Kerre Woodham: Pat downs get pervy for flyers

No doubt some people were calling me old fashioned after last week's column about hosing down the little North Shore oiks, which was really only a heartbeat away from calling for the reinstatement of Compulsory Military Training.

But old fashioned I will be when it comes to the invasive and ghastly body searches travellers in the United States are enduring.

If I'm going to be fondled, I'd much rather choose the fondler than take my chances with the security roster. I really don't want to have their hands running over every part of my body including my boobs and between my legs.

And what's worse is that it all seems utterly pointless. If we could be assured that we'd all be safer flying as a result, fine. But terrorists seem to know how to up the ante. After the shoe bomber, we had to remove our shoes. After the undie bomber, we've had to endure these invasive body searches.

What happens after a suicide bomber smuggles a bomb on board inside themselves the way drug couriers do?

Will we all then be subjected to cavity searches every time we want to travel? The Americans need to stop being so reactive and be a little bit smarter in their passenger screening, or we'll be back to the days when ocean liners were the only way to travel.