TSA confiscates cupcake, calls frosting a "gel"

Rebecca writes,

At Las Vegas International Airport, TSA supervisor [REDACTED] is keeping travelers safe from the terror of delicious cupcakes-in-a-jar. I learned this firsthand earlier today, when I put myself and my fellow travelers at risk by attempting to travel with one.

The agent who first found my dangerously delectable snack consulted [REDACTED] about it just barely within my earshot. He responded hesitantly at first, saying that he was "not sure"--and "with the holidays coming, it's getting harder and harder." When he finally decided my treat was a no-go, I asked to speak with him directly, and he asserted that the frosting on this red velvet cupcake is "gel-like" enough to constitute a liquid, in part because it "conforms to its container." Also: it "should have been in a zip-lock." At this, I offered to scoop my dangerously conformist cupcake out of its jar and place it in a zip-lock bag, where it could mush about to its heart's content; but Agent [REDACTED] wisely refused. After all, the jar in all its tasty glory "clearly contains more than 3 ounces of total contents," he said.

I then explained to [REDACTED] that I'd been allowed to bring cupcakes-in-jars through Boston's Logan airport on my outbound flight with no problem (the TSA agent there had exclaimed, "These look delicious!"). To this logic, [REDACTED] responded, "If Boston had done their job right in the first place, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now." (Take that, Boston!)

CLEARLY [REDACTED] is in the right, because unbeknownst to him, when I had previously opened one of these marvelous cupcakes on the flight from Boston, everyone's safety was jeopardized. There was pandemonium among my hunger-crazed fellow travelers: Everybody wanted one. (Just like [REDACTED], who probably ate my cupcake on his next break.)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: authoritarianism • aviation • christ what an asshole • Food • not food • security theater • tsa

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

seyo

Am I missing something or did the TSA agent’s name somehow become un-redacted in the last paragraph?
- unmoris
  
  Which name? Epps? Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps. Epps.
- http://www.macinations.net moldor
  
  I hope he pissed in the jar too !
- ChurchTucker
  
  Why is it redacted in the first place? Shame these bastards.
Zero Sonico

Oops, Epps!
lafave

Epps
http://twitter.com/kcmpls Kassie

EPPS!!!
xunker

I am grateful to [REDACTED] because without his ignorance I would have never know about the existence of Cupcakes in Jars which, in my opinion, are pretty sweet sounding.
- maryn
  
  And by “REDACTED,” you mean “Epps.”
mneptok

I see what you did there.
Damien

I for one am glad that TSA agents are keeping the skies safe from cupcake-wielding terrorists.
As for the theory that the unredacted Epps consumed the tasty contraband foodstuff, it’s probable he didn’t enjoy that aspect of his duty. He was “taking s bullet” as a service to the nation, and ought to be commended for his bravery. Something to ponder next time you hear someone humbly say “Just doing my job.”
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

E-e-e-e-e-e-e-epps!!! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
- miasm
  
  Dude! He’s not worth it! ┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)
soundhound

Common sense fail.

Again.
peterblue11

Aiport Security in Germany (Cologne) confiscated 4 rolls of my masking tape. Said i could tie somebody up with it, my guess is he had some painting to do.
http://twitter.com/Digisplicer Jason Byfield

Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass but do you really expect them to make a judgment call on something that falls within the “Danger Will Robinson” category, especially if it could cause them to get fired? In these times, job security is paramount so they can provide for themselves and their families. It’s unfortunate that you lost your cupcake but it’s trivial compared to somebody losing their job to convenience you.
- Xof
  
  do you really expect them to make a judgment call
  
  Yes.
  - Rex Sundstrom
    
    And I expect that judgment call to always be on the side of caution.
    If for a second he thought he should not let it fly, he made the right decision.
    
    Having spent my share of time going through airports, this jar would have most certainly been in my checked baggage, as I would pretty much expect it to not get through security with me.
    
    Lack of (somewhat) common sense on the OP.
    - Xof
      
      If for a second he thought he should not let it fly, he made the right decision.
      
      I look forward with great interest to learning how one could interfere with the proper operation of a modern commercial jet liner with a cupcake while in the passenger cabin.
    - marilove
      
      You expect a cupcake not to go through security? There’s nothing liquid about it.
      
      This isn’t “on the side of caution”. This is “on the side of ridiculous security theater”. No one is safer because a freakin’ cupcake wasn’t allowed onto the plane. You do realize that the TSA has never, in fact, caught a bomb (let alone a cupcake-bomb) and there has been study after study where bombs/guns were *easily* brought past security.
      
      I’m not comfortable giving away my rights and freedoms in the name of “security”. Why are you?
    - TheMudshark
      
      I see the conditioning that really lies at the heart of this whole security sharade has already worked it´s magic on you.
    - Jer_00
      
      The fuck?
      
      The problem is the people who put the poor “security” schlub into this position in the first place. Who the fuck should even be asked to THINK about whether an actual “cupcake in a jar” could be a threat to airline security? Nobody – the worst they should be asked to contemplate is whether “cupcake in a jar” is actually hiding something that isn’t a cupcake in a jar (and, frankly, if you want to go there you’re going to have to start flying naked, and with a full rectal exam before you get onto the plane).
      
