I don't travel with a laptop, but the discussion about taking things out of bags reminds me of taking a cat in a carry-on bag a couple of years ago.

Initially, the screeners wanted me to put the bag through the x-ray machine. They did seem somewhat surprised when I told them you can't send live animals through the x-ray machine, and I did insist on a hand search. (Although most likely, the x-ray would not have harmed the cat, and I probably would have consented on one condition--that I get to watch the display, as I'm sure it would have looked very cool.)

Next, they asked me to take the cat out and run the bag through by itself. I didn't think this was a very good idea, since there is a reason why the phrase "let the cat out of the bag" is synonymous with chaos.

Finally, there was a line growing behind me, and they did consent to do a hand search without letting the cat out of the bag.