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"In my travels, I have found that folks in the larger cities and those east of the Mississippi tend to be more surley, arrogant and more likely a pain in the a** than those out in the heartland. Could be just my liking my rural, western lifestyle, but maybe not."

It does seem that way. I solve the problem, usually, by flying out of regional airports instead of the big city ones. The cost is usually the same, and you skip the traffic, parking, and other annoyances.

Further, I travel in sweats...a nice workout suit. I carry one carry-on and check one other bag. In it, I don't put anything suspicious, like big bottles of shampoo and the like. Just clothes.

I no longer take my laptop on most trips, since I moved my email to Yahoo, and can check it anywhere. If I need files, I burn a CD. When I go through security, I've moved _everything_ out of my pockets and into my carryon bag. No metal, no beep. I just travel clean these days and don't have anything anywhere that sets off any alarms.

Also, don't be the first to board the plane. Don't jump to the front of the boarding line. They seem to choose folks at the front for gate screening, almost exclusively.

But, the best tip of all is to fly in and out of regional airports. The folks working there are a lot nicer.

Also, don't be the first to board the plane. Don't jump to the front of the boarding line. They seem to choose folks at the front for gate screening, almost exclusively.

At Southwest, at least, they have stopped this practice. Maybe they don't need them now that the "professional" TSA screeners are on the job. (BTW, there have been 6,000+ complaints about missing items in checked baggage that has been searched. And several TSA inspectors have already been arrested. The lack of locked baggage now gives the ramp baggage handlers another chance to pilfer items from your bag if your transfer to another flight involves a lengthy wait.)

But the fact remains that the security people will still select people who have no — zero — liklihood of being terrorists — octigenarian, wheelchair-bound grannies, babes in arms and the like — for intrusive searches.

And they do it as a sop to American minorities and non-white foreigners so they won't be accused of 'racial profiling'.

And you can bet your last nickel that the security people wouldn't give the smartmouth to aforementioned minorities and non-white foreigners that they will to a white.

Getting on an airplane shold not be as difficult as gaining access to the inner sanctums of the National Security Agency.