      I actually feel bad for about 80% of the TSA schlubs who are just working-class folks doing a job that most of the time is a seriously ugly amount of “busy work” – being paid to be actors in a politician’s “security theater production” cannot possibly be either lucrative or enjoyable. This guy might fall into that 80% – a schlub who is worried about losing his job if his boss finds out that he wasn’t playing his part in the “security theater production” of the day. (Of course he might also fall into that 20% of TSA people I can’t stand – the ones who are just actors in somebody else’s security theater but have decided to use it to act the part of a bully. Give some folks a bit of fake power and it goes to their heads).
      
      (Percentages, like 86% of all percentages found on the Internet, were pulled out of the ether and should be used for entertainment purposes only…)
- ChicagoD
  
  Really? That might be a valid argument for some situations, but he alleged that (a) the gel frosting was “liquid” and that (b) the TOTAL contents of the container was over 3 ozs. He went through a two step analysis to confiscate the cupcake on purely technical grounds and you say there was no judgment applied? There was, but it was stupid.
  - tlwest
    
    I’m not so sure. He’s the one who walked away with a delicious cupcake.
    - Allison Rockwell
      
      For what it’s worth, all items surrendered to TSA are immediately discarded – no officers take anything home with them.
      
      People intending to do harm to others will go to great lengths to disguise their tools – and ruling out disguising an explosive as a cupcake in a jar just because “it’s so obviously just a cupcake” is a failure of imagination that could lead to a very serious negative outcome. Then when a terrorist attack is successful, and it turns out the bomb was snuck in in the guise of a cupcake, then TSA is blamed for not being vigilant enough. They can’t win.
      
      Have liquid or gel-like items you want to take with you – peanut butter, jam, booze, cupcake in a jar – put it in your checked bag. Easy. End of story.
      - Liz Snyder
        
        Um, so have the “suspect” take a bite of their “cupcake”. Mystery solved.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        People intending to do harm to others will go to great lengths to disguise their tools
        
        Please feel free to provide us with a list of disguised weapons/bombs that people have tried to sneak onto airplanes in the last decade.
      - Zig
        
        How about everyone who feels the great need for this security theater give up flying? Then the rest of us don’t have to make the decision to not fly *or* give up our rights, freedoms and dignity?
        
        All of you who are so supportive of this cupcake seizure, do you every cross a street? Climb a ladder? Go for a drive? These are far more likely ways of dying. Hell, you are more likely to die choking on some bit from your next meal.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UADZ6GH4FTP3HZXMNM73MWDKT4 Johnathan
  
  Jason,
  
  I will loose my job unless I take a dollar from you. I know that this is unfortunate for you, but your loss is trivial to my loss of a job. In fact your loss is nothing more that an inconvenience.
  
  Your logic is flawless.
  - tlwest
    
    Sorry, but if nobody takes the job, then nobody flies – the law is the law.
    
    Let’s remember that *we* are the voters that fairly consistently defeat any politician who doesn’t come down hard on the side of inconvenience over the appearance of security.
    
    We’re a democracy – we hold collective responsibility for the actions of the politicians we choose to elect. Blaming the enforcer is evasion of responsibility.
    
    In this specific case, however, I’d say that the icing (the problematic part) *doesn’t* conform to the container – it’s conforming to the cupcake. That, and unless I’m mistaken, there’s not 3 ounces of frosting.
    
    The OP was right to complain about the mis-enforcement. I don’t think that you are right to complain about people who take the job of enforcer.
    - MichaelZWilliamson
      
      BATFE recently reversed one of its “interpretations” of firearm law, when it realized the potential inadvertent noncompliance with this very esoteric ruling was in the millions.
      
      So, yes, I have every right to blame TSA’s blue-costumed Pedosmurfs, insult their sub-par intellects, below-average penis sizes, and pathetic inability to secure real employment. I have the right to snicker and mock them in restaurants, stereotype them, complain about their slovenly dress and slushy physiques.
      
      If enough of them quit, the flying passengers and airlines will demand Congress make air travel more accessible.
- http://www.facebook.com/bbumgarner Bill Bumgarner
  
  As a taxpayer, I’d like to see the entire waste that is the, wait, $900B or so spent on the TSA put to good use as it is currently completely a waste.
  
  Time and again, security experts have documented exactly how completely and utterly useless, incompetent, and ridiculous the security theater of the TSA truly is.
  
  What a farce.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  So everyone should bend over just so someone can keep their job (think of his family!)? Sorry, rights and dignity trump paychecks.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Sorry, rights and dignity trump paychecks.
    
