Here's my experience...i was stopped at LAX; "flagged" as they say. asked to step aside and be searched. They asked if I would like to step into a secluded room, but I said no way. I can't imagine getting into a private room with these dolts; they could do whatever they want. No strip/cavity search for me. Anyway, I was told to empty my left pocket. The TSA agent scanned my left pocket and then when nothing was found, asked me to empty my right pocket. That came out negative too. Then he scanned my left pocket again and asked me to empty it, like I had put something in it right in front of him! He did the same with the right pocket!

There was so much more, but it gives me an ulcer to think about it.

The TSA is a joke, uninformed, underpaid, and under-qualified employees that help to propagate the fear of terrorism that the gov't wants us to believe is alive and well...a joke at best - its a wonder that airlines are doing so poorly...

It's outbursts like this that will get you on "The List." Expect constant hassles as you go through TSA checkpoints. If intimidation = security, public outbursts like yours can not go unpunished.

Patrick, I feel your pain - though I know I don't suffer the daily indignities of the security check because I'm not a pilot. I travel frequently, nationally and internationally, and have since I was about 20 years old (I'm in my mid-30s). Over the past year, I've noticed that some TSA employees actually engage in what I consider to be harassment of passengers, namely female passengers. This is not everyone, I should underscore, and at my home airport I actually have "favorite" TSA employees, and I'm always glad when I see that they are on shift when I happen to be passing through security. However, I've heard some TSA agents make sexually suggestive comments to women, including myself, as they "strip down" from their sweaters and overcoats and belts, and I've also had one TSA agent in Newark verbally harass and harangue a colleague (another female) and myself as we scrambled to unload our laptops and carry-on items, struggling to get them through security safely. It was so bad that my colleague was near tears by the time we got to the other side and put our shoes back on. I think this behavior comes from a combination of entitlement, a sense of being above the law, and feelings of disgruntlement (I would hate to work for the TSA myself). It's getting totally out of control. Let's hope there's a change soon. And I agree with you -- while this might come across as petty complaining, I actually believe it's a huge problem and a gross example of the inefficiencies of security and bureacracy in this age of "homeland security."

Now I know I have only read 10 pages of the letters posted here so I may have overlooked something, but I am amazed that no one has mentioned that the silverware was "airline issued". Please tell us that you didn't steal the silverware!!! Considering the poor financial state of the airline industry perhaps this is something that should be looked into?

We've all learned a lot about our fellow Americans because of the docile response of passengers to TSA rules. We know now that we live amidst countless millions of easily frightened sheep. I am ashamed to be an American when I stand in a TSA line.

I know someone who is a TSA inspection person. She has told me with humor, and sometimes horror, and sometimes regret, about what these folks do and why. You betcha they get off on the power, and the actual planning to harass people. Often saying "Who's the B++++ of the day?" and cackling over who gets picked and what gets done. It is turning into the ugliest thing in the US- revealing hate, anger, racism, sexism, class revenge and all sorts of very ugly but consistently motivating forces in the US underbelly psychology. We have every right to be afraid, and take note of this very failed experiment.

I used to be an airplane mechanic. Rather than go through screening if I had to go out into the terminal, I would just use my keys and walk out to the ramp and around the nuisance screening. I can see shaking down pilots. How hard is it to buy a uniform? Butter knives as a weapon are just a little more dangerous than a tube of toothpaste!

All this is beside the point. Knowing what I know about planes, if I were a terrorist I could totally bring air traffic to a halt in the whole world. The only way to stop my plans would be to have everyone strip all their clothes off and wear Airline issued coverings. I love my country, messed up as it is, so no amount of money could buy my ideas. God, I hope the terrorists never figure it out!

As for the TSA, most of them at their last job were asking "Do you want fries with that?" You really expect them to understand the logic of you getting the same knife given to you on the plane?

Isn't this what they wanted? Confusion, chaos, wasted money, enormous airline industry circling the drain. They're squatting in some fetid cave somewhere laughing at us.

If the TSA thinks slapping a uniform and a plastic "shield" on some retard is going to gain "respect" they are truly insane. They'll gain my respect when they create rules that are rational and are interpreted and enforced uniformly, and when they treat passengers with respect.

One TSA "officer" actually hit my mother on the arm, who was too scared to say anything about it. How is this okay? One might say, oh, it was one bad officer, but that's not it -- the attitude is institutional and comes from the top.

What Mr. Smith was saying about the 10 hours on the tarmac was that no matter how inexcusable it was, congress shouldn't pass regulations prohibiting such actions. If you read the letters section for that article, you can read my response to that column. Basically, I said that the first time we put airline staff in jail for locking passengers in a plane for 10 hours, it would never happen again. Mr. Smith seems to think that the airlines will just self regulate themselves, when time and time again they just screw their captive audience. When Smith calls for the complete re-regulation of the airlines, I'll cut him some slack. I'm not holding my breath.