[notburnt]

The chemical test positive happened to me too: they swabbed my bag and the machine beeped and I got a free full body massage.

This was when I was flying home from college for summer.

I explained it as "This is the bag I use for school: something must have touched it during chem lab".

I am a coward for saying this, but your objective when flying is to get to point B. So, make it easy on the jack-booted thugs.

You don't affect change by annoying your local officially sanctioned thug. You affect change by voting.

If you want to make a stand, then come prepared for that: knowledge of law + 24 hours to kill.

[cmrdporcupine]

The chemical swab (at least the one they use in Canada) seems to get set off by something in my wife's cosmetics pantheon. An agent made life hard for us on our last trip, almost made us miss our flight, very stressful.

I have heard, can't confirm, that glycerin soap will detect as a "bomb ingredient". Considering how ubiquitous glycerin soap, that's a rather terrible test.