Not bags — balloons!
San Diego airport – woman with child and a dozen helium balloons at 10pm. They screen every balloon. My thought? Can’t serious drugs like anthrax (which shut down the postal system and the Congress for a bit when they “appeared” in envelopes)be in those balloons?
I got through security myself and immediately left messages about the location, time etc. in case our plane went down – really.
Before I left, those balloons were walking around again – this time add a guy in fatigues (really – anybody can act and stash a pair of clothes coming from a legit earlier flight).
But we’re covered – TSA spent 15 minutes really checking those balloons out gooood!!!!
What a friggin waste of time and money. The “fear” is false. And where the heck is that guy we’re paying decent $ to be (no act) as VP? I like it without him visible but who knows what he’s getting brewing while he’s under the radar? (Think HBurtin could have a big minority interest in bag manufacturing? Isn’t petroleum used in plastic for the bags?)

Re. the plastic bag – flew Easyjet from Luton to Inverness on Saturday and the unsealed plastic bag with shampoo, lipstick etc in, seemed fine. Flew back on Sunday and the chap at the Inverness end was very stern and said no way, the bag had to be resealable and I must go out and get one from the newsagent and go back through security again. Why? I am a bit of a bolshie so-and-so and I like to know the reason for things – so far as I can see this is sheer useless bureaucracy. And it it is so important, why do they not advertise it better – big notices at check-in, with free bags of the kind they like – then they wouldn’t create huge queues of people traipsing in and out simply due to the wrong sort of plastic bag. It’s barmy.

I have found security very hit and miss at airports. Chicago (check it out for yourself at SES) is the toughest in terms of checking in my opinion. They got my aloe gel which I had been using to soothe a nasty sunburn. Hope someone is enjoying it at the TSA. Ultimately, I don’t begrudge the tougher measures as long as they’re keeping the skies safe.

@Matt
I can see the headlines now “Google now taking over the world with terrorist agents”

I’m traveling again soon, and I swear I’m going to sneak a 3.5 oz toothpaste tube past security. I feel like such a rebel..

That is odd Danny.
I went through all the security points and actually had two sticks of chapstick and they never said a word to me about it at all..
And i was flagged for careful checking cause i let my drivers license expire by accident.

I’m from a former Communist country and thought that these senseless rules were specific to our part of the world. Guess not