And of course, if they know the bags will be searched, they'll switch to carrying on their person. Wouldn't be the first time someone has strapped explosives to themselves.

Personally, I am very unhappy about the idea of random searches. I'd much perfer they had explosive sniffing dogs working the lines and searched based on cause.

Obviously, they may not have enough explosive dogs yet, but quite frankly, they could announce the use of the dogs, and they could deploy what they have, explosive dogs, drug dogs, whatever. People would have no way to know that some of them were not explosive dogs or at least which ones. And then, as more explosive dogs are available they could trade out the non-explosive dogs.

I think this would be a larger deterent, and also more effective (once ramped up).

One thing that is very distasteful is that they will ding you for things other than what they are looking for. Personally I make it a policy to only carry what is legal, but I find the whole approach distasteful and an assault on our rights. While it may be legal, I think it breaks the public trust in regard to the government respecting our right to privacy.

This is a slipperly slope IMO. I'd rather live with a bit more risk and retain my freedom.

-john