A bunch of dive buddies and I took a ferry to Ireland and suited & kitted up before walking aft and suggesting to fascinated passengers that they not worry, because it's probably nothing, and we'd be sure to inform them over the tannoy if the little problem turned out to be anything serious.

The staff thought it was quite funny, in the end, and they didn't have us sodomised by the police - much to my (retrospective) surprise.

Ah, it was a more innocent age back then.

To roughly paraphrase Doug Stanhope, buy the largest sex toy you can find. Cover it with a mixture of melted chocolate and ketchup, and let it dry. Find some flesh-colored foam and rubber-cement a few tiny bits onto the side of it. Wrap it in aluminum foil, stick it in your suitcase, and enjoy the spectacle when it goes through X-Ray.

I want to knit iron filings into my entire suit.

"You need not scan me, I am magnet-man!"

I won't get deeply into the politics of it all, but would like to add, in case anyone missed it, that this woman used Anne Coulter as a cite in this article. The whole thing smells like a UL (and yeah, I'm aware it actually took place). I'm just sayin'. If there were air marshalls all over the plane, why did they need another passenger to write descriptions? If the airline or anyone else thought they were so F-ing dangerous, why weren't they questioned BEFORE they flight took off? The guy wouldn't return her friendly smile? Wahhh. Muslim men would consider smiling at a woman outside their own family way too intimate. Interesting to note that eating at McDonald's and needing orthopedic shoes should send up a red flag.

And if congregating around the bathroom was a crime, women all over the world would be in lockup for good. This whole thing rang of self-important, whiny, smarmy white-chick prejudice to me. NOTHING happened to the Precious Princess, and she still has to yodel about it.

...marshalls all over the plane...

I don't believe this for a second. They usually put, what, one air marshall on a plane? Maybe two at the most? Do the flight attendants really know who is and who isn't an AM? Is a flight attendant really stupid enough to tell a passenger if they did know?

Interesting to note that eating at McDonald's and needing orthopedic shoes should send up a red flag.

The multiple visits to the bathroom were flagged. To me, if you have a bag of McDonald's food and you aren't visiting the bathroom repeatedly, you're suspect.

You dive in english weather? Ye gods that brings new meaning to blue balls, and here's me thinking Melbourne in the summer was bad.

"what's this for?"
"I use it to violently sodomise off-duty baggage inspectors"

It's almost be worth the ensuing imprisonment and cavity search.

There were 14 Syrians, IIRC. And I agree, it should be a wake up call. We should be awakened to the fact that our prejudices don't always hold water. Their baggage was checked, just like everyone else's. Add that to not doing a fucking thing except making some white people uncomfortable. The widdle weporter was uncomfy on a fwight? Cry me a freaking river. Nobody proved they did ANYTHING wrong. WTF should they have to sit together? Maybe they booked their tickets on PriceLine and that's the only way they could get them. IT'S NOT OUR BUSINESS. THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG. I know! It must have been that weird, non-English language they were speaking. Ethnocentricity in action.

Who are the "terrorists" you're referring to here? Surely not these guys, as the only terror they caused was what Little Miss brewed up in her own mind. Again, they did NOTHING WRONG. But it's okay to discriminate against them, because they have dark skin... Go ahead and "scream discrimination" if that's what puts the starch in your socks. No skin off my teeth. Probably won't get you very far, unless you can back it up.

BTW, who was who said that people who would give up freedoms for a little temporary security deserving neither? Not being snarky, I really can't remember. I agree though.

Yeah.....what Jane Says :)

Ben Franklin said it.

And while under the rules at the time they didn't do anything wrong, the FAA changed the rules because of them and other situations like theirs, such that you can no longer congregate in the aisles or at the bathroom, and a flight attendant will rigorously check the bathroom every two hours. So next time, they WILL be doing something wrong, and it WILL be our business.

Franklin said it, but I seem to remember that someone else (Jefferson?) had a very similar quote, so one may have borrowed it from the other.

Yeah, next time, it will be. However, it wasn't "wrong" at the time, and had anyone else been doing it, they rules likely would not have changed at all.

Thanky for the amen, DanaC.

This is not the only instance.

Instance of what? Where did you read that one of these fourteen guys tried to break through a wall? Again, they were INNOCENT. Did NOTHING. They did nothing but offend the bigoted sensibilities of some white chick on a plane. That is all.