Paranoia

"There was a turtle by the name of Bert and Bert the turtle was very alert;
when danger threatened him he never got hurt he knew just what to do..."
- Duck and Cover theme

So a bunch of guys who were alleged to have conspired to attack airplanes with improvised explosives have been taken into custody. The idea that explosives may come in liquid form apparently came as a amazing revelation to many young children, functionally-retarded adults, and Homeland Security Directors. Because of this development, new restrictions on the liquids one may take on a plane were issued. Somehow, the list included toothpaste, saline solution, and coffee...

This is just paranoid excess. I don't believe for a minute that these actions really result in significantly safer flights. If some bad actor really wants to become a homicide bomber (sic) and has access to the resources attributed to organizations like Al Qaeda, then there is nothing airport security can do to stop him from putting together a big charge of a non-metallic explosive, a micro-detonator, and a timer, concealing it on his person in an conventionally undetectable manner (such as swallowing it or- to use the vernacular- sticking it where the sun don't shine), and boarding a plane… This really isn't science-fiction type technology here. Worse, this hypothetical bomber isn't going to be discovered using any airport security methods acceptable to the flying public.

If, half a decade after September 11th, airport security still can't determine whether the stuff in a passenger's coffee cup is coffee or acetone, then we've been fooling ourselves: we just don't have whatever it takes to make our flights any safer in the near term and we're wasting everyone's time and money pretending we can. If we really can't tell what's in the cup, then modern security is a bad joke and we should just face the facts, quit wasting everyone's time, go back to September 10th style airport security, and put our faith in the old law enforcement methods.