I asked the security professional who was thoroughly inspecting my person, why these guys were not being treated as thoroughly as myself. They gave me the fisheye and said, "So you think they should be?" At that point I figured that if I said HELL YES I would miss my plane so I just said, "it might be a good idea" and they let me board just as the jetway was being unlatched for takeoff.
I have come to the conclusion that looks mean nothing to the TSA. My kids; Two boys with light brown hair, aged 4 and 2, and my daughter, who is 8 and blonde, have run the gamut, while their mother and I stood watching. Im an airline employee and I get the "treatment" about 70% of the time.
Richard Reid has reddish Brown hair, and about a week ago, one of the homocide bombers in Israel was dressed in traditional Hassidic garb. If the TSA only picked on Arab looking men between the ages of 15 and 35, then you can bet that the bad guys would recruit middle aged, Europeon looking men or women or even small children to do the dirty work. Random searches in my view are a much more effective deterent. And BTW, although I have personally seen the TSA search people who don't fit the profile, I have rarely seen Arab looking men between the ages of 15 and 35 walk through airport security without the TSA giving them a really close look.
And, of course, you could determine that at a glance...