The guffaws and looks of exasperation I received when I mentioned I hadn't heard about the bomb plans were enough to tell me that I must really be out of the news loop. "It's all over the News!" Jim said with a hairy eyeball that made me feel slightly unamerican.
So I went to some news sites to find out more. I found out that people were having to pour out their shampoos and lotions before boarding planes. That has to be good for the shampoo/lotion economy. I read that the latest possible terrorist attack was going to be from a few people that planned to meet on the plane and mix their individual ingredients into a big bomb, and then kill themselves and drop the plane out of the sky, killing everybody.
The more news stories I watched, the more stories I heard. I heard that people were going to use a Gatorade bottle and fil it with other stuff. I heard that people were going to use a bottle of Gatorade and just add some other ingredients to the sugar/electrode mix. I heard that all of this information was freely available on the Internet and that these types of bombs are being made all the time.
I also heard that little voice in my head that says 'Be skeptical, your government lies.'
Were there people going to mix ingredients of bombs once they got on the same plane? Sure. I can accept that. There are people who do more than just believe in their religion and decide to share it with others with some really bad marketing choices. I can accept that. I can accept that they were ready to do some serious damage.
I am grateful that they were caught before anyone died.
But I don't want to ever watch the news again. It makes me feel like if I take my shampoo and mix it with my conditioner on my own, I am going to blow away my scalp, my shower, and my neighborhood.
After watching the news, I feel like if the checkout boy puts a can of raid in the same plastic bag as a snickers bar I will be carrying the equivalent of 40 M80's.
Please, keep the news away from me. They scare me more than a terrorist.
