Things I took on a plane last week that could potentially be used as weapons and are still allowed on board to the best of my knowledge:
A pen - see "Casino"
Razor blades
Divot repair tool (if I sharpened the prongs, they could kill)
None of these are difficult for me to see as weapons, and I've always found it ironic that the TSA would not allow cuticle scissors but would allow razor blades.
Some of you know that I own and coach at a fencing salle. We sent a bunch of our youth fencers to New York in the spring for a regional tournament. Most of them came back on the same flight, but one family stayed a little later. On the way back, the TSA refused to let them carry on their epees because they were "weapons". Remember that there aren't sharp or pointy edges on these things as a rule, but the TSA made the family check the blades, where they were lost for 4 days and finally showed up with 3 of the 5 snapped and all unworkable. It's even more ironic when I know for a fact that the current national champion in the shot put carries his shot on every flight, domestic and international (he mentioned it in an interview with "Track and Field News"). For those of you unfamilar with the shot put, it's a 14 lb iron ball that was originally thrown to crush the armor of your enemy. And this guy can throw one 75 feet or so.
As far as the racial profiling thing goes, I really don't have that big of a problem with it so long as they're not ignoring Timothy McVeigh's successor (is that you, dksuddeth?
). Let's remember that hijacking in this country was pioneered by the Cubans and the far radical left.