26 July 2011, Greater Rochester International Airport

Medications, baby formula and food, breast milk, and juice are allowed in reasonable quantities exceeding 3.4 ounces (100ml) and are not required to be in the zip-top bag. Officers may ask travelers to open these items to conduct additional screening and passengers should declare them for inspection at the checkpoint.

It was pretty obvious from the start that this was suposed to discourage us from bringing the technically-allowed liquids next time. They let us choose who would be screened, so unless we were stupid enough to both be wearing explosive underpants that was a FAIL (and nefarious people never exploit children for this sort of thing, oh no). The officer got tired of searching bags after about the fourth one full of childrens' clothing, and refused to search the remaining three we had with us, even after I reminded him that they were there. So, just put the bad stuff in the last few bags and you'll probably be OK. And of course, the biggest give-away: leave the liquids behind or else. Perfect. I'm sure somebody packing Bad Things would be happy to leave a few bottles of formula behind as a decoy.

If they actually thought for some reason that we were dangerous, this was definitely not the way I would want the "threat" to be handled. Otherwise (and much more likely), they were just trying to punish us for throwing off their groove.

Don't get me started on whether you could actually make a bomb out of carry-on liquids in the first place. Even assuming innocuous-yet-potent precursors exist, and even if somebody were allowed to take a few liters of those precursors through the checkpoint, they'd still have to figure out how to cook up their brew behind security without being caught: the stove, fridge/ice chest, thermometers and other tools, and several hours of careful stirring would be just a tad hard to hide, IMHO.