You touch on one of the most annoying things about TSA: the inconsistency. Every airport seems to have slightly different rules, and the agents treat you like an idiot if you don't know theirs. Sorry, Mr. Cop School Reject, I've been to ten other airports this year and none of them did it your way. Even the same airport can vary sometimes. It's impossible to believe the rules are doing any good when each of them is skipped half the time and there's no effect at all.
