I'm helping work a story on how (besides model rocketry and library habits) Homeland Security overreach may be affecting people's hobbies and leisure acitivities. Anyone have any other examples?

Recreational flying has been severely impacted. Contact AOPA for definitive info. They'll be more than happy to give you an earful.

Yeah, that one occurred to me a couple hours after putting up the post, and I've passed it on to the relevant parties. Thanks.

Just generic travel -- if the airlines' bottom lines are any indicator, I'm not the only one who's decided to avoid commercial airline flight at almost any cost until The Mineta Syndrome is cured.

Yeah, we got that one, too, though it's gotten a lot of coverage on its own.

I find that my Monday night, dress like an Islamic Terrorist Meetings are getting closer scrutiny than they used to.

Rand,
the lack of any great number of posts here shows that Homeland Security is NOT having the impact you were looking for.

Has it affected our way of life some, absolutely. But most people have not missed anything in their lives due to this conflict compared to past wars. I am currently collecting WWII news reports and radio shows and our way of life has changed very little for a country at war. Read how things were during WWII, we suffer almost NO problems here in the early stages of WWIII. Yes I said WWIII!! At the time, remember, they didn't call it the Hudred Years War, historians did that later.

Don't keep beating this drum, its not happening, we are NOT loosing our way of life.

Well, it could also reflect the fact that I don't get many thousands of page views per day...

The Hash House Harriers have most definitely been affected. For those of you who don't know, we're a social running club that runs not along a predetermined course known to all participants but a group where a few people mark a trail with flour, chalk or something else and everyone else has to figure out where the course goes. We also engage in beer drinking and various humorous activities (Red Dress Run, other stuff).

In the Washington, D.C. area we've had to switch to colored flour. We periodically get hassled by people who are ignorant or narrow minded. Most people are amused by our activities, however.

A year ago February I was approached by two D.C. cops about my activities. They'd heard a "guy dressed like a clown" (OK, I had on plaid running sweats and a blue parka) was going around making marks on the ground. The whole confrontation was kind of funny. But I can easily see how someone less independent could be intimidated and stop doing things that would draw attention to themselves.

Rand - If you do some digging, you may find out that the Patriot Act didn't really change the requirements for getting library records. Check over on Eugene Volokh's site for an analysis of what the changes were. See http://volokh.blogspot.com/2003_05_04_volokh_archive.html#200253858 (May 6, 11:06 PM).

Well it affects people in other countries as well. A lady friend of mine wanted to order in-line skates for herself and her bf. They could not order them with a foreign credit card and they had to be shipped to me, then sent on. I am sure there has been a fall-off in business for mail order companies that ship abroad.