Domestic flights in the US are much better, yes. The other thing that's better is getting out of the US. I'm actually often heavily questioned on my way into the US. (And never on my way out.) That happens twice: once at the airport, once at customs. The airport one is much more cursory and they appear to be looking for whether you sweat. The customs one appears to be about telling a coherent story about who you are and where you've been. I actually don't mind this so much, although the customs queues are pretty horribly dull and long.
I'm not so much objecting to the notes. Rather, I'm saying, "not only did manual inspections of bags happen, they still happen -- just no longer in front of your face." Metal detectors are pretty nice, and probably worth their security, if they were the only factor -- but if they're going to pat you down / naked-photograph you anyway, the metal detector just seems redundant.
Nobody told me that I could opt out of the body scanners, and I was certainly being pushed through them. I am 80% sure that it was my ponytail: I saw the Risky Business circle drawn on a schematic of my torso about my shoulders I felt someone grope between them, and I heard them say, "oh, it's just your ponytail." The other 20% is just because I have no idea what the hell triggered their algorithm or how their algorithm worked or what its false-positive rate.
I'm not so much objecting to the notes. Rather, I'm saying, "not only did manual inspections of bags happen, they still happen -- just no longer in front of your face." Metal detectors are pretty nice, and probably worth their security, if they were the only factor -- but if they're going to pat you down / naked-photograph you anyway, the metal detector just seems redundant.
Nobody told me that I could opt out of the body scanners, and I was certainly being pushed through them. I am 80% sure that it was my ponytail: I saw the Risky Business circle drawn on a schematic of my torso about my shoulders I felt someone grope between them, and I heard them say, "oh, it's just your ponytail." The other 20% is just because I have no idea what the hell triggered their algorithm or how their algorithm worked or what its false-positive rate.