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I've flown considerably since 9/11, both domestically and internationally, and I've noticed a general improvement with TSA, specifically in the set-up and management of lines and in the demeanor of most personnel.
This is not at all to endorse the arbitrary and after-the-fact nature of the basic process as well as the specific prohibitons. And perhaps I've simply been lucky with the airports, dates and times.
No one in this series of comments has observed that the human body itself is quite capable of inflicting severe damage without any supplementary devices. Arms can choke to death, the side of the hand can kill, fingers can gouge out eyes, kicking feet can cause concussions, etc.
The ultimate regulation, therefore, should require straitjackets and foot-manacles. Long straws would be provided with beverage service, and food service would be out of the question in coach. High-fare passengers could be hand-fed a very light snack menu.
Someone in this list said she'd abandoned sewing scissors for dull-pointed children's scissors. Well, to partial success I abandoned small pointed scissors used for clipping newspapers and other publications, for these same child scissors. I've had them confiscated, I've had them given back to me. The last time they were confiscated (they're cheap to replce), ironically, was in Europe -- where I'd never had problmes with them before -- either at Frankfurt or CDG in Paris, and on the same trip they'd passed through Tampa, JFK, and Nice.
Another inanity not previously mentioned is that the size restriction on liquids, gels and pastes is on the container, not the contents, at least according to my last run-in. I was told (whatever the facts are) that the permitted maximum container was 3.3 liquid ounces and my container was marked to hold 3.5 ounces. Well, the TSA attendant and I went back and forth about that, and then got onto the fact the 3.5 oz. container was less than 1/3 full. How was this potential risk to the airliner resolved? The attendant consulted another, and then both went to a supervisor. After this second discussion I was then allowed to put the less than one ounce of hand and body lotion that was in the 3.5 oz. container back into the one-quart transparent zip-lock bag.
A nice little note on this brouhaha is that the required one-quart plastic bags can serve as an effective decoy away from "contraband" concealed elsewhere. That is, plastic containers of any size carried in pockets (if the containers are not so bulky as to attract visual attention), purses or carry-ons will not be detected by the screening devices, and won't be discovered unless there is a search by hand. Nonetheless,I of course put all my lotions, etcetera, in the zip-lock bag.
I too was caught on a trip when the liquid restrictions first went into effect, banning ALL liquids from carry-on. I've never flown with more than one bag, and had never checked it. My response was to check it so I could keep my liquids, and to change my Southwest PHX-TPA flight from a one-stop where I could have a casual airport lunch, to a nonstop on a starvation peanut diet at a less convenient time. This way I figured that there would be less chance for them to misdirect my bag at the transfer point (I presumed that other liquid-preserving people might create a flood of checked baggage). The sum of it is that my bag, no matter that it was checked a couple of hours before flight-time, didn't make it onto the plane, which it took a long wait at the TPA baggage carousel to determine, and another relatively brief siege at the baggage office to launch a search (I found my bag at the door when I woke up the following morning).