    But…how is the invisible hand supposed to work if you fetter it with extraneous concepts like dignity?
    - ben_b
      
      Yes the invisible hand of worthless make work government jobs. That’s not the invisible hand its the iron fist.
- VicDog
  
  No, I don’t want my civil rights violated so he can have a job! Are you serious?
  - Paul Cotter
    
    Sorry, but I’m not sure where the right to fly with cupcakes is written. Can you remind me?
    - sueb262
      
      You’ve got it backwards (thanks to “security” brainwashing). Rights are broad and inclusive; it’s the exceptions that are narrow and must be written.
    - ben_b
      
      10th amendment. If the government isn’t given the power to take your cupcake, they can’t.
http://twitter.com/cjporkchop cjporkchop

SNL nailed it.
http://www.talkairline.com/aviation-videos-pictures/videos/440/tsa-training-snl-skit
http://twitter.com/inked2ways April Pavis

I would have left the security line, slowly enjoyed my cupcake-in-a-jar treat, then walked back through security.
- seyo
  
  Yup. Or just eaten it right there in front of Officer Epps.
  - bcsizemo
    
    Then he wouldn’t have let them get on the plane. Obviously the frosting would have combined with the cake in the stomach creating toxic gasses. That would have been expelled several hours later mid-flight rendering everyone unconscious… Who knows what terror lurks in the heart of those delicious look cupcakes?
    - SomeGuyNamedMark
      
      Tell officer Epps you’ll barf it back up on the plane then the terrorists will win.
  - tylhan
    
    Alas, when travelling with a toddler, going back through the security line is not worth even a very delicious cupcake. Officer Redacted also wouldn’t even let us open the jar to show him the non-gellish nature of the frosting, let alone allowing us to eat it.
  - Freeman63
    
    If Epps is, in fact, an officer. Very, very few members of the TSA have any law enforcement training at all.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Very, very few members of the TSA have any law enforcement training at all.
      
      I’m afraid that the training budget has been cut in order to pay for more astroturfers.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Then they would have called the bomb squad to blow you up.
F. Alberu Beckmann

Christ, what an asshole…
- jimh
  
  [REDACTED], what an asshole!
maryn

Last week, French security took some soft cheeses away from me because they were too gel-like (OK, moelleux). It happened to be lunchtime.
- Paul Renault
  
  Did they confiscate the baguette from the passenger/victim behind you?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DFKQKBE2T6AQB2EU3OVPQXEFAE Tina
  
  Noooooo! Take anything but not my lovely, soft, ripe, stinky cheeses!! Oh, the humanity (and I am NOT being sarcastic! Cheese-ly-ness is next to Godliness!)
  - eryximachus
    
    So god smells of unwashed feet?
    - http://twitter.com/madalykat Chip Lake
      
      But of course.
http://www.zachstronaut.com/ zachstronaut

And naturally, if Epps did not eat the alleged bomb, he probably threw the alleged bomb away in a standard waste basket where it could detonate and kill everybody standing at the security checkpoint. If it could be a bomb, shouldn’t they call in the bomb squad? I don’t get it.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  Good point. Do all these tubes of toothpaste and face creams end up being stored somewhere and undergo a controlled detonation?
  
  If not then clearly no one thinks these things are actually dangerous. This is the single best example of how ridiculous these laws are I’ve come across (and can’t believe it hadn’t crossed my mind).
  
  Anyone know what they do with the stuff they confiscate?
  - joeposts
    
    They throw it out. I had looked it up a while back when I blogged about this same stupidity.
    
    From the TSA Blog:
    
    Early on, there was a move to donate the liquid items to local homeless shelters but we were forced to suspend that practice after the determination was made that there is a liability risk. We couldn’t continue to donate items and not know if the if the water was truly water or if the shampoo was truly shampoo. While unfortunate, the litigious world in which we live forced the abandonment (pun intended) of that process. So now, those items are tossed out.
    
    They argue that it’s safe because liquid bombs require several different components and a complicated setup to detonate – which isn’t going to happen if it is just rotting in a dumpster.
    - marilove
      
      “hey argue that it is safe because liquid bombs require several different components and a laboratory setup to detonate”
      
      And they expect that to happen on an airplane? Last I checked, there weren’t laboratories on airplanes!
      
      And, if they land in a dumpster, wouldn’t it be easy for a dumpster-diver to grab ‘em and then make a bomb?
      Man, this is security theater at it’s best … er, worst.
      - http://dougsamu.wordpress.com doug rogers
        
        Laboratory… lavatory…
    - SomeGuyNamedMark
      
      Nitroglycerin (a liquid) is complicated to detonate?
      - marilove
        
        Apparently not when it’s in a dumpster? Heh
  - http://tsanewsblog.com/214/news/history-repeats-itself-with-tsas-strip-search-tactics/ Lisa Simeone
    
    “Anyond know what they do with the stuff they confiscate?”
    
