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Thanks for the homework assignment. I read some of the first 100 replies and think I get it... but I'm not even gonna bother to respond to all the ignorant comments I read. A baby gestates not in the mother's breasts, but in the belly; so, if the "terrorist hunters'" goal was to find a bambino bomb, his/her story would be more convincing if he spent more time feeling up her belly.

Since I'm not now in an airport, I don't think I'm breaking any homeland security laws by stating here that I think the TSA's new so called anti-terror M.O. is BS.

As for your last question, you still have a very poor friend. :-) I'll still buy you lunch, though.

Actually, this has been a wonderfully informative thread. I'd really like to see what someone who comes here uncertain of his/her opinion on the matter thinks after reading these thousand-plus posts. What is most extraordinary to me is that anyone can believe these security measures are effective and put their faith in them. There have been SEVERAL highjacking attempts since 9/11 , and several people going bonkers and trying to get into the cockpit. Every would-be highjacker got through security...and every one was stopped by passengers and crew who were deprived of the means of deadly force. Now I guess that's a good thing if you can stop a bad guy with fists and blankets. So far, so good. But if Al-Qaeda has plans to recapitulate 9/11, we don't know about them...and I have no doubt that if they try, they can evade any and all security we can afford to put into place. We also seem to have a lot of people who don't mind being touched by strangers, even in a businesslike way, and who cannot accept that to some of us it is a profoundly painful experience. All right, believe that I'm warped to feel that way about it. When the airlines go bankrupt, please remember that it is people like myself who were completely excluded from buying tickets by invasions of our fundamental rights that we find unacceptable. "If you don't like it, don't fly" is an attitude that is going to cost us all flight. You won't be able to fly either when the airlines shut down. (Post picture here of the hundreds of mothballed commercial jets lined up neatly in the desert...can't find it, unfortunately.) On a humorous note, my mother-in-law told me, "HEY! You shut up about that! That's the only chance to be groped by anybody that I've got left!"