(no subject)

[rm]

There _may_ be a new TSA regulation reducing the number of books allowed in your carry-on luggage from 4 to 2. Does that mean journals as well? What about datebooks? (for the record, I carried two novels, a journal and my planner on my flight to Australia, and two novels, a play, some magazines, my journal and my planner on the flight back -- horrors!) No one knows, but that we're even having this conversation is grim, yeah?

via pecunium:
http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2005/04/books_banned_on.html

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I'm both horrified and baffled at twisted logic that equates limiting books with increasing security. I also had no idea that there were any limits on books. The last time I flew to Origins gaming convention (July 2004) I only took carry-on luggage and carried 7 or 8 RPG books along to trade and flew back with even more books than I came with. I very much hope this rumor is false and fear it is true (a common statement we all make about the government these days, and a statement that indicates that the US is in very serious trouble indeed).

[nyghtowl.livejournal.com]

And God help you if one of those books is 1984....

P

[lllvis.livejournal.com]

the mind races for what their justifcation might be...but then, you can carry a buncha matches, just no lighters, so who the hell knows what they're smokin'...

[iterum.livejournal.com]

I never even knew about the limit of 4!

Ahem . . .

[roy-batty.livejournal.com]

The "books" in question, are books of matches.

Re: Ahem . . .

[roy-batty.livejournal.com]

Oops,
Did I critically fail in my sarcasm detection?

Re: Ahem . . .

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Not exactly.

The regulation seems to be on matchbooks, but the wording is imprecise enough that at least on screener thinks it relates to reading matter.

There is a bit more discussion in the comments of my LJ.

Also at Failures of Airport Screening at Schneier on Security

TK

[moshah.livejournal.com]

The number of books? How ridiculous. Are they afraid of the flammability or something?

On a separate topic, if you had two weeks to spend in Australia - as a visitor - where would you go? :)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Well, I've only been to Sydney, and so I can only speak for Sydney, which I loved and kept me plenty busy for the month I was there (although obviously, my days were very tied up).

Are you planning a trip? I can give you really detailed Sydney recs.

[moshah.livejournal.com]

Woo! I'd love it. Yes, I'm planning a trip - an around the world one - with Australia being one of the stops.

What were you doing in Sydney?

[rm.livejournal.com]

I was studying at NIDA during their summer term... I will write up a list of things in the next couple of days and post it. It's really a fantastic city. What time of year are you going?

[moshah.livejournal.com]

Lovely! You talk about Australia so often I was under the impression you had grown up there. :)

I'll be there in early September, me thinks.

[ex-mijra932.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I, being the compulsive bibliophile that I am, keep buying books here that I can't get in the US and am trying to figure out how to get them back to the US. I've been told several times by various people after long phone calls to central offices that, no, shipping companies cannot send more than "maybe two or three" books from Spain to the US.

Exactly what the fuck do they think is in my books? It's classical literature, not trashy romance or badly-written novels, and definitely not subversive anti-american essays or recepies for explosives or anything.