Joan Rivers, national security threat

By Michael J.W. Stickings

This is rather amusing. From Think Progress:

The New York Daily News reports that comedian Joan Rivers was among the many travelers to get snared in the heightened-security frenzy that overtook airports after the December 25th failed terrorist attack. Rivers wasn't allowed on her Newark-bound flight in Costa Rica this past weekend by a "jittery Continental Airlines gate agent" who thought the two names on her passport, which reads "Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers," seemed "fishy." Rivers wrote of her experience.

"If I were going to make up an alias, I wouldn't pick Rosenberg. I'd pick Jolie or Pitt... Do terrorists wear Manolo Blahniks? I can tell you Donna Karan does not make anything that hides a bomb... I tried the tears; they didn't work. I tried reasoning. I couldn't bribe because I didn't have any money. I said 'I'm going to have a heart attack over this,' so the woman called the paramedics."

Rivers, who comes across as a pretentious bitch -- sorry, but wearing Manolo Blahniks doesn't make you a special person -- ultimately made it to San Jose, Costa Rica's capital, where she caught a flight home. Now, sure, there's a lot of craziness over security these days, heightened against post-12/25, and I certainly think a more sensible approach is preferable to suspect-everyone paranoia and panic.

But I'd say the system seems to be working just fine, don't you? Rivers, after all, is a threat to good taste and common decency everywhere. I'm just surprised it's her name the gate agent found "fishy." Why not her lack of facial expression beyond the one that's frozen there? Why not that she looks like an unnatural freak? Why not that she calls herself a comedian but isn't, and has rarely ever been, even remotely funny?

All good questions. Maybe she should be sent to Yemen for questioning.