    Steal it.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  Judging from the large number of people backed up at security checkpoints you might as well skip the plane part and just bring the bomb into the line.
  - phil koltko
    
    Very good point. A typical flight has maybe 100 people on board. At a busy time of day, most airports (and *all* major ones) have at least that many people in line…
  - http://www.zachstronaut.com/ zachstronaut
    
    Somebody sadly bombed the luggage claim area of an airport recently, remember?
MRKiscaden

Why do the terrorists hate us again? Because it certainly isn’t our freedom. We don’t have any of that left.
- AnamDuine
  
  They hate us for our cupcakes?
  - MRKiscaden
    
    The Cupcakes must be made from pork lard.
- Guest
  
  who says torture doesn’t work? 8 years of Bush/Cheney and we’re worn out.
Warren_Terra

If you swallow a cupcake before boarding, does that make you a cupcake mule, like the protagonist in Maria Full Of Grace?
- Shibi_SF
  
  And then everyone will sit around the security office and wait for you to produce the contraband from your butt (heroin pouches or red velvet mush).
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DFKQKBE2T6AQB2EU3OVPQXEFAE Tina
    
    I’d go heavy on the cream cheese frosting!
    - Shibi_SF
      
      Especially if you are lactose intolerant, like me!
PhosPhorious

The idiots don’t even know what they are looking for anymore. We’ve gone from “might be a bomb!” to “might not be safe!”

Epps.
- MrsBug
  
  Yeah, it’s like saying “chemicals are dangerous!”
http://www.tumbleweed.net/ tyger11

The solution to this is poisoned cupcakes. Go ahead, confiscate them.
http://orbitnet.com JIMWICh

an agent named Epps, TSA
saved the Las Vegas Airport today
by diving onto a cupcake-
grenade that a terrorist might make
he ate up the danger, hurray!
vonbobo

put the icing in a small 3 ounce container
carry the cupcake in a seperate jar
Once on plane, spread the icing with a tounge depresser
Enjoy the flavor explosion
myke

You apparently forgot the first rule of going through TSA, Sneeze on your cupcake.
hymenopterid

Now quick, everyone take off your shoes and stand on this greasy strip of carpet that contains pathogens from all over the world!

Its OK, the parasies keep the TB in check, and the antibiotic resistant staph infection has a hard time gaining a foothold with all that ringworm.
Jeff Kaplan

Over Thanksgiving, I took a black-bottom pecan pie through security without so much as a word. And that filling was gel alright, no judgement call necessary (delicious, delicious gel).

The TSA is completely variable from place to place, even checkpoint to checkpoint. The standards are only standards on paper.
- Wordguy
  
  Extra like for pecan pie!
- MichaelZWilliamson
  
  Their hiring standards?
  - Jessica Schlenker
    
    They have hiring standards?
Ramone

LOOK OUT, HE’S GOT A CUPCAKE!

/throws self over cupcake, nomnomnomnomnom
- http://www.tumbleweed.net/ tyger11
  
  Take the shot! Take the shot!
CaptainPedge

Well I sure as hell feel safer ¬_¬
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UADZ6GH4FTP3HZXMNM73MWDKT4 Johnathan

Thank goodness that cupcake was not in a leather hand bag with the shape of a gun embossed on it, and next to a small mason jar of Jam. If that had been the case you would have missed your flight.
Rodolfo Quesada

I was traveling to Istanbul through Madrid, from Costa Rica, when one of the officers refused to let me took my amazing Frijoles Molidos with me under the same supposition. His rationale was that because I could be taking a flight to the USA, he needed to take away my delicious Frijoles Molidos. At least he was decent enough to trash them in front of me. Damn, I missed my Frijoles Molidos in Istanbul.
- DreamboatSkanky
  
  Not Constantinople?
http://twitter.com/chuckmonkey2010 Chuck

It seems to me that the jar itself is much more potentially dangerous that the cupcake.
You could hit someone in the head with the jar, breaking it, probably causing a deep cut, and the broken pieces of the jar could be used as weapons.

Keep the cupcake, trash the jar.
- Shibi_SF
  
  If the jar lid is the two-part canning- type of lid, you could cut someone with the circular insert (the part that forms the vacuum when you, for example, make preserves or jellies). You’d probably cut yourself too but, I guess terrorists aren’t too concerned about secondary injuries.
  - Guest
    
    Not at all, the danger here is diabeetus.
    - Shibi_SF
      
      Aaaaah the silent killer.
http://www.zachstronaut.com/ zachstronaut

Peppermint bonbombs.
telaquapacky

This is just training us to accept the revocation of our civil rights. 9-11 was another Reichstag fire.
- Radka
  
  I love these history lessons I get on boingboing. :)
  There’s no other site on which reading the comments is such a part of the experience as on boingboing for me.
omems

Robble robble motha****a!
http://www.youtube.com/user/ziccup akbar56

Flew home to visit parents just this last week. Knew I would have some time in my dads wood shop so I brought a long a few blocks of wood to turn on the lathe. The blocks of wood went through TSA no problems. But once they were turned into art pieces? TSA wouldn’t allow it. Is it so wrong to want a little consistency between airports?
Lurking_Grue

Nobody better point out to TSA that passengers are made of mostly liquid.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XWELQL77UVU6NQYFU26MJKZGZQ Rikki

Next time put Exlax or alum in them. Let them have it.
- http://twitter.com/Diesel748 A
  
  Best comment so far and right on the mark! LOL
Their feldspars

Why would anyone put a cupcake in a jar?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Because they’re easier to open than tins.
kenvhyt

It’s lame. Very lame.

