The Goo Bombers

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By Hal O’Boyle
Online Journal Contributing Writer

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1140.shtml

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Remember Richard Reid? He is the British fruitcake who, in 2001, tried to blow up a plane with explosives he had installed in one of his high-top sneakers. You’d think someone clever enough to design a shoe bomb would have known that you can’t detonate plastic explosive with a match. I guess there’s not much opportunity to work the bugs out of suicide bombings.

Suspicious passengers wrestled the Shoe Bomber to the floor, sedated him and, at least in theory, saved the plane and their own lives. They also saved Reid, who achieved terrorist immortality. The passengers also clearly showed why a repeat of 9/11 will be impossible.

I’ve noticed that whether a hijacker succeeds or fails, the attempt is commemorated with new rituals at airports everywhere. It’s a wacky form of immortality, like being sainted in the Church of Perpetual Paranoia.

Although passengers will never again allow a plane to be hijacked with a box cutter, the successful attacks of 9/11 gave us the ritual sacrifice of pen knives, hat pins, nail clippers and tweezers. Reid’s shoe bomb added Footwear Removal to the boarding ceremony. I forget why lighters and matches were banned. Maybe that was St. Richard’s work, too...

[The Deacon]

1. Yeah

Lighters were banned & matches allowed because Richard Reid tried to light his shoes with matches (now, wait a minute - wtf? THAT doesn't seem to make any sense...next they won't be letting us take shampoo in our carry on luggage...)