Celebrities vs Homeland security

Presumably, Lady Gaga doesn't stand in line with the hoi polloi to get through airport security, but in the last week, there have been quite a few articulate people bashing the way government screen tired airline travelers to make sure they aren't terrorists.

ZDNet wishes Jesse Ventura had won his case against body scanners.

The problem is that Ventura has a titanium implant in his hip, which sets off the security scanners. Whenever he flies commercial, he’s been subject to invasive pat-downs, which also seem to drift towards his fiddly bits. To say Ventura was peeved would be an extreme understatement.

But now, after taking his argument to the courts, he’s been smacked down by the weird legislation that prevents him from taking his case to a jury.

Another victim is Professor Mary Beard, who has to put up with even closer scanning when she goes from the UK to the US to give lectures. She wonders why the obviously innocent (i.e. parents with kids) aren't left through and then wonders:

And I would like to know more about how effective the computer technology really is. Each time I go to the USA and have my prints taken, my iris photographed, my passport swiped.. and I say, in response, to the routine question "I am here to give a lecture at the University of....".. I wonder how border safety is being enhanced.

Perhaps universal biometric checks aren't the best answer.

Well, at least she didn't have to get her family jewels checked like Jesse Ventura.

and then there is writer Brian Sibley, who wonders why everyone on a flight from New Zealand to London has to go through additional screening during transit at LAX (Los Angeles).

I smiled wryly at the notice assuring me that the US welcomed me and promised to treat me with dignity and respect as we "tired, poor, huddled masses" were herded along like recalcitrant cattle, scrutinised like potential terrorists, had our bodies x-rayed and searched and our carry-on luggage gone through item by item before we were allowed to, finally, re-board our plane for London.

well, presumably the US didn't trust the screening from New Zealand.

Checking passengers in transit is not unusual: We get checked routinely again in Japan for example, and even the flight from Bemidji to Minneapolis requires another layer of screening.

The reason, of course, is that if you have links to terrorists, and act suspiciously, they can't stop you from boarding or you will get sued by CAIR....