However, if I were in line, and you were holding it up because of your goddamn frosting, me and everyone behind would want you to throw it away so we can all move forward. Laugh about it now, but when you’re in line, everyone else won’t care about your delicious off the hook shit. Even if there weren’t a line, think ahead and follow the rules. If they won’t allow large amounts of toothpaste for carry-on, what makes you think they’d let in frosting?

Check it in next time.
- http://twitter.com/radishthegreat Radish™OfWillendorf
  
  What makes you think they wouldn’t allow in a baked good?
  - kenvhyt
    
    Baked goods is one thing. Baked goods with frosting is another. I pack my carry-on thinking what would be acceptable and what wouldn’t. Knowing how strict they could be at the airlines, I would check in that jar without thinking twice.
    
    ..but the whole cupcake in a jar thing is a goddamn Martha Stewart fruitcake of an idea.. nice and suspicious looking.
    - marilove
      
      Seriously? Wow. It’s frosting. It’s not even a gel.
      
      Do you like giving away all of your freedoms for the name of “security theater”?
      - kenvhyt
        
        If someone’s smart enough to know that something highly flammable can be made into the consistency of frosting, then more power to them.
        
        Eat your freedom before boarding a plane. Buy more when you get off.
        
        Thumbs up.
    - http://scavenger-ethic.blogspot.com/ scav
      
      Someone remind me why liquids or gels are more dangerous than solids?
      
      And why you can take through 100ml of sarin, nitroglycerin, tetrodotoxin, botulin, concentrated nitric acid etc. as long as it looks like shampoo, but not 500ml of water?
      
      Plus there’s the whole cellphone-battery and duty-free spirit bomb thing, if anyone wanted to blow themselves up in mid-air. Which nobody does really.
      
      Shit, I’m probably going to be on a no-fly list now :)
      - Jessica Schlenker
        
        And then there’s the fact I’m allowed to carry my 17″ laptop on board with me. Do you know how HEAVY that thing is? Not quite a club, but it’ll do in a pinch.
        
        (Wonder if Dell would replace the screen for free, if I cracked it on a terrorist’s head?)
      - kenvhyt
        
        I don’t like all their rules. I especially don’t like how there are so many re: carry-on that we have situations like this come up. Liquids and gels can be tampered with to be something they’re not and there’s no way every one of these agents can catch that.
        
        Except for meds and ID/paperw0rk, I’d be perfectly fine if they did away with carry-on items.
    - MichaelZWilliamson
      
      You are one very suspicious character, and seem to know a lot about this. I think, for the safety of everyone, you should be put on the double top secret probationary do not fly list, and stripped of all potential weapons before flying–belts, shoelaces, clothing that can be torn into strips, toothpaste. Also, given the ah, “consistency” of the material, I think a mandatory enema should be administered, after a 12 hour quarantine.
      
      Make sure you follow the rules. Even the rules that aren’t written down, but created on the spot.
      
      Make sure you think ahead. I don’t to be held up because of your goddam “rights” or some shit. “Rights” are things you have in the privacy of your home, not in public.
      - kenvhyt
        
        O-<-<
        
        Your straw man argument doesn't get past my bs-ometer. Rework it buddy and don't upset yourself too much to make your post look nothing more than a troll job.
        
        I'll follow their rules to the point they become too stringent. It's their "right" to impose them as it's my "right" to find an alternative method of transportation if I decide to disagree. "Right?" "Right."
- Tiffany Allen
  
  OP referred to it as ‘a cupcake,’ so chances are, there wasn’t a “large amount” of frosting. As one is allowed to carry on a small amount of toothpaste, why shouldn’t the same be true for frosting?
  
  Also, I had a TSA agent spend several minutes running “tests” on a (over 3 oz.) bottle of medicine (syrup) that I had medical release form to carry on the plane (as I was treating bronchitis and going to be spending the holidays with my mother, who had just finished chemo and couldn’t be around sick people). Did all my special permission matter? Not really. It still took much longer to get through security, and for the record, nobody around me was mad. Several people were annoyed with the agent, and commenting on how he was causing someone who was already ill extra stress over medication.
  
  Many people would be understanding of someone not wanting to lose their belongings. If you aren’t, or you’re worried about missing your flight–because you were too dumb to arrive early or allow for an adequate layover–then you’re the one with the issue, not the OP.
  - kenvhyt
    
    Ask how much frosting there was. I don’t know. Obviously it was enough for the supervisor to say no.
    
    Re: your syrup. Sounds like you got a bum steer.
    
