I've never had a "bad" experience with TSA. But, never a "good" experience, either. The average experience is awful. You stand in line, waiting, waiting, have someone look carefully at your id (and the reason is?) then rush to take off your shoes (and the reason is? some stupid guy), pull your laptop out and put it in a separate bin, take off your jacket, pull out your Kippie bag (which you have carefully packed the night before and put in your carryon where you can easily find it and the reason is?), walk through the metal dectector, have your boarding pass looked at again, then if you are lucky, pick up your stuff, stuff everything back in your bag, put on your jacket, look for a chair (which is never there) so you can put back on your shoes, struggle to put back on your shoes. If everything goes right, why compliment TSA for what is not a great experience.

If I'm carrying my camera gear, then they want me to unpack all my lenses, and my expensive camera and put everything loose in a bin and send it back through the X Ray machine. So, I wait and pray that no one drops my gear, that it doesn't bang together and break.

And the reason is? Are we any safer? Or is TSA always fighting the last war, whatever the last threat or potential threat was? For me the risk/benefit analysis isn't there.