I have taken two short vacations this year to the same place, same airports same clothes, similar times of day etc. Both were commuter flights starting and ending in the midwest by a grandmother in her 60s, one mid August and the other mid October. This is about my experience.
My flight in mid August was uneventful. I wasn't asked to remove my open toed sandals nor was I asked to unpack my bag and remove the camcorder I was also carrying. I had to throw away my cigarette lighter but that was basically it. My bag was x-rayed and I breezed thru as I expected I would.
The trip in mid October couldn't have been more different. Starting with the ID check and being accused of using an alias because my ticket name didn't exactly match my drivers license (no middle initial) to being required to remove my sandals which I refused to do, not walking barefoot on that filthy floor, to being swabbed for god knows what and detained longer than necessary while they unpacked my bag, messed with my camcorder and all because I wouldn't risk getting athletes foot. There were some mighty harsh words exchanged and I asked to see the head of airport security (I have no idea if he was). To say these folks are clueless is an understatement. The excuse I was given for the step up in security was because of Ramadan, altho he could make no case for how that had anything to do with me. I pointed out it seemed to me it had more to do with Bush's sinking poll numbers and even more to do with the dirty little secret exposed by Katrina which is we spent billions on HLS and they are incapable of protecting anything. They all suffer from an appalling lack of imagination if they believe for an instant what they are doing will thwart someone one really means to do harm and if they think harassing a grandmother will make the world a safer place.
When I returned the ID portion was fine, at least that person wasn't worried about the ticket and drivers license not being an exact match. However again I refused to remove my sandals and walk barefoot on the floor. I was happy to hike up my pant legs and give them a good view of my feet and shoes, just as I had the first time. I declared my camcorder gear and tripod, just as I had done on the previous flights but this time they said they had seen something long and pointed in my bag and the game was on.
My bag was completely unpacked and virtually everything was x-ray separately nothing was found, of course I knew that would be the case. I suggested as a citizen of the USA I was upset being treated like a common criminal. Of course the answer is they weren't. I pointed out the Constitution protects me against unreasonable searches and seizures. But then there is that long pointed object they thought they saw in my bag that suddenly means I have no rights according to the Patriot Act. Well, I can't sign away my Constitutional rights and they can't be taken from me without a Constitutional Amendment, so the Patriot Act means bupkiss to me.
I might add both my sons have flown in the last year or so and they got durasearched every leg both ways of the trip. In all fairness they were going to a large international airport on the west coast, but Vegas?
What I have learned is with the obvious, they aren't protecting anything, not even Bush's butt. I also am not afraid of them, they rely on the good faith co-operation of the citizenry . When I travel I do not carry anything that would give them a reason to detain me, no disposable razors, no nail clippers, no nail files etc. I think we all need to stop coooperating until they actually do their jobs. But the fact is they really can't do they job they need to do, because we have rights and they can't x-ray instead of metal detect, they can't pat us down, etc. so I guess they are left with harassing ordinary citizens as perhaps an object lesson to would be terrorists like any of this could stop them. IMO, our best defense is Flight 93.