Seriously, Airports have become land mines for all sorts of folk who exhibit harmless idiosyncrasies in other environs. Indeed, it seems that it is open season on anybody stepping out of line in these places. Or even having something or acting in a way some person might be suspicious of.
Star was wearing this gadget around MIT, perhaps many students had similar silly (or perhaps trend setting) fashion inventions. I guess the MIT security guards were more sanguine. How did the LED sneaker get its start? After the shoe bomber, one might think better of wearing such a thing.
Anyway, I'm with you. Paranoia is spreading through this country.
My dad was an MIT alum and I know a lot of his fraternity brothers. This sort of thing, and much much worse, goes way way back. If the campus police don't have a sense of humor they find their car on top of the MIT dome, complete with dumbies with a box of donuts, and a freshly made out parking ticket (True story)>
Next time you see a tape of an F-22 standing on its tail 15 ft off the ground, think about where all of the people who make that stuff happen come from. This is the spirit of invention that made our country (well ok the fashion statement is a bit corny). Lose it and we will be like many third rate countries in the world -though I guess we will FEEL safe and orderly with all the sheep mozzying along contentendly.
The sneering here about how smart people behave comes from a lot of folks who don't even begin to know.
America is becoming such a land mine of paranoia about nothing. It is very very sad. We excuse it apparently by the lingering collective post traumatic stress from 9/11, as some have expressed it. This kind of wallowing in self-pity as an excuse for moral lassitude is an insult to people who had genuine losses from 9/11 and its aftermath. I am not one of those and I suspect we are not hearing from many who were.