Well written post, VP. Two points: (1) a pocketknife, though a prohibited item (as is water), is not a credible weapon to bring down a plane, so I am not as concerned about it; (2) I carry a "pocketknife" each time I travel, however, the knife portion has been removed so it is legal. It sounds like they did not, however, check to see about this one. In addition, my "pocketknife" has been "found" about 20% of the time, so TSA is missing it quite often. Even the 20% of the time that it is found I am not sure that it is what triggers the bag search.