Register.

All in all, I've got to say that I'm glad cooler heads have prevailed.  Though it would've been nice if they'd done so before I dropped an extra $20 on Aveda styling whip that I intended to keep at my parents' house, so as to avoid checking my bag every time I go visit them (it's not Oakland's procedure that bugs me, but Ontario's - that Ontario, CA - they make you stand in two lines to check a bag, and both move at the speed of frozen molasses).