Bruce Schnei­er teamed up with Jeffery Goldberg to demonstrate exactly how bad the TSA's security procedures are at airports, and how easy it would be for terrorists to bypass.  Schneier authors Schneier on Security, and is a constant critic of the TSA, not because it is poor implementation of otherwise sound policies, but rather because the fundamentals of what they are trying to do are flawed:

"The whole system is designed to catch stupid terrorists," Schnei­er told me. A smart terrorist, he says, won't try to bring a knife aboard a plane, as I had been doing; he'll make his own, in the airplane bathroom. Schnei­er told me the recipe: "Get some steel epoxy glue at a hardware store. It comes in two tubes, one with steel dust and then a hardener. You make the mold by folding a piece of cardboard in two, and then you mix the two tubes together. You can use a metal spoon for the handle. It hardens in 15 minutes."
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Schnei­er and I walked to the security checkpoint. "Counter­terrorism in the airport is a show designed to make people feel better," he said. "Only two things have made flying safer: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers." This assumes, of course, that al-Qaeda will target airplanes for hijacking, or target aviation at all. "We defend against what the terrorists did last week," Schnei­er said. He believes that the country would be just as safe as it is today if airport security were rolled back to pre-9/11 levels. "Spend the rest of your money on intelligence, investigations, and emergency response."

Goldberg went through with various items that are not allowed (including different weapons), fake boarding passes, in one case without ID, all while trying to look as suspicious as possible test the TSA's "alternative mechanisms of detection".  It's shown once again that the TSA is a waste of taxpayer dollars... in essence a form of theft against taxpayers.

Of course, if we were to abolish the TSA, that would also prevent TSA employees from stealing from us in more direct means:

The TSA reached a mind-boggling new low in customer service this week when it was revealed that one agent had single-handedly absconded with over $200,000 worth of travelers' belongings, primarily cameras and laptops, and proceeded to unload his booty on eBay. His latest haul: A near-$50,000 camera that an HBO employee had been traveling with.

The culprit is one Pythias Brown, a New Jersey resident who worked in the TSA department at Newark Liberty Airport. Finally busted, police discovered an inventory of 66 cameras, 31 laptops, assorted jewelry, and more when they searched his home. How'd he finally get caught? Brown snagged a camera belonging to CNN, and they found it for sale on eBay, where Brown had been converting the gear into cash.
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Of note: Brown appears to have been taking items from checked luggage in the back rooms of the airport, not carry-ons. (One has to imagine you'd notice your $50,000 camera was missing after it came off the x-ray line.) But since consumers are no longer allowed to lock their luggage (or, at least, the TSA is allowed to break those locks as it sees fit), travelers have no real means of protection when it comes to guarding against inside job thievery like this.

This is one reason why I always travel with my camera as a carry on item.  I am always afraid that they would be stolen by a TSA agent during inspection if they were in my checked bags.  The article suggests that if you have anything of value to take with you, that you either put it in a carry-on where you can keep an eye on it, or ship it ahead of you via FedEx.  FedEx will insure lost or stolen items.  Your contract with the airline absolves them of any responsibility for lost or stolen items, even if the government does the stealing.