The rules are not to CATCH the terrorist, but rather to deter them from performing terrorist acts on our planes. It is so simple. Know the rules and comply with them.

Believe it or not, there's a line of reasoning behind the tight restrictions on liquids. It's believed that one of the terrorists who later took part in the 9/11 attacks first experimented with small bombs on planes put together on-site using liquid in a Visine container. This was successful enough that a woman in Japan was killed by such a bomb which had been left in her seat.

You may or may not agree that this is a valid reason to restrict liquids for everyone. But at least it's not totally nonsensical... that small amount of liquid really CAN make a bomb.

I certainly don't agree that 'abolishing the TSA' is the answer, they are there to deter an act of terrorism as well as to provide a reasonable assurance that a non-terrorist doesn't accidently bring a something that could be harmful in flight. However, they do tend to be somewhat reactionary (senior management that is) in there changing of rules... and the liquids thing is just one example (taking off shoes is another). An event happens and they will react - like a concern about a liquid explosive - which is valid, however (hope this doesn't shock too many folks) explosives also can be solid, so limiting liquids is only part of the answer. Real explosive detection is done by 'sniffers' (explosive vapor detectors or swabs, used pretty infrequently at airports - used 100% of the time in nuclear power plants for all personnel who enter, everytime they enter, since the late 70's, by the way), by xray machines (to some degree) with a trained operator, and, of course, by dogs.