White House

Yesterday, I took a tour of the White House. The list of things that a visitor cannot bring in to the White House tour is long and thorough. As reproduced from the guidance provided us by the White House tour people, forbidden items include:

Handbags, bookbags, backpacks, purses (is that different from a handbag?), food and beverage of any kind, strollers cameras, video recorders or any type of recording device (the Bush White House learned the appropriate lessons from Richard Nixon's unfortunate troubles), tobacco products, personal grooming items (including makeup, hair brush or comb, lip or hand lotions, etc), and pointed objects (pens, knitting needles, etc), aerosol containers, guns, ammunition, fireworks, electric stun guns, mace, martial arts weapons/devices, or knives of any size.

Okay, I get that I shouldn't be permitted to bring my stun gun to the White House. The prohibition on guns, knives, and sharp objects also remains perfectly reasonable.

But what sort of trouble will my lip balm cause? Has there been an epidemic of assaults via personal grooming items that I never heard about?

Note to the current occupant of the White House: while I couldn't bring my hand lotion into the White House, at least I brought my brain. It wasn't forbidden, though nobody seems to have told you that.