Today's Color: Orange

Just for kicks and giggles, I wandered over tonight to the Department of Homeland Security homepage. The current threat level today is (you guessed it!): Orange.

"Only small amounts of liquids, aerosols and gels are allowed in carry-on baggage. See the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) website for up-to-date information on items permitted and prohibited on airlines."

Translation: "Attention all terrorists: Perhaps today's not so much your day. If you'd like to try anyway, the TSA website tells you that your best hope of a carry-on weapon is a corkscrew, screwdriver or other tool shorter than 7 inches, or a pair of scissors."

The list of acceptable items is a nice thing to have available, but I don't think to many (if any) other nations use a "Threat Level" system like we do, or at least if they do it's not so readily available to everybody. Why would I take issue with this? Obviously it could change on a day to day basis, so all a potential bomber or hijacker has to do is check the threat level on the DHS website everyday until the threat level (and therefore the security procedures) reaches it's lowest point, making his job as easy as possible. Why tell them whether or not there are going to be special checks at the airport?