TSA confiscates Congressman Tim Ryan’s next few meals

I have a lot of respect for Congressman Tim Ryan for taking the Food Stamp Challenge. Recently as he was taking a commercial flight the TSA confiscated his peanut butter and jelly, depriving him of meals for two days. I posted the following comment on his blog (here slightly edited), though it has not yet shown up. Perhaps it is pending approval.

Dear Congressman Ryan,

I want to thank you for taking the Food Stamp Challenge, and I’m very sorry to hear about your misfortune of losing some of your meals to the TSA.

In addition to your obvious concern over the food stamp program, perhaps you could also introduce legislation to get the TSA to ease up a bit on some of the more ridiculous “security” measures they have imposed, such as the completely ineffectual liquid ban. There is no credible evidence that terrorists could actually use liquids in carry-on luggage as a binary explosive powerful enough to endanger a commercial passenger jet.

I’m entirely in favor of the TSA imposing restrictions that actually improve airline safety, but neither the ban on liquids nor the requirement of a photo ID provide actual security. They are just “security theater”, and the only actual effect is to make travel less convenient for honest, law-abidiing citizens, including yourself.

Sincerely,
Eric Smith