Nope, but thanks for playing. This was a machine set aside specifically for special cases like me. People who have special items to declare. It was not the same thing that standard passengers went through.
No, you were just around for the screening. Depends on the airport, but, most bags that are checked go through an explosives screening check. For instance, at the airport in Missoula, MT, every bag is swabbed and the swab is run through the explosives detector. I'm willing to bet that your laptop went off since you had so much gunpowder residue on your hands and then you touched it and it got all over it. My Kifaru Marauder goes off almost every single time it gets swabbed.
And your comment about the private security doing very little? What do you base this on? Granted, my only real dealings with private security was at DFW airport in 2000, but they where the most professional, dedicated and aware private security people I've ever dealt with. TSA on the other hand, have never impressed me. The men pull aside and hassle the cute girls, they sit there and are very unprofessional while working. "Damn girl, you look so fine, you sure you want to get on this flight, you should come to my place and we could make things happen!" I actually heard this form a TSA thug to a young girl, maybe 18, going through security, and he was even grabbing his crotch while he said it. But if I confronted him about it, I knew I would never get on my plane.
I base it on the fact that air security restrictions were INCREDIBLY lax pre-9/11. It's not hard to come off well when you have to do very little. I agree, private security people were just fine, but, I mean, what were they really doing? Again, you're here with the lame stories -- add 'And then I found five dollars.' to the end and we're getting somewhere.
I know what I have to do to get through security and get to my plane, and I understand the need for security. I, too, "adapt, and I get to my destination" I am just not impressed by TSA and the idea that throwing money at a problem solves it.
EDIT: Oh, and what security measures are in place now that weren't in place before 9/11?
Well, if you think for some reason that posting a little sob story about getting profiled for being a gun owner, even though you consent to the secondary, additional search when you declare firearms, is relevant - you aren't adapting. Just like this forum, airlines are a private enterprise; there's no reason you have to like their rules, just abide by them. They're not changing any time soon, and no amount of protest will get them to. Unfortunately, airlines are also a necessary enterprise. There are business travelers who will do whatever they need to to fly. There is always going to be a market. Boycotting the airlines is like boycotting gasoline. You're just making it easier for the people who won't to get served. In the end, like most things modern society, we're at the whim of the airlines. That being said, it's really not that bad.
In response to your question about what security measures there are in place that weren't before 9/11, well, to quote your earlier, TERRIBLY unfunny quip, 'thanks for playing.' Are you serious? I fly basically every three or four months, so, multiply that by 16, maybe 17 or so years and that's a lot of flying. I've seen the change in security at the airport, and, you would have to be blind not to. Since 9/11, the security has tightened up in a huge, huge way. Gotta take your shoes off, go through the puffer booth, almost every bag gets searched, most bags get checked for explosives residue (like I mentioned above), metal detectors are far more advanced, all kinds of stuff. Secondary screening for something like one in five people (this seems to have loosened in the last one or two years; it's mostly on a racial profiling basis now, as far as I've seen) is the norm - pre 9/11 I only saw the most fucked up people get pulled aside.
Hell, pre 9/11 you were able to bring on alcohol and a lighter - you could set the goddamn plane on fire.
All that being said, I don't think this RFID thing is a good idea, not defending it at all. David, that's too funny about the insulating material, I never would have thought about that, but, it seems so obvious.
