The terrorists won - here's proof

Just returned from a trip that included several airports. I've grown to accept the 3 oz. toiletries in their magic ziploc bag. Having to take off my shoes and go barefoot through security. The inability to bring a drink through. I do appreciate the airports that have the segregated lines for "black diamond" travelers who know what their doing. And being allowed to carry scissors and knitting needles again. Overall these "security measures" are pretty ridiculous and certainly don't make us any safer.

But having dinner during a layover I encountered the final straw. I ordered a steak at TGIFridays. I somehow never eat red meat on business trips, and usually by the end really crave it. See, I'm not really a vegetarian, I just play one on TV. A lot of meals are sponsored and usually chicken or veg., and we always seem to eat sushi as our late night supper. Anyway, I get my steak and silverware. Instead of the normal big steak knife I'm used to seeing, I get this instead:A cheap plastic picnic knife. Not even a high duty one, just the crap that would come with a fast food salad. It was a pretty thick steak cooked medium-rare. I almost called the server over about it, but then realized I was already through security and could have stolen my steak knife and done nefarious things with it on the plane. No point in complaining. I started cutting my steak. No, I started sawing at it, shredding the meat. Each stroke of the "knife" got through about a millimeter of it, and it made a horrid sound of muscle fibers tearing. It took almost a minute LITERALLY to cut off a couple pieces. I kept at it, rapidly losing my appetite and thinking this is the type of meal that makes me lean towards going veg. It wasn't long before my knife broke and I gave up.

So now, 7 years later, the response to the terror attacks are still far-reaching. The point of terrorists is to cause terror and disrupt normal life. And they've succeeded. They prevented a tired American traveler from enjoying a grilled steak as her last meal before heading home. And made her worry about using buzzwords like 'terrorist' in an innocuous blog post. Really, I have a slight nervous feeling, like the PATRIOT police are gonna come get me. Tsk tsk.