I have never met Dr. Munger, but I have seen his pic. Therefore, I don’t think we can automatically chalk this up to total incompetence (as in, “hey, a guy tried to take something REALLY dangerous on a plane…oh well, let him go on his merry way”).

It could be: “Bob, we’ve got a big knife…pull the owner out of line…..OK, look at this guy he (1) doesn’t raise any red flags in ‘appearance’ [yup, I mean profiling] (2) isn’t listed on the suspicious names list, (3) could probably be restrained by a flight attendant with stale peanuts even BEFORE the air marshal popped a cap in him, and (4) reacted with such shock and surprise when we first calmly approached him that he nearly pissed himself…let the guy go.”

Of course….given the mounting anecdotal evidence elsewhere, they could also be morons.

PS scissors are no longer banned, anyway:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901614.html

Mike is a rather, how shall we say it, large man (he might even give you a run for your money). Frighteningly large. If they were profiling, I’d put him right behind anyone named Akhmed.

I’m going more with the “moron” theory, especially after having flown out of RDU three times in the past 6 weeks.

Must be the angle of the pic ( http://www.duke.edu/~munger/contact.html ) ...but that jacket screams “harmless college professor.”

On the other matter, I may be large, but I am WAY too dorky looking to be profiled. As you well know, I make Dr. Munger look like Brad Pitt.

By the way, I think I’m going to have my “majors only” section of American Government this spring read Dr. Munger’s essay, “Democracy is a Means, not an End” and use it as a thematic tie for class discussions on the Constitution, federalism, civil liberties, and civil rights.