You're being quite dramatic with your description of the security process.
-I've been randomly selected too and questioned. They do this in most countries. It happened for me in Germany as well.
-The notes are a good thing. I'd rather the TSA or whomever tell me when they search my luggage.
-X-raying is probably the most efficient way to search through all luggage going on a flight. It's also been around for a loooong time, way before TSA.
-Shoes is a direct result of the shoebomber incident. I think it's a little silly though.
-You have to empty your pockets/take off belt to go through the metal detector and not set it off.
-The full body scanners are opt out. I have always opted out. Recently that means you get a pat down. Fine with me, given the two choices.
-You sure it was your ponytail?
-Several hours is overkill. 2 at most for international, 1.25 domestic just in case.
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've been randomly selected too and questioned. They do this in most countries. It happened for me in Germany as well.
-The notes are a good thing. I'd rather the TSA or whomever tell me when they search my luggage.
-X-raying is probably the most efficient way to search through all luggage going on a flight. It's also been around for a loooong time, way before TSA.
-Shoes is a direct result of the shoebomber incident. I think it's a little silly though.
-You have to empty your pockets/take off belt to go through the metal detector and not set it off.
-The full body scanners are opt out. I have always opted out. Recently that means you get a pat down. Fine with me, given the two choices.
-You sure it was your ponytail?
-Several hours is overkill. 2 at most for international, 1.25 domestic just in case.