they actually created something that would allow them to check you without having to resort to these things you complain about but it had its own complaints

Namely you could see peoples underwear a little too well and some did not like that idea

Brad you are a CEO, I'm sure you could afford a private charter to where ever you want to go.

yeah. security measures are very much a hassle really. although i do understand their intention to protect us all.

That might have been a bad idea.

Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they won't know me next time I fly.

As someone with a degree in chemistry and a history that has me on a couple FBI watch lists anyway, I can confidently say there is all sorts of stuff you could hide in something like that which you really wouldn't want on a plane.

Aluminum won't set off a metal detector. Neither will magnesium, or rust. If you know what you're doing you could bring down a plane with enough of those three things, and "enough" would be about the size of a D battery. I can think of a few other multi component threats that wouldn't be easy to detect, hopefully the TSA people know what to keep an eye out for.

I've flown the most paranoid Israeli airlines in the world... and they aren't nearly as much hassle. More invasive, but less hassle.

I brought back a full bottle of Maple syrup and they took it out of my luggage and questioned me about it. Then they took it off for testing because they considered it low threat and gave it back to me. I mean yes, you can fit all kinds of bad things even in a 3oz bottle.. but a lot of those bad things don't even need the 3oz bottle and could just as easily been in an envelope... or a shoe bomb.

So in general I like the middle eastern security policy. If you don't have ANY reason to suspect them let it go, and if you have any reason you want to test like a random screening or just a hunch.. do a test and make arrests if necessary rather than dumping any would be evidence in an open trash container (conveniently placed in the middle of the airport's highest traffic areas so that if it was dangerous you get the maximum nubmer of fatalities).

I'll stick with my hugely expensive maglev bed thank you.

You do need a magnetic rail for that. The reason why it's not a total economical failure is because only the one place where the train is currently floating over needs to be powered. So, while powering the whole length of the rail would suck a city dry off juice, it is not really necessary, because only the magnets that are one kilometer ahead the train are being powered up and are turned off as the train 'flies' by.

As for airport security, I understand people may not like it. I understand they may choose other means of transportation above the plane due to these annoyances.
I do not, however, understand people who fail to see why it HAS to be this way.
Sure, 99.999% of the flights wouldn't be interrupted in any way if the security wasn't there at all.
But it doesn't really take a strong imagination to think WHAT IF? 
Think: You kiss your beloved wife as she's boarding the plane to visit her mum and then turn on the TV to learn that your wife is dead. Her organs are blasted all over southern Nevada, because some mentally unstable f%&k wanted to live forever and loaded his laptop with nitro and blew up the plane at 30.000 feet.

Would you NOT be ENRAGED if some suited prick showed up on TV and said
"We are sorry, but with the passenger's convenience in mind all security procedures were cut down. People didn't like their laptops being checked, you know. Also, we've been losing some billions of dollars because of the security being inconvenient. Well, shit happens."

What can be done to ensure safety has to be done and that's it. That's the only way.

Along that line I can't understand those jerks that walk around the streets at night screaming "F*ck the police!".
If I put a bullet through his legs so he can't move and aim at his forehead he will CRY for a police patrol to magically pop out of nowhere and stop me.

People hate what they find inconvenient without ever spending one damn second to really think about it.

Everybody can kill another person. Hell, you can kill fifteen people just by slamming your car into a bus stop.
Let's take all cars from everyone.

Taking my example into such a scale is exactly where your "cost/benefits" becomes extremely unfavourable.

An airplane is a very specific place. You can stop a bus and get out. You can stop a subway train and get out. You can't just stop a plane and get out.
Further - you can immobilize a bus or train and thus render it harmless by itself, to both the people inside and outside. You can't stop a plane.

There's no emergency break on a plane. The passenger has no control over a plane. Plus, crashing with a plane is a safer bet than using the emergency exit in air.

Of all the mass transit systems, airplanes are most dangerous if something goes terribly wrong and it is the easiest to make things go terribly wrong on an airplane.

Also, you're talking about "economic opportunity cost" of applying high security in every public place. There's no "cost" to discuss, there's a level of stupidity instead. You can't check every person in the world if he isn't leaving his house with a bomb in the bag. You just can't.
But you CAN check everyone who's getting on an airplane.
And it's being done.

Lul whut?! Near enough to reach by foot or bike? What, you expect people to walk for a couple of days to reach the nearest city? Quite funny in comparison to the USA, where people are too lazy to walk or cycle to the mall.

If I didn't have to take off my shoes or take my laptop out of my laptop case it would improve the experience massively.

Yesh! that's Tarja.

It also has been proven that you can make weapons out of non-metals, explosives out of non conspicuous materials, cause considerable damage with liquids < 100 ml and if that doesn't scare you then you'll be happy to know that airport security is so arbitrary in some countries that you can just walk in there without being noticed.

You'll never counter all threats, you will only (try to) minimize them, but you can ask yourself if it is worth it.

Your wife can also die when walking your kid to school because some drunk thought he could still drive a car. Actually cars are more likely to kill you than a plane anyway (even if you can stop a car) so you have to ask yourself what the use of it all is. As a diabetic who needs to have some form of carbs with him at all times it's very frustrating to have to throw it all away. And because I'm not rich I fly cheap airlines which means I have to pay an arm and a leg for food inside the plane.

You know, I could actually deal with the searching. I carry dangerous stuff with me but that's for my medical condition which I have a pass for, other than that I never did get manhandled so far. The most annoying thing here for me is the time it takes, omg.

However I'm increasingly beginning to wonder about privacy. Apparantly US customs are allowed to copy your entire harddrive of any laptop you carry with you, they want your personal information even before you enter the country and fingerprints are mandatory so I've heard. I'm sure most people will never have to worry about this but I wonder what on earth they intend to do with all that information. As if a terrorist is stupid enough to keep his I'm-gonna-KABOOM-barack-obama plans on his laptop he carries on him.