I opted out for the first time last week in San Diego (thankfully Seattle doesn't have them at every checkpoint... yet).

It was kind of disturbing. While the TSA agent that (man)handled me was polite and professional, I couldn't help but get the feeling that the patdown is designed deliberately to be overly thorough as a "lesson" taught to troublemakers like myself.

What is far more disturbing than that is that in the probably ~100 people I passed security with, I was the only one that opted out. One lady got the patdown anyways after going through the Rapescan, though.

I took the train across the country rather than flying, and know others making similar tradeoffs. And hey, Congress defunded the next round of scanner purchases. So we are having an impact.