i've figured out it's all part of a grand scheme, as evidenced by lack of consistancy from checkpoint to checkpoint. in the name of security, routine begats complacency and allows your foes to devise strategies to defeat the security measures.
therefore i would like to see each and every security checkpoint have different procedures, so no terrorist could possibly know what will or won't be screened, whether it's belt on or belt off, shoes in the bin or out, you can take pictures or you can't take pictures, on and on and on.
so by leaving the deadly shampoo and mouthwash in your bag, and nobody saying anything to you, i think you have actually stumbled onto a checkpoint that is secretly being manned by a crack tsa commando crew. i'm sure they knew perfectly well at a glance that your items were truly harmless, and that you'd go home and post it on an internet forum board, and a terrorist would read the posting and say, AHA!! so you see, the trap is set, and you have unknowingly and unwittingly become a tool of the tsa, a pawn in the war on terror, a piece of the big picture, and i thank you!
of course tsa would never admit this to you, cause then they'd have to kill you. someday you will recieve your medal, posthumously of course!