In my opinion, and probably the opinion of the majority, the oft-quoted saying, "The inmates are running the asylum", certainly reflects the TSA's recent decision to re-allow small pocket knives with slightly more than two-inch-long and half-inch-wide blades to be acceptable carry-on items for passengers boarding planes here in the U.S. What were the decision-makers thinking? Are they naieve, stupid, totally clueless, lacking common sense, or all of the preceding?

Airline pilots, flight attendants, air marshals, the CEO of Delta Airlines and much of the traveling public expressed almost immediate disdain, shock and outrage for the incomprehensible announcement by the TSA's Administrator, John Pistole, that we would be "in step" (paraphrased here) with what the remainder of the world does, with the primary focus on detecting explosives. That, to me, is a big "Duh", to say the least.

Mohammad Atta and his 18 fellow murderers didn't use explosives to crash those passenger jets into the World Trade Center towers, as well as Shanksville, Pennsylvania and The Pentagon. They used box-cutters to slit the throats of passengers and crews, as we're all gruesomely aware. A souvenir pocket knife with even a ONE-inch blade a half-inch wide could, with enough force, slice any passenger's or crew member's corratic artery on the side of the neck, causing instant death. Following the TSA's announcement, I'm sure the new batch of murderous monsters have begun practicing that ritual, but hopefully only on one another, every day, ad infinitum.

I think a strong reminder of why the TSA's decision is so blatantly wrong would be for that body's decision-makers to mandatorily (and daily) view videos of the two planes crashing into the twin towers that demonic September morning in 2001. They should again watch innocent people who went to work that morning, expecting to return to their homes that evening, jumping to their deaths because there was nowhere else to go. They should hear the final screams of the flight attendant in the second plane that crashed into the towers, screaming "Oh my God! Oh, my God!", followed by literal dead silence. They should then watch the ensuing carnage below, taking the lives of those firefighters, first-responders and police on the ground and in the bottom floors of the buildings before and after the unimaginable sight of the collapsing towers. There's so much more that could be viewed to firmly implant in their brains that ANY sharp object allowed to be in the hands of the deranged could make it happen all over again.

In my opinion, if the TSA doesn't rescind this egregious decision, this coming April 25th will be a day of rejoicing (and victory) for those salivating to make the horrors happen all over again. For them, a day to rejoice and an open invitation to perpetrate their evil once again. For sane and innocent airline passengers and crews, that date will be one of the darker days in this relatively young century. I hope the word "sane" will prevail for the TSA, with Mr. Pistole announcing a reversal of the decision.

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