To those making comparisons between HRH Prince Philip and George W. Bush, there are a couple of significant differences.

Prince Philip's "gaffes" are usually examples of his very outdated sense of humour, or an expression of his complete lack of tolerance for sycophants. He calls a spade a spade - no matter who that may offend. But he knows exactly what he means, and says it.

George W. Bush's gaffes are more usually the result of his tenuous grasp of the English language, or an expression of the fact that he doesn't appear to be that bright. He has no idea what he means to say, but still says it.

Another major difference between the two is that while there is much controversy over George W. Bush's record in the military, Prince Philip is a decorated WWII hero. Which is ironic considering that Bush has the newklear launch codes and Phil just gets to shoot pheasants.

Seeing as I don't have any inappropriate-but-amusing grandparents of my own, Prince Philip fills the gap quite nicely.

Another poster said: " At this point, the story is meaningless in so far as it lacks any context. The story says they were "detained"... but for how long? 20 minutes?"

Reading the detail of the story, the paperwork of the travellers was stamped "Approved" - and yet still this child died in a beauraucratic waiting room, with its mother banging on the door crying for help.

I suppose if they had been asylum seekers without the proper paperwork to enter the US this would have been perfectly acceptable in RRSAFETY's logic?

I quoth The Onion: "The last six years have been a golden age of American apprehension and mistrust. Thanks to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, all of America was united, standing shoulder to shoulder in sheer, unrelenting fear. But tragically, that atmosphere of panic and confusion has begun to fade, and without another terrible attack to bond us as a nation, we are dangerously close to entering a post-post-9/11 era.

We cannot allow that to happen.

We must all do whatever we can to preserve America by refocusing our priorities back on the contemplation of lethal threats—invisible nightmarish forces plotting to destroy us in a number of horrific ways. It is only through the vigilance and determination of every patriot that we can maintain the sense of total dread vital to the prolonged existence of a thriving, quivering America.

Our country deserves no less than every citizen living in apprehension.

But do they run Windows Vista Deadliest Edition?

Bruno - what we're afraid of is paying billions of pounds for a system that we don't need, won't work and creates a tantalising target for criminals and other digital ne'erdowells.

We have a Government and Civil Service with a cavalier/incompetent attitude to data security combined with the controlling instincts of Joseph Stalin. We are the most surveilled society in the Western world.

Some of the excuses for needing an ID card don't really stand up to scrutiny.

Health - our National Health Service seems to be working up until now. The things that ail it will not be fixed by a credit card sized piece of plastic. Does the British public want its billions squandered on ID cards or new hospitals where their families might be safe from MRSA?

Security - were the Madrid bombers stopped in their tracks by the Spanish ID card? Um, no.

Illegal Immigration - perhaps ID cards would have stopped the British Home Office from employing illegal immigrants to clean their tippetty-top-secret London headquarters? I would have hoped they'd have sorted that kind of thing out before they turned Britain into a "Papers please!" state.

And let us not forget that within my lifetime, two great European democracies were right-wing dictatorships - Portugal and Spain. We're not talking about the dim histroy of WW2 Europe here - I'm sure Salazar and Franco would have been licking their lips at what Britain has planned for its subjects.

Not seen an update on BoingBoing, but charges have been dropped by the Ohio police in return for an agreement not to sue. Details on Michael Righi's blog: http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/09/20/success/

British Ministers (and guest of DHS to boot!) and now folk musicians being treated like criminals upon entering the US. Perhaps that's why many Europeans are staying away with their tourist and business dollars (and €uros and kronors and things):

"In a survey conducted by the travel industry lobby group the Discover America Partnership late last year, the United States' scored more than twice as badly as the next region, the Middle East, in terms of travel friendliness.

... There's other places you can go where you don't get treated badly at immigration and ports of entry,' British visitor Mitchel Lenson told Reuters as he stood on a wind-swept promontory overlooking the Grand Canyon.

'The assumption (in the United States) is 'you must be a criminal, so we'll treat you that way,'' he added. "

Monsters and Critics story about US tourism survey