TSA confiscates nail clippers from guys carrying machine guns…

This post is a well-known, widely circulated hoax.

The general theme is somewhat correct, but the specific incident described is a hoax.

Also, aside from being an axe to grind against the TSA, how is this hacker news?

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/12/tsa-not-to-blame-for-this/

Clearly the correct explanation from the "TSA guy" would have been "just following orders". I'm sure a bunch of soldiers would understand that.

TSA has a recent blog post[1] about how that is a myth, where people keep mentioning that it has happened before (maybe not to armed soldiers).

[1] http://blog.tsa.gov/2012/03/tsa-taking-nail-clippers-from-so...