Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Pocketknives and Safety


Most guys carry a pocketknife, and I'm no exception. The one I prefer is a swiss army knife, with a small knife blade, scissors, a blade with a screwdriver, and inserts containing a pair of tweezers and a toothpick. The knife blade is just slightly larger than the width of a quarter. It's small and compact, yet able to open a package or dislodge a stuck piece of food.

The government is threatened by this knife. To board the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, you must go through security similar to the security at airports. The Park Service police removed the pocketknife from my key chain, and seized it.

I can only assume that the knife was threatening to the security of the ferry (it could have drilled holes in the hull), to the crew (it could have threatened the life of the crew), or to the monument (it could have cut through the arm holding the torch).

Now that I know how dangerous it is, I'm thankful that I never injured myself with it. Since I've carried it for years, I'm probably lucky to be alive! Certainly, it could not be the government overreacting.

1 comment:

Faye said...

BLB, here we go again! This comment doesn't exactly relate to the deadly threat of carrying a pocketknife to homeland security, but I thought would share this link with you. Here's a quiz that supposedly identifies the presidential candidate whose views are most closely aligned with yours:

http://www2.wqad.com/av2008/selectacandidate/quiz.php

Thought you might find this an interesting exercise after reading some of your posts in this blog. I was a bit surprised by my quiz results--Kucinich 48%, Dodd 45%. Knew my leanings were liberal, but not quite that extreme! Luckily there's plenty more debates to watch before we have to make up our minds. . .

You're smart to have two separate blogs. I have to walk a fine line because some of my dearest and oldest friends are quite conservative in contrast to my views. I try to throw in some other topics just to keep them reading.

Have a good week-end and I'll check in periodically to see what's stewing in your political pot.

Thought you might get a kick out of