I know that many other people have linked to this polite but heartfelt rant about the new US visitor registration programme — it articulates everything that I've been fuming about over the last few days. If you want a slightly less polite but no less heartfelt (and very funny) rant, then head over to d4d.

What with 'sky marshals', no loitering near the toilets on long haul flights, and now needing to be fingerprinted or photographed when you enter the country — well, hands up who feels like visiting to the US now? I wouldn't mind if it was actually going to achieve anything, but I think that it's all pointlessness masquerading as actually doing something. The US Government seems to be a bit out of control.

Someone ought to point out to Bush that plenty of other countries have coped with high levels of terrorism for years (including the UK, of course, while US citizens blithely funded NORAID) without turning the country into an impregnable fortress.