"Trivial" being the operative word.

No, Moonliner should have said it was a "simple" task, which means that the main thing the TSA did wrong was take to long to discover and correct this matter.

I suspect that it may have been discovered because some groups was discovered to be planning to exploit that weakness.

The article specifically mentions that it wasn't done in response to any intelligence, just their own internal process of looking at things that could be exploited.

Personally I think sounds like a stupid over-reaction to a low risk but the reactions in the article are as well. Sudden decompression at 35,000 without immediate access to oxygen isn't really a death risk to most people unless, for some reason, the pilot decides to keep the plane at altitude (after all, people free climb Everest to 30k feet without supplemental oxygen, unpleasant but not fatal).

I'm not sure how much their comment on that is worth. Somehow I doubt they would say: In response to plans we found on a thumb drive in a bombed out Afghanistan cave we have decided to remove these devices.

Other than that for every stupid security measure they've taken in the past they've only been too happy to say "we've heard whispers of terrorists thinking about possibly in the future having a meeting to discuss the possibility of considering plans of action that theoretically could lead to them doing this thing we're preventing."

Alcohol Detectors Could Come Standard With a New Car

Ok, where's the Poo? Whenever I see something that smells this bad I assume it's being used to cover up some lesser smell to make it more fragrant. Are they looking to raise the drinking age? Drop the legal limit? What is it?

Which is exactly what makes me think there is more to this particular story.

Apparnetly they fixed a typo since you quoted that. It is not a California bill but a federal bill introduced by Tom Udall of New Mexico.

And when I read an article that generic about a bill I wonder if the writer read it.

It's here. It says nothing about making these things standard. All it does is provide money for doing research on the implications of broadening their use.

Pole Dancing for Jesus

Even I can't make that stuff up. ;)