Re:The worst part (Score 1)

I got a somewhat different treatment returning home to SFO about 8 months ago from a trip to Geneva and London. I have that swarthy semitic look, so I get stopped for "random" checks quite frequently (19 out of my first 20 flights in the US after 9/11, and about 80% of the time at the jetway when leaving Heathrow).

So I was not surprised when the SFO customs agent pulled me over, saying "congratulations, you've been selected for a random search." But he spent only about 45 seconds on my luggage, and then 45 minutes with my laptop.

I could see a bit of what he was looking at, and he kept returning time and time again to a photo of a strikingly beautiful woman (one of several mug shots left on my laptop from a marketing focus group study -- not worth the story).

We had a friendly chat while he was surfing my machine, and he at one point mentioned that I was getting a "quickie" and that sometimes they will take a laptop for 4 or 5 hours. Luckily he had no interest in my encrypted files, just that woman's photo.