    The only issue I have is having to wait in line. I want for it to go as schmoovly as possible. As for the jab to the ones that don’t arrive early- I hear you sister; they have issues. Let’s focus on them, k?
Jason Boling

Does anyone seriously believe these semi-literate sloths do a damned thing to make travel the slightest bit safer? This is just the largest and most bloated government agency employing people with skill sets more suited to fast food. Every time I travel through an airport I am more certain the TSA is just the largest of the government welfare programs.
robuluz

Jesus, enough already. You are clearly not protecting anyone or anything with this ridiculous farce. The massive Al Queada cupcake in a jar bomb sleeper cell would have been activated and completed its sweet and deadly mission by now if they had the power. Just stop it, please. You look like a bunch of fucking idiots.
Work_Watch_Buy_Repeat

Headline is inaccurate: TSA has no authority to “confiscate” anything.
TSA would love to intimidate you into thinking it has some kind of legal right to forcibly *take* your things, but in fact it can only *ask*, and then turn you away if you decline.
Happler

I contain more then 3 oz of liquid some times too, yet they fail to ask me to pee in the trashcan before going through security.
peaceloveunderstanding

I know there have been certain TSA agents that have done horrible things, and made bad decisions, but the hatred should not be directed at them – they do not after all make up the rules…..
- http://scavenger-ethic.blogspot.com/ scav
  
  They apply the rules arbitrarily and in some cases maliciously. And it’s not “hatred”. It’s justifiable criticism, without which there would be no limit to incompetence and the abuse of power.
- MichaelZWilliamson
  
  Yes, they are “just following orders.”
imgnr

Terrorists are very ingenious and will take advantage of any flaw in the system (underwear, shoes, printer cartridges, shampoo, etc.) so why not cupcake frosting???
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I would put my terroristic supplies inside a hollowed-out dildo. Nobody wants to touch a used dildo.
  
  Or maybe a fleshlight.
  - phil koltko
    
    “terroristic supplies”
    
    Never heard that particular euphemism before. Interesting…
  - http://twitter.com/Diesel748 A
    
    haHAAAA funny twisted but funny
  - Shibi_SF
    
    Uh, I think that they might *touch it* – remember the “you go girl!” TSA incident?
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Yeah, but that was in the back room where nobody could see them fingering it.
- MichaelZWilliamson
  
  It’s even entirely possible they might insert explosives into a body orifice. I think the only way we can be truly safe is to ensure everyone gets a cavity search before flying.
letterj

while i’m not surprised at all the negative comments on here, the ones blaming this agent in particular are, i think, mis-aimed. i agree with everyone on the “security theater” arguments and the futility and inanity of these restrictions, but at the same time the ppl on the ground enforcing the dumb rules shouldn’t be the focus of our discontentment.

if i’m interpreting correctly, most of the complainers here want, in lieu of some major TSA policy shift, some discretion and judgement exercised by the officers in the execution of their duties. that simply is not going to happen. when considering the massive amounts of travelers processed daily, it would be impossible to find enough security personnel with the expertise required to be able to handle that level of responsibility. the only plausible route is to set a minimum standard for all travelers to adhere to and then hold everyone accountable to that standard. if we have to live with these rules, i’m frankly glad it’s this way, as it decreases the chance that some wrongdoer is able to social engineer his/her way past an inept or overmatched worker (not that this isn’t possible already).

also, the op simply could have avoided all this if they checked it in baggage. you ask for common sense in the officers, why not exercise some of it yourself?

finally, i’m all for reform of these futile security protocols. but what really is the alternative? forget about replying better police or detective work. at the endpoints of airline flights, how best do you reduce the possibility of an attack? for even if one flight gets downed, terrorists will have made their point (tho it shouldn’t be this way). what kind of security system do you set up when even one failure out of millions means you lose the game?
- Rindan
  
  finally, i’m all for reform of these futile security protocols. but what really is the alternative? forget about replying better police or detective work. at the endpoints of airline flights, how best do you reduce the possibility of an attack? for even if one flight gets downed, terrorists will have made their point (tho it shouldn’t be this way). what kind of security system do you set up when even one failure out of millions means you lose the game?
  
  The alternative is to stop acting like a fucking coward, understand that one day you will die, and it will almost certainly be due to something normal and mundane like cancer or a heart attack. The fucking terrorist are not going to kill your fat American ass, McDonalds is. If you are very lucky, you might die of something exciting like a car accident, falling in the shower, or choking on food you shoved into your diabetic American maw.
  
  Seriously, the amount of pissed away time, money, and simple loss of liberty we endure to protect against one of the most absurdly rare ways to die is epic in its stupid. It is even more stupid when you consider that the only two worthwhile security measures worth taking above and beyond what we were already doing were cheap and have proven to be 100% effective. The only two worthwhile security measures that don’t reek of rank cowardice in the face of an absurdly small threat was 1) reinforcing the cockpit doors and 2) telling passengers to beat the living shit out of anyone trying to take over the plane or blow up a bomb. Hell, we proved the effectiveness of #2 on 9/11 the second the passengers on flight 93 realize that the hijackers were not looking for a ransom.
  
  The terrorist are not going to kill you. Diabetes, cancer, heart attacks, falling, cars, or Alzheimer’s is going to kill you. Get over it and stop acting like such a fucking child. Stop wasting my time and money with your childish and cowardly fears by mewing to the government to do the adult equivalent of shining a light under the bed to prove that there are no monsters. Better and braver people than you willingly paid in blood for the liberties you are so quick to piss away at a threat that ranks somewhere between shark attacks and getting struck by lightening.
  
