Maybe at your airport, but TSA inconsistency and power-tripping knows no bounds. Several times at MHT, the WTMD screener has been checking every (male) pax for a wallet, regardless of alarm status, and then demanding to paw through it right there at the WTMD if he has one. TSA "got feedback" has declined to respond to my inquiry as to if this is acceptable. I'm pretty sure whoever ordered such actions is not thinking about WEI but hoping to make a "big catch" with regard to a fake ID or membership card for a subversive organization like Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty or the Republican Party.

To TK: Consider writing something in a black sharpie on your Freedom Baggie. A few years ago, a FTer wrote "Kip Hawley is an Idiot" on his and got all kinds of absurd overreaction from the TSA at MKE, including a classic soundbite that "the first amendment doesn't apply at the checkpoint." For a long time, I wrote "Land of the Free? Home of the Brave?" on mine, but never got any comments. For a while, I strongly considered writing "Live Free or Die" on my baggie, especially for flights to/from MHT (it's the state motto of NH and printed on every license plate), but given the absurditiy of TSA, I can see some morons actually interpreting that as a threat and causing a serious delay.

Refusing to speak to them at all is also a good tactic where you're doing nothing wrong but might provoke a power-tripper. It's not extremely common, but some of them get upset about that, particularly if they are actual or wannabe BDOs/SPOTters.