Big Brother Says: Keep Your Shoes On

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Here's something I bet you thought you'd never hear, a bit of good news from the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA says it is now okay to keep your shoes on when going through security checks at the airport. The bad news is, you now have to take off your pants. I'm kidding. Not about the shoes, just the pants part.

Shoe removal has been part of the airport experience since 2006, when the TSA instituted the requirement, citing intelligence indicating a "continuing threat" of explosives. The rule came after Richard Reid tried — and failed — to ignite his homemade shoe explosives on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22, 2001. So ever since then, almost 20 years, we've all had to take our shoes off and walk in our socks on disgusting airport floors in order to get through security.

Walking on filthy floors in one's socks is bad enough. But some people don't even wear socks. It's enough to make you throw up.

In all that time did anyone find a shoe explosive in someone's shoe going through security? The answer is no. Another big government stupid restriction finally gets removed.

The transportation agency has spent years looking for an innovative way to allow passengers to move faster through the security checkpoints. Maybe next on the list they will allow us to carry shampoo again.

Speaking of shoes, how about people keeping their shoes on when they're on the plane? Now that's a rule I could support. Who wants some slob taking off their shoes and putting their feet up on the seat next to you? It happens in movie theaters too. These people should be thrown out of the theater. And thrown off the plane too, yes even if the plane is in the air.

All of this has nothing to do with me, however, since I don't travel anymore. I haven't been on an airplane in many years. But I remember when I did. And I remember hating the airport and the dehumanizing ritual of taking off my shoes before boarding the plane. I had no choice back then, my job required that I had to fly. Thankfully I'm retired and those days are long past. Today I travel from my bedroom to the bathroom and from the bathroom to the kitchen and from the kitchen to the den. And I can do all that either with or without my shoes on.

I prefer to wear slippers.

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