Honestly, stop making me do stupid shit like taking out my laptop, tablet etc. Let me keep them in my bag because you can see everything you need anyway. Don't make me take off my shoes because you're also scanning right through them. Don't assume I've got liquids until you actually scan them THEN enquire.

And well, there you go. Other than the horrendous lines, which can be partially attributed to the enormous amount of time the above three things takes every person. We'd be all good, you can do your pointless shit and I'll carry on with my life.

The liquids gets everyone because we're all so damn frightened of maybe forgetting we drank some water to stay alive, that we're all checking our bags, wasting time, just in case we might have some.

Seriously, any other non-US airport, where you just throw your bag on, walk on through some scanner, pick up your bag and walk along. That's just fine, I'm at my gate from check-in in like 20mins.

Are we suggesting that all terrorism will only ever occur boarding from a US airport? I mean wouldn't it be exactly the opposite? Come on.

That's no mace, tis but a flail,
I do declare, this clip doth fail!

@yellowc

Agreed. I fly internationally a lot but find it is worse on domestic flights. Things tend to move smoothly at the international terminal checkins (literally through in just minutes) but flying state to state I've almost missed my flight a couple of times because of the security theater.

One time we had to wait 40 minutes because we were travelling with my mother-in-law who has a metal hip and she kept setting off the metal detector. They said they needed to pat her down (a 67-year old grandma, for chrissakes) but they didn't have any female TSA agents available at the time. We barely made the flight, running to get on only moments before they closed the doors.

My parents, meanwhile, actually missed a flight once because my mom forgot she had liquid gelcap cold medicine in her purse and they got pulled out of the security line and interrogated.

Seriously, wtf?

*quality video.

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by SDGundamX.

Nope, not true.
Almost every international airport I've been to in the past 10 years (NZ, Australia, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore, Japan, New Caledonia, Dubai, UAE, USA, Mexico) has the same checks for fluids above 100ml in a little clear plastic bag, the same "remove your laptop, etc".

At least most of them have dropped the retarded "take off your shoes" bullshit.

You're quite correct, sorry that was badly worded. I shouldn't have added "non-US", should have just described the simpler process.

I think I'm just extra bitter about the hell LAX puts me through every time I have to travel there

Oh yeah, LAX is a special kind of hell.

I'm pretty sure it's the reason that terrorists hate america.

You and @yellowc should avoid San Jose airport then, it's all of the above AND still 'take off your shoes', after a 45-75 min wait in line.

Yup, they confiscated my bottle of unopened Iced Tea..., Not sure how that is supposed to make any one feel safe, more like violated and stolen from....
I wasn't even taking it on the plane, just to drink during my more-than-an-hour wait, until my plane showed up.

Granted, it's stupid and they can and probably should leave most of it out, but the thing is, it's designed to catch, or more importantly discourage, stupid people. There isn't really anything you can do to stop smart people, but thankfully most would-be terrorists are really quite dim witted. That single fact combined with the relatively small pool of prospectives is why there isn't much actual terrorism on planes. This is really directed at them. It's unfortunate that the rest of us need to put up with it. And, of course as I said, I don't think they're doing a real bang up job even of the security theater, but hopefully they'll sort that out.

Not true to your not true. I just went through the Japan Airport last week. I had a 2/3 full bottle water that I forgot about in my backpack. They didnt bat an eye at it when it went through the scanner. There wasnt a message to remove any liquids either. I also didnt have to remove my shoes.

I dont remember there being an issue with liquids (or shoes) in the German or Serbian airport either.

@yellowc said "any other non-US airport" (emphasis mine). I listed several non-US airports where there are still security restrictions. So it's still not true.

Government programs at its best. Like all other gov programs are failures.