WASHINGTON (AP) - Airline passengers soon will be allowed to carry small scissors and some sharp tools onto planes, but there will be a trade-off: the prospect of more thorough pat-downs and other extra security checks before they get to the gate.

The changes announced Friday by Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley are aimed at catching terrorists carrying explosives, which the agency considers a greater threat than dangerous objects smuggled into an airplane cabin.

Flight attendants and relatives of some Sept. 11 attack victims strongly oppose the change, saying it will make airliners more vulnerable to terrorist attack.

"They're just inviting trouble," said Marcus Flagg, a cargo pilot whose parents died in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Well, it only took four long years, but at last someone is thinking clearly again. I don't know what kind of idiot would think that spending 90% of security time and resources hassling and inconveniencing 90% of people who are of no threat was ever a good idea to begin with. I dismissed it as useless political posturing. Americans are so stupid they will accept any visible activity as "doing something" about a problem, even if the activity does nothing or, worse, causes more problems.

In this instance we have cowardly whining flight attendants who are evidently afraid of their own shadow, especially if said shadow is armed with a pair of tweezers or mail clippers. The stuff of flight attendant nightmares. My advice: find another job, but I strongly suggest you avoid working in, say, a beauty salon. Unguarded tweezers and nail clippers abound in those dangerous dens of life-threatening iniquity.

Then there are pilots who apparently won't be satisfied until they can personally strip- and cavity-search every passenger, and then have absolute and unquestioned dominance over said passengers for as long as they are on the airplane. Just being able to radio ahead and have someone arrested and publicly humiliated isn't enough. And I thought doctors had God complexes.

Worst of all are the "survivors" who now feel they are uniquely qualified to have an opinion on something they know nothing about. Listen, having friends or relatives die in an airplane crash has done nothing to make you more intelligent, more insightful, or frankly more interesting. Your ides are just as stupid, if not more stupid, as anyone else's. Find something else to do to achieve emotional closure.

Remember that martial arts practicioners can accomplish more with hands and feet than most people can with real weapons, let alone nail clippers. At some point it is just necessary to draw the line because there is a point of diminishing returns. It is unrealistic to try to prevent everyone from doing anything that might possibly be dangerous. It is impossible. Wise security spending and attention would seek to prevent the greatest number or caliber of threat with a reasonable expenditure. Sadly, anyone who cares to be honest (this leaves out all politicians and, in my opinion, almost all people in general) knows that you can put a price on a human life. If it is your money, you know what is a worthwhile expense and what is a waste of money. Some things cannot be prevented. Shit will always happen.