By Becky Waring

When it's 30 minutes until flight time, and you're rushing to get through TSA screening, it's not the time to question any unusual procedures. At best you'll be delayed a few minutes, at worst you could be pulled aside and questioned. But that doesn't mean you have no recourse about rude screeners, inconsistent procedures or invasive search techniques.

Instead of making waves in the airport line, you can now post comments directly to a customer-oriented TSA blog.

The blog not only answers common questions and investigates complaints, but also contains many helpful tips on procedures and explains the rationale behind them. We might not always like the rules, but they become much more palatable when we understand that they are not arbitrary and capricious.

Some recent posts covered hot topics like electronics searches, carry-on liquid rules and rumors about laptops being confiscated.

In the case of electronics searches, readers were complaining that some airports required them to remove all electronics from carry-on bags before screening, not just laptops. The blog editors investigated, and sure enough, some local TSA offices had instituted this procedure independently. The practice was then stopped immediately, as a direct result of dialog on the blog. In the case of laptops, the rumors had to do with customs searches of people on watch lists, not the TSA.

But equally important, another post explained why you will sometimes encounter differing procedures at different airports. The TSA has a "menu" of procedures it can use, and screeners are encouraged to mix things up to provide some unpredictability to possible terrorists—which of course makes perfect sense.

As the TSA puts it in the blog: "That is the price for a thinking, switched-on front-line—if you want people thinking, then you have to let them make decisions based on their training and experience. You will also see some different measures applied trip to trip that are purposeful, put there to prevent someone from exploiting a vulnerability."

The blog is also great for keeping up with the latest TSA news and procedures. For example, we found out a few things we hadn't known previously. For example, lighters are now allowed on-board again. Along with the nail clippers that got added back a while ago, it is also recommended that you use special TSA-approved locks on your checked baggage—unless you want to risk them being broken into. And there is an online lost-and-found contact list for items left in the screening areas. Thousands of items are entered every day, so don't just assume those sunglasses you lost on your last trip are gone for good.

We were also interested to read about a new pilot program to separate travelers into slow, medium and fast lanes. The slow lane would be for families and those in need of special assistance, the medium lane would be for the "casual" traveler who may not be familiar with TSA procedures and the fast "Black Diamond" lane would be for the "expert" traveler. The program is currently operating in Salt Lake City and being tested in Denver.

So next time you have a gripe or question about TSA procedures, you know just where to find the answers.