Those of you who have been visiting this site since the summer know that I have been very skeptical of the federal government’s efforts at ‘airline security.’ Basically, my position has been that the TSA is filled with un-serious people who are asking us to give up liberties while doing little that actually protects us.

Now here comes a story that really chills me. A TSA employee slipped a note into a passenger’s baggage, questioning his patriotism:

“Don’t appreciate your anti-American attitude!” was neatly hand written on the standard notice TSA places inside all the bags that screeners open.

“This security person decided to let me board, but not before scolding me for being un-American,” Goldberg told Reuters in an interview.

It’s one thing to throw out ideas like probable cause in the name of security. It’s another thing for the government to pass judgment on the ideology of its citizens. The fear, of course, is that the latter becomes much more likely as a consequence of the former.

The TSA says they’ll investigate. This one won’t go away, and we’ll be watching.