I accidentally brought a full-sized 4th of July smokebomb through TSA and didn't realize it until I unpacked after I got home.

I'm not talking one of those small, spherical smokebombs. No, this was one of those 5" long, 1" diameter sticks, and it was by itself in a pocket of my netbook bag, which didn't have room for much else, so it's not like the xray image would have been confusing.

Seems like tons of other people have had similar experiences.

TSA's impact on safety is largely imagination and wishful thinking.

That sounds about right, I took a domestic flight from SFO to PSP this week. I had a full-sized tube of toothpaste going there, with no issues, and they took it away coming back.