As a person who travels A LOT I have been through about every stage of pre and post 9/11 TSA airport screening variations. While I'm not a fan of any of it, I do see it's necessity. Travel used to be easy and fun. Now it's a test. A test of packing skills. A test of speed and efficiency. A test of patience!

I have been watching all of the anti-TSA posts and interviews and have really had to hold my tongue a bit. Then I ran across this little post on Gizmodo and thought it really kind of sums up how I feel about the whole thing.

NO, I don't like knowing that my naked body is being seen by some stranger in a back room somewhere, but it's no different than the fitting room at Macy's... someone there is checking out all of my wabbly bits. The one thing I would want to make sure is that those bits don't end up on the internet somewhere - that's been the big problem I see in these machines, but again how does anyone know it's me?

And NO, I certainly don't want to be felt up by some TSA person, but really who has it worse? I think those agents do... They don't know me from Adam and HAVE to get all up in my shit. That job would just plain suck! If my boss came into the office tomorrow and said you will have to feel up every 10th person who walks thru the door, I'd be like WTF?

The problem I have with TSA is this... CONSISTENCY! No two airports are the same. I might have on a tight sweater and walk thru Chicago airport but be required to remove it in Saginaw. I might be able to carry camera lenses through with no problem in Amsterdam, but required to remove all lenses and have each swabbed in Kansas City. I once had a huge argument with a woman at O'Hare about an architectural drawing tube. Within the span of two weeks that tube was now considered a third item. I was forced to check a bag (@ $20) for an overnight trip and then surprise, my bag did not even leave Chicago. It took me 45 minutes of argument on the flip side to get it back...

How am I - an experienced traveler - supposed to follow the rules when they are not the same from one city to the next?

That said ... if I were in charge of the TSA I would just start firing people that weren't doing their job. Put rules in place that are to be enforced nation wide. Send your test subjects thru and if you find a problem, eliminate it - person, procedure or whatever. The very last thing I would want to do is trouble the passengers even more!! And put my own employees in compromising situations. But lets face it, times have changed and we need to do WHATEVER necessary to keep our friends and families safe.