Good news! As Bruce Carton reports, the TSA has decided to modify its existing snow-globe policy to make it easier for the traveling public to transport its snow globes this holiday season.

Since at least 2009, as I mentioned here, the TSA has not allowed anyone to carry a snow globe through an airport security checkpoint, citing concerns about the amount of liquid such globes may contain. When it was pointed out that each traveler is allowed to carry up to three ounces of liquid anyway, the TSA took the position that its screeners had no way to figure out “how many ounces are in there” (although people who do understand math could and did), and so globes were out across the board. But it now appears that the threat level has been reduced to Stupid, and so some snow globes will be permitted in carry-on baggage.

Let’s consider for just a second how utterly dumb it is to worry about snow globes to begin with. Any group of terrorists who wanted to smuggle liquid explosives onto a plane three ounces at a time is hardly going to choose snow globes as the preferred method. There would be any number of other ways to do this, such as using a bunch of cigarette lighters, which the TSA has permitted since 2007 after suddenly deciding they “no longer pose[d] a significant threat.” Apparently they once did. But then they didn’t. Or maybe the TSA’s concerned somebody would try to batter his way into the cockpit with a snow globe. We must consider all possibilities.

If you were a terrorist, would you bother with snow globes? Please.

Unless you could put little tiny terrorists inside them.

Anyway, those of you who would like to carry a snow globe with you onto a plane should feel free to do that now, so long as said globe “appear[s] to contain less than 3.4 ounces” of liquid. (TSA screeners now paralyzed with math fear can relax; “approximately tennis-ball size” is considered an acceptable benchmark.) The globe must also be able to fit within the same one-quart plastic bag in which all other gels and liquids must fit, because … oh, who the hell knows.