Hot cable news topic? Airport Security! Controversial take? Let’s start profiling! Absurd example? Wasting time on checking elderly women! Wait…what? If for some reason you’ve missed cable news programming over the last two weeks, you’ve missed that exact narrative, over and again. And if you need proof that airport security is wasting too much time with 80 year-old Grandmas (at least in the eyes of cable news pundits), then please watch the following montage…

On last night’s Larry King Live, Joan Rivers was not pleased about her treatment at a Costa Rican airport. Thanks to a mixup at the ticket counter, she was held back by airport security while her family flew home to the US. Rivers wasn’t afraid to show her indignation: she called the agent who detained her a “moron idiot” and speculated that the woman was “premenstrual.”

It sucked to be at Newark tonight — the entire Terminal C was on lockdown thanks to some wayward dude wandering unchecked through a security gate into a secure area. Flights were grounded, planes were stuck on the tarmac, and passengers weren’t going anywhere. But — things that suck mightily can always be made better through song, and that is just what musician Josh Wilson demonstrated….when he led the entire crowd around him in the terminal in a rendition of “Hey, Jude.”

The failed terrorist attack on Christmas day has sent nearly everyone in a frenzy over airport security. And while many Americans are willing to make some sacrifices in the name of safe flying, that appears to only go so far, best evidenced by today’s scorn the news media brought towards underwear searches — particularly those made by dogs. But not only was there great skepticism, there was also a strange obsession with our nether regions. More specifically, the nation’s collective crotch.

It’s unarguably a rough time to travel. To make matters far, far worse, the attempted terrorist attack on Northwest airlines flight 253 has turned airport security upside-down this holiday weekend, making already stressful situations nearly unbearable. And frightening. As a fair reflection of the nation’s enhanced preoccupation with security, both the New York Times and Washington Post lead their Sunday editions with large color shots of airport security.

Now that the first shock of yesterday’s attempted bombing on Northwest Flight 253 has passed the real fallout is starting to take effect, mainly for regular travelers. But if you want a real sense of what it’s really like to be traveling today then you need look no farther than twitter. We put together a collection from across the Twittersphere to give you a sense of how these new restrictions are (or aren’t, as the case may be) are affecting travelers ability to get where they’re going this holiday season.