The simple reality of the situation with TSA employees is that it is easier to train them to enforce simple rules with no exceptions than it is to have them use their judgment.

Actually, the TSA policy is (I suspect intentionally) NOT full of simple rules. Instead, it's full of language that pretty much boils down to "Many things are allowed, unless your screener decides they are not." Knitting needles, which were mentioned in several letters, are in this category. They are allowed, but if the screener thinks they are a possible weapon (of course they're a possible weapon, they're long pointy things even if not sharp) then they can be confiscated. There is quite a bit of vague language about the length of allowed circular knitting needles, by the way.

On my recent flight home from Canada, I forgot about the water in my water bottle. I walked through and told them, and my bag was taken off the belt. They told me that they would just take the bottle. I said "No. It is not a disposable bottle. I will drink the water." (I had plenty of time to do this even if the bottle had been full, which it wasn't.) They gave me back my bag and the bottle. I went back through security, stood right by the belt (it wasn't busy), drank the water, put the bottle in my bag, and promptly had my ID and boarding pass demanded again. Even though I had at no time left the sight of any of the screeners. A complete mystery.

Patrick -- As a stop-gap measure while we all continue to behave like sheep, I recommend To-Go Ware's bamboo cutlery. (http://www.to-goware.com/store/cart.php) I have successfully taken it through airport security. Being wood, it's difficult for them to find/notice. The knife isn't very sharp, but it does cut.

I am all for a one-day flying strike.

I have a nice way to deter the invasive searches…

just don't shower for several days before traveling and make sure you eat as much garlic and add to it some helpings of refried beans.

Any unwanted advances near the lower extremities would be met with some rather offensive aromas and voila, you may be on your way quicker than anybody else.

I'm waiting for the day when a terrorist swallows a bomb - or shoves one up his ass - and puts an end to this stupidity by showing what can be done. At which point, TSA wil start requiringthat all airline passengers change into unitards and be knocked out with sleeping gas before getting on a plane. They will start putting people in coffin-shaped cages and the baggage guys will load them on the plane. When they lose your luggage, they'll lose you too, so at least you won't be separated. It will be far more pleasant for all involved.

As someone who flies relatively frequently on domestic flights, I must say I have not been impressed with the folks the TSA is hiring. They're often rude and ignorant and out-and-out stupid. They're exactly what I imagine Soviet-era employees of the old state-run GUM stores were like. You have to wonder what they would be doing if not for the TSA. Now they're going to give these folks fancy uniforms and badges to get "respect"? Nobody respects them, and a new uniform isn't going to change that.

Just to let you know, you've got a broken link in the article you might want to fix.

http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2006/09/15/skthepilot201/

gives a page not found error.

thanks.

I've mentioned this many times, but for the sake of this article, I'll throw in my $0.02 again.

TSA is yet another example of bloated bureaucracy which hands its enforcers- I'm sorry, "agents"- too much power in the course of their jobs. EVERY SINGLE time I fly I feel like I have to go through some Orwellian/Nazi humiliation to give me the illusion of safety. It's why I absolutely loathe flying in the US. It's not the traveling itself, it's not getting to the plane, it's not the crowded planes, or the overpriced food at the airport- it's the TSA.

Why? Nearly every single agent I've had the displeasure of encountering has a chip on their shoulder the size of Nebraska. Not only that, they treat everyone, and I mean everyone, as if they're Osama himself. They also have the whiff of people who were picked on in elementary school who, at long last, are given outsized authority and are relishing every second.

I want statistics as to how much their actions have ACTUALLY made us safer. How many potential terrorists have they really caught at screening? The fucking shoe bomber got on the plane before anyone even noticed something was up!

The TSA is just another example of how much liberty and freedom the sheeple of America are willing to throw into the garbage for the illusion- the fiction- of security.

The full body scanners are the most outrageous example of this. When will our leaders, and the paranoid, pathetic citizens of this country, finally stand up and put the brakes on this out of control monster?

a uniform and a badge, and, well...

Milgram and Zimbardo have already done the work on the inevitable upshot.

I once disembarked at Kansas City to make a connecting flight back home. We were way late, owing to severe weather, and my connector was about to depart. In the crush of equally frantic passengers, I inadvertently passed out of security (had never been to that airport before), and had to go back through. My belt buckle set off the detector alarm, and, sensing my anxiety, TSA peeps pulled me aside for the full-body wand and pat-down schtick. The more I protested about missing my flight, the slower the dude deliberately went. Then his sidekick leisurely opened and examined everything in my carry-on.

They knew I was pissed, and were just eagerly hoping I'd go off on them so they could call in the guards and have me detained.

When they finally let me go, I ran to the plane (only a gate away, mercifully) in my socks, dragging my belt and carrying my shoes and still-askew bag. I turned to see them watching me, smirking -- hoping, no doubt, I would yield to my impulse to flip them off so they might still have me detained. The flight attendant was holding the aircraft door, about to close it.

Shit.