  My security solution? Grow up, stop being such a coward, and if you insist on acting like a child, stop traveling where you are afraid the scary terrorist are going to get you, cower in your house quietly, and stop voting.
  - http://scavenger-ethic.blogspot.com/ scav
    
    Harsh but fair.
  - MichaelZWilliamson
    
    Hey! Hey! TSA obviously can’t reveal all the thousands of terror plots they’ve stopped, due to OPSEC, but statistically, it’s entirely possible they’ve improved your odds of dying in a terror attack from 1:67 million to 1:72 million. So there.
    
    Do you really think there aren’t thousands of grandmotherly-looking ladies on the Al Qaeda rolls, along with goth teens, Texas business executives and GIs in uniform? At last count, there were 23 MILLION members of terrorist organizations (according to security expert Gecko45).
    
    At any moment, one of them may be prepared to blow up a plane with “cupcakes” or “breast milk” or “water.”
    
    I, for one, am glad we have the dedicated members of the TSA, all with above average IQs, to inspect our diapers, colostomy bags, insulin pumps and shoe insoles, just in case some nefarious types stuffed them with explosives in our sleep.
    
    Be alert. Traitors are everywhere. Always carry your laser.
- http://twitter.com/Diesel748 A
  
  Nothing carried aboard the plane Everyone flies naked. Problem solved A quick pass through the x ray machine and away we go
MasterSkrain

And you wonder why I drive everywhere?
- DreamboatSkanky
  
  I *was* wondering that!
Shinkuhadoken

Deliciousness is under attack in this country!
- VicDog
  
  Cupcakes of Mass Destruction!
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/TGZ75URQ6DKTCNXV3RV36ZKALQ Matthew

People still take airplanes to get from place to place? The TSA is doing everything they can to stop them, but I guess people are truly determined to get on those things.
phil koltko

Why is it that you never hear the “government is too big…defecit is too huge” crowd talking about downsizing or eliminating the TSA?
Jonathan Curran

Am I the only one who cares about the cupcakes? Where can I get these cupcakes in a jar. Someone send me some PLEASE!
Palomino

I don’t know Cory, a cupcake in it’s own fancy jar…sounds like something Oprah would have a courier service deliver to her. Are you sure you aren’t one of the 1%, seems a little to decadent.

http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/06/28/red-velvet-cupcakes-in-wait-for-it-jars/
http://twitter.com/Spodzilla Spodzilla

At Atlanta airport back 2008 I watched a young TSA agent hassle an English couple who had arrived with a christmas plum pudding. No amount of explaining, pointing to the photos of the sliced pudding on the wrapper, etc would convince him that it was just a dense cake, and not the jello/mousse variety of pudding. He just kept monotoning “It’s a pudding. You shouldn’t have been travelling with this.” and I really thought they were headed for strife.

Then an older agent, clearly less ignorant, arrived at the scene and in an instant said to his underling “it’s just a cake – let them through”.
http://www.Vernon-J.com/ Vernon J

This is why you should NOT trust the TSA with our saftey, Cupcakes This story makes me think of Green Eggs & Ham.
dean jordan

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/12/tsa-insanity-201112

I still can’t believe any comment-ors that fly regularly and believe for one second that the TSA does jack sh*t for security. What happened to our brains?? Give up all your rights, be treated like a criminal, take off your shoes, and why, why? Because we are collectively morons? The lady at the Social Security office told me it’s because of the guys that flew the planes into the buildings. Oh, so we lost? Just like that. Done. The mighty U.S. of A. done. All freedom, rights, and common sense thrown out the window at the first whiff of terror.I fly all the time and like others, can not believe the BS that these guys come up with. No reason, we just like to make it hell on you to fly.21st century, Devolution. Idiocracy. All come true. Good luck folks. ps. The fact that Jason got any likes for his ridiculous attempt at logic just shows what a failure our whole society has turned out to be. People think low paying non thinking jobs trumps the Bill of Rights?
kazikian

My main problem with the current TSA regulations is that I could hijack a plane with only materials available on board that plane.
- http://scavenger-ethic.blogspot.com/ scav
  
  Joining me on the no-fly list are you?
brerrabbit23

If you’re responsible for administering a process which requires no thought, discernment, or insight, your job should be automated out from under you.
Hedley

Am I missing something, or is the author – and seemingly all of the commenters – completely ignoring the fact that said cupcake was enclosed in a GLASS jar? If they won’t let you take a pair of nail clippers on a plane, or let you eat your overpriced rancid airline food with a metal fork, why would anyone assume that it would be acceptable to take a GLASS jar on a plane? Anyone who has flown anywhere even once in the past ten years ought to have packed the jar in checked luggage as an automatic instinct.
- Michael Birks
  
  Because the agent in question wasn’t making an issue of the glass jar. From the OP, it was the contents that were the problem.
  
