I never feel less American than I do in an airport. I wrote this Thursday while on a plane to our nation’s Capitol; getting to my seat was a ridiculous (for me) and humiliating (for others) process.

“I am going to be gone four days and, because of 100 beaurocratic reasons worded as safety precautions, I had to either get everything I need into a bag small enough to fit in an overhead bin or, basically, buy my luggage a ticket.

Then I watch the man in front of me in the security line practically strip and unpack – bless his heart. As he is filling his third bin with shoes, belt, laptop, money clip, breathing apparatus, coat, there comes a voice over the intercom saying that TSA has implemented new safety regulations limiting how many items one can take through a security check point. I’m looking at the guy in front of me and wondering if they would say anything to him about the number of items he is carrying through when, only moments before, he was wearing most of them.

As I came through the security check I looked up to see a woman with her hands in the air and a guard (two by two, hands of blue) pressing all along the seams of her bra.  SERIOUSLY!!!!!! Isn’t that a bit much?

I’ve been to China.  After this weekend I would say it isn’t as far away as we once thought it was.  What would Lee Greenwood say?”