I didn't mind the checks before 9-11, but I do now. It's official paranoia, and the folks in DC haven't yet grasped what the traveling public has: you can't control forces outside the aircraft, you can't control a bomb inside the aircraft, but you CAN control your fellow passengers because it's better to be hurt than dead.

Witness what happened to the "shoe bomber." Or several drunks/disruptives on flights since the Pentagon and the WTC were attacked -- passengers assisted the crew in restraining the culprits.

In this case, I think the terrorists have won.