Originally Posted by damorgan
That's a fascinating statement. As a non-American, I find what is going on at your airports completely American. Not so much the things being done (much of which applies elsewhere in the world) but certaily the way it is done.
I'll articulate briefly. Problem perceived; immense machinery deployed; strict adherence to nth degree of letter of the law; total lack of subtlety.
Sorry if that sounds a bit caustic, but do you see the point that I make? There are analagies elsewhere.
When Spiff uses the term un-American, he is referring (please forgive me for presuming Spiff) to policies that are diametrically opposed to the principles of freedom and liberty upon which the US was founded. It's an unfortunate symptom of how much the US government has betrayed those principles that a non-American would associate the term American with the banal things you enumerated.