  If the issue had been stated in terms of the jar, we might have had a different set of comments.
BombBlastLightingWaltz

If the Airline Industry spent as much money on maintenance as the TSA does on “Security”, perhaps there would be less planes crashing due to malfunctions.
- MichaelZWilliamson
  
  Yes, the 47 planes that crashed yesterday point out this danger. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_safety#Statistics
veerod

I have had those cupcakes! They’re made by a company called Wicked Good Cupcakes in Cohasset, MA, and they are incredible! I think this TSA agent simply knew a good thing when he saw it and was looking for a great snack. I have to say, he may be smarter than we’re all giving him credit for :-)
http://tsanewsblog.com/214/news/history-repeats-itself-with-tsas-strip-search-tactics/ Lisa Simeone

Par for the course for the morons and thugs in the TSA. So glad his name has gotten out there. He’s a public servant; we pay his salary. If he’s so proud of his “service” to the country, he should want his name shouted from the rooftops.
optuser

Looks like delicious C4 to me.

The TSA does detect and remove handguns from passengers on an almost daily basis. But yeah, things can be smuggled through.
williamftaylor

Rules are rules. If I were a terrorist I would watch what the TSA folks DID NOT TAKE and put an explosive there. The TSA is doing it’s job and be thankful for that. You never know what devious method a terrorist will use next time and, believe me, they are thinking about it. Better safe than sorry! Allow cupcakes and some day an 80 years old woman with one in her plastic bag will be a terrorist agent. Just obey the rules and make us all safer.
reneemjones

Why do we accept the authority of such morons?
Jim Thomason

Your cupcake contained pandemonium? Isn’t that like uranium?

No wonder your cupcake was confiscated. Terrorist.
MichaelZWilliamson

From my observations, I think the Pedosmurfs must confiscate a whole lot of cupcakes, and eat them all to keep us safe.
http://twitter.com/emaresjo Erik Maresjo

Other items that they confiscate include Speculoos and Nutella.
rchains

Dear TSA Agents, please repeat after me: Cupcakes are not terrorist threats. Cupcakes are our FRIENDS.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/30062442/detail.html#.TvSfTOAidDo.twitter
http://twitter.com/letkevin Kevin Letourneau

Rebecca and the Threatening Cupcake now have a Facebook page. Solidarity, people! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rebecca-and-the-Threatening-Cupcake/203224156432842
http://morelife.org/ Kitty Antonik Wakfer

Whoever did the redacting – hiding of – the TSA agents’ names has made it difficult for negative Social Preferencing towards those individuals to take place by others who might know them, even simply just on the Internet. If reasoned logic does not convince someone to change his/her unacceptable behavior – and being part of government, especially enforcement agencies is definitely not productive of value – then having NO VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION is the proper course to take. More: http://selfsip.org/focus/protestsnotenough.html

But anonymity given to such agents – especially cops and military as the ultimate harm-causers of government enforcers – puts obstacles in such non-violent response to government. And remember that government legislation is nothing but words without the enforcers, those willing to threaten and initiate physical force.

Enforcers may try conceal their own names and faces, but don’t help them hide by redacting information that will enable others to SHAME, SHUN and OSTRACIZE them.
el dueno

Just another indication that the “Era of Fear” started with the Bush administration continues even as no credibility enemy exists. TSA as other public agencies, is not really established and run for the people but for its employees. Strict enforcement of arbitrary rules characterize useless government agencies.
http://twitter.com/Cemetary_Grave Wouldn’t u like 2 no

seriously?……a cupcake?…….remind me not to buy any cupcakes in jars for fear of being blown up
Fisher1949

Funny how it’s NEVER the TSA’s fault. The brave workers of TSA, protecting us from cupcakes, shampoo and incontinent old ladies. This agency is a disgrace that employs criminals and misfits. It just doesn’t seem to stop. If they’re not stealing from passengers, they’re strip searching them, groping their kids or harassing them. TSA needs to be shut down and anyone who voted to fund them voted out of office.
TheMadLibrarian

I recently flew home with 2 place sets of my deceased grandmother’s best china carefully bubblewrapped as my carryon. Yes, it could conceivably have been broken and used as a weapon, but it wouldn’t have survived conventional shipping, so what were my options? According to the TSA mantra, “If we think you could weaponize it, we have the right and duty to search and/or confiscate it, no matter what it is,” including colostomy bags, breast milk, and now apparently cupcakes.
dboc

Yeah but Wicked Good Cupcakes is right across from the Whitney Rail Spur Trail which ends at what used to be an annex to the Back River USN ammunition depot in Hingham. During the Vietnam War the facility was used to make land mines. Maybe the cupcake bakers have reopened the mine facility and sneak down there to make explosive cupcakes. (OK, gotta go put more tinfoil on my hat now, but google earth will show where i mean) PS Not a Wicked Good fan, addicted to French Memories in the village
K P

That’s one way to get a free cupcake…
http://twitter.com/TokyoVinh ビンホアン/ vinh hoang

Freedom of bringing your favorite items is gone since 9/11. For a time-consuming attitude and regulation, not all airports follow a same procedure, but passengers at least know there are more people waiting at check-point. If you can purchase things at local stores in 50 states, you’d better to do so in each visit, not to use your time for debates because others can do a same concept to block a process. That is another point. 300 passengers want to do so for 300 plus 1 minute to 3 minutes, to make a messy
http://www.facebook.com/people/Marc-Antoine-Lamoureux/100002674707708 Marc-Antoine Lamoureux

But cupcakes are a happy food.
David Poffenberger

The terrorists have won.