1 Paris: Bune traffic control, this is the free trader Legacy inbound from Rubilith, requesting clearance to land at Starport Alpha.
2 Traffic Control: Roger Legacy. Any hazardous or morally questionable cargo to declare?
3 Paris: Oddly enough, no. We're carrying vital medical supplies that could actually save lives.
4 Traffic Control: And who are you to decide who lives or dies?
4 Paris: What?
4 Traffic Control: Just answer the question.

Yeah, that's a hard one.

A few weeks ago a read an article in a newspaper travel section about the "10 Scariest Travel Experiences in the World". The list included such fun things as:

• Finding yourself in a bad neighbourhood of Bogota, Colombia.
• Travelling through war zones in various parts of central Africa.
• Taking a bus down the "Death Road" in the Bolivian Andes - a road so insanely narrow, precipitous, and dangerous that hundreds of travellers along it plummet to their deaths every year.

Number 3 on the list, the third scariest experience you can have when travelling anywhere in the world, was going through US Customs.

I don't know what it's like for US citizens returning home, but I can tell you from personal experience that for visiting foreigners, getting off a plane in Los Angeles and being confronted with those Customs officers is truly, deeply scary. Even if you're not doing anything wrong at all, it's still enough to scare the socks off most people.