I just told him the truth. I was not a dick to him, really. He asked and I answered. My point is this: it is not about what they are doing but much more about how you feel going through the whole experience.

The only times that I have seen TSA abused, the situation flips immediately. The frantic mother. The business man who is late for a flight home. Anybody who steps one inch over the line is searched--both luggage and their person. The power only runs one way and never in favor of the flyer. I can think of no stories where the flyer is vindicated--because they are right. What we do see though, is punative, subjective application of a set of "rules".

Think on this: Are people safer when they THINK that there is real security or do they take better care when they KNOW that there is little security? I believe that they act differently when they know the truth.

I fly about 30 flights a year. Here is my read on TSA: it is all psy ops. The people that work there are nothing more than tools of a greater machine. They are, in my opinion, unaware of their roles in the machine.

The whole experience is meant to be unnerving. It is chaotic. It is never the same. The rules change. Think about this: why don't they have tables that are the same height as the screening machine? Because that would be simple. The process is meant to look difficult. The screeners yell at you like carnival barkers...and for what? It accomplishes....what? The feeling of chaos and that you are "outside" the system of normal rules and laws. You are meant to feel powerless.

I carry a hand held agrometer (infrared temperature reader) in my carry on. Once, only once, in over 100 trips, did a screener "see" it and pull me into a secondary review. As they opened my bag, the screener grabbed it and held it up and said "WHAT is THIS?" I answered "an agrometer." He stared at me for a couple of beats. I said "it reads temperatures." He then put it and a 9 volt battery in the bomb scan machine. Another supervisor came over and talked to me. I explained to them how it worked and what I used it for. Luckily, I was only delayed for about 45 minutes.

The TSA is theatre. It is too bad that I have front row seats just about every other week.