Not more U.S. border sillyness

One thing that I've always found ridiculous about heading down into the U.S. is the complete stupidity of airline security - even the TSA admits that its procedures have little or nothing to do with actual safety, rather than being security theater. Of all countries that I've been to, I think that crossing its border is the most annoying - and I've been in parts of the world with very tight security (at least in the Middle East the security is somewhat understandable).

I find it interesting that a New York Times blog is speculating that airport security measures are perhaps the key as to why Chicago lost the 2016 Olympic bid:

"It’s clear the United States still has a lot of work to do to restore its place as a premier travel destination," Roger Dow, U.S. Travel’s president, said in the statement released today. "When IOC members are commenting to our President that foreign visitors find traveling to the United States a 'pretty harrowing experience,' we need to take seriously the challenge of reforming our entry process to ensure there is a welcome mat to our friends around the world, even as we ensure a secure system."

And now it seems that there's the plan for exit eye scans / fingerprinting for all (which seems even less sensible than entry scans ... why would you want to filter out illegal immigrants who are departing the country, for example?)

It would be nice to ditch border control almost entirely (yay for the European Union's progress in that regard), but I don't see that happening on a much larger scale anytime soon.