Now that the TSA admits that upwards of 16,000 laptops are stolen or 'lost' (a.k.a. stolen by TSA staff) at TSA checkpoints, business travelers aren't traveling. Now that the TSA randomly confiscates laptops, cameras, SD memory cards, USB drives and the like, business (and some leisure) travelers aren't traveling. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. Let the airlines slowly twist in the wind on the sharp meathooks of their 'let the free market decide' business model. It would be a wonderful day if air travel in the US died a miserable slow death of a thousand cuts.

...is a CD or DVD - if you break one in half, it becomes sharper than a razor.

after posting this I fully expect CDs and DVDs to be banned as carry on items...

Just as long as they don't decide that ipods are dangerous, I'm okay with banning CD's. I've always felt that my glasses would make a good weapon holder. Metal frames could easily conceal sharp objects. Well, sharper than your typical butter knife, anyway. But none of this matters, of coures, because we long ago reinforced cockpit doors to ensure that 9/11 could never happen again, right? No pilot would ever allow the cockpit to be compromised, right?

Who are people who have the security contracts and are making money harassing us when we fly? Are they buddies of the Bush administrators?

Hermit

Patrick -

Awesome post - thanks! The TSA has made flying in the US seem like we're living in a police state, and as a person who flies every week for a living, I'm with you on the frustration level.

But re "TSA implementing gate-side luggage checks similar to those that were common in the days following Sept. 11", I have not heard or seen this anywhere - is it already happening, scheduled to happen etc? I fly mostly east coast airports but regularly go through Chicago, Denver and LAX and have not encountered this. As a frequent flier on at least one airline, and I usually get upgraded, I try like heck to be the first one on the plane to get away from the chaos in the boarding area. Am I now at risk for what I've heard one pilot refer to as "gate rape?"

Keep up the great posts!

Not by accident, the badges look exactly like the kind worn by actual police officers. They say "U.S. Officer" at the top, with an eagle emblem in the center and "Transportation Security Administration" across the bottom. Not all law enforcement officials are happy.

Last week as I exited a subway station in DC on my way to a Fourth of July party, I couldn't help but chuckle as I saw two TSA "officers" standing next to two DC police officers. Half of the foursome looked very professional, fit, serious and attentive. The other half looked very out of shape, slouched a bit and didn't seem to know what they were doing there. I'll let you guess which half was which.

I remember a few years ago, when TSA seemed unsure as to whether you were required to take off your shoes, as I went through a checkpoint (at Dulles, I think) the TSA "officer" (who really looked like he was about 18 years old) suggested I take off my sneakers. I didn't, remembering that just a few weeks earlier I was able to go through (also at Dulles) with them on, no problem. I walked through and the detector didn't make a sound. But as soon as I got to the other side, the kid yelled for a pat down. Not a doubt in my mind he was trying to get back at me for not heeding his suggestion.

I hate flying now, it's such a hassle. Two weeks ago my family went to Disneyworld from the Philly area. When we returned, I had a few food items I had bought for our condo stay that I hated to waste. I put a small, plastic container of peanut butter in my carryon. When we got to the Orlando airport, a screener pulled my bag off the conveyer belt. He told me my bag was flagged. Reaching in, he pulled out the pb and said very gravely, "Ma'am, you are not allowed to fly with peanut butter" and threw it into a trash can.

Can you please tell me how peanut butter presents a threat? (and my husband is a chemist and he assures me that it is not a gel)

If you want to change the idiotic TSA rules put pressure on your local congressman to propose a bill to change them. That's the only way any change will actually happen.

Inconveniencing everyone behind you in line, and harassing TSA employees who have no power to change the rules they are told to enforce, helps only by feeding your ego and allowing you to vent your rage.

It's like screaming at your waitress because you think your food is overpriced-----it just shows you're a jerk and an idiot, and that you enjoy demeaning people who can't fight back.

Do the rest of us behind you in line a favor, and save your smart-ass comments and oh-so-clever civil libertarian lectures for when you're in front of the mirror at home. We're not "sheep", we just want to get where we're going quickly and with minimal hassle. No one appreciates having to listen to your grandstanding of the obvious and making the process more torturous than it already is.

There a lot of comments here on the behavior of lower level staff. They really aren't the problem.

Security hands lower level staff a set of constantly changing, often contradictory rules, often unreasonable rules. They have no power to question these rules. Then the security system trains these staff to confront passengers on the basis of these rules, and also to flag anyone who they think might be a problem based on behaviorial indicators.

Watch carefully the next time you go through the line--there is a definite hierarchy (and you don't see all of it). The frontline folks are pawns. They will be first and last to be fired if the security system steps over the line. The system will continue.