In March of 1993, I slipped on a concrete floor and smashed my left elbow. It is now held together by no less than nine screws. Following the surgery, I learned something about metal detectors.

They have different levels of sensitivity. They can be turned up, or down, depending on how concerned security personnel are about threats to national security.

After the Oklahoma City bombings, I had an interesting time getting past security for about six months. Happily the scar was still pretty large, so I had no trouble convincing people that my arm was full of hardware.

After 9/11, I set off metal detectors for about six months. By the summer of 2002, I had no trouble, even during the terror alerts of 2004 I breezed through security.

Then Obama was elected president. Christmas 2008, I had some problems with security. I was stopped again this summer, coming home from my sister's, during another orange alert.

Conclusion: Most of Bush's orange alerts were phoney, and TSA knew it.