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If ever you needed evidence that all the horse crap you have to go through in order to get on a commercial airliner these days is nothing but foolishness, read this gem from Reuters [Alternate source: PDF - Flatulent Passenger Grounds Flight]:

It may be one problem airline security officials never envisioned — a passenger lighting matches in flight to mask odors from her flatulence.

The woman’s actions resulted in an emergency landing on Monday in Nashville of an American Airlines flight bound for Dallas from Washington, D.C., said Lynne Lowrance, a spokeswoman for Nashville’s airport.

And there, in one laugh, is the sorry tale of how billions of your tax dollars are pissed down a hole every year.

Note that the $5.5 billion welfare program called the Transportation Security Administration, and American Airlines, did the following:

• They let this total retard get on the plane; probably because the screeners had an even lower IQ and less wits than the passenger.
• They had to be informed by other passengers that the distinct sulfur odor of lit matches was wafting through the cabin.
• They spent three hours questioning the passengers, searching the plane and otherwise impeding the lives of the people who have the sense not to treat an airplane cabin like an outhouse.
• They didn’t charge the idiot who caused all this trouble with anything, because there was “no malice.”

In other words, we have a security system that consumes the entire GDP of the Bahamas, yet it allows a total dingbat to carry matches onto the plane, panics when those matches are lit, clearly causes the woman to be fearful and thus, uncooperative, inconveniences untold scores of passengers for hours, then doesn’t punish the woman, even though her actions were clearly negligent and clearly caused damages to others.

Do the world a favor. The next time someone says, “If it prevents even one terrorist attack, it’s worth it” when discussing any national security outrage, light a fart in his face.