Not that there is anything wrong with the mechanics of my Toyota, but it lacks an essential piece of wartime equipment: a radio antennae. Without one, it is impossible for me to fly a flag that will flutter in the wind.

I recently returned to the country after a trip through Canada and admit I had some anxiety. The vision of America one gets from CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS and the maudlin morning shows was not reassuring. I was unnerved by the hysteria about impending terrorist attacks and anthrax alerts.

As I return to life in the U.S. it is clear that things are different. As usual, my fellow Americans have taken their newly energized expressions of patriotism to excess. And all sorts of things not normally done are now done in the name of ‘the new world” in which we are living.

Already we have seen the airline industry succeed in having the federal government appropriate billions to save them from the devastation produced by Sept 11. While pocketing this money the airlines have moved quickly to lay off employees in very large numbers. No one seems to want to ask why it is that in the face of a bailout employees are being dumped. What is being saved, if not jobs? Bonuses? Executive Perks? Incompetent management?

Any number of businesses has used 9.11 as a reason to cut back, downsize, or reduce compensation to their employees. As they do so they are contributing mightily to the decline of the economy. No one seems to question their patriotism, however, because they run ads supporting America, wrapping themselves in red, white and blue, while decrying the decline of the economy.

It would now appear that 9.11 has become reason to settle the Microsoft Anti-Trust case, put a few major league baseball franchises out of business, legitimize the presidency of the “Unelected One” and suspend civil liberties, at least for different-looking people. In a small town in the heartland of America, an effigy adorned with a turban and a long coat dangled from the roof of the American Legion Hall — where subtlety is in short supply.

The political right has seen an opening and is in the process of cranking up the Newt Gingrich culture wars again. Sixties radicals are being singled out and attacked by those still dismayed by ‘too much freedom” in America.

The news media, especially cable television news, has been at its worst. There has never been a better argument for eliminating “24/7″ news than the past two months — not even the O.J. saga. The constant repetition of the same stories presented as if they are new and fresh — and now the unending ’speculation” about the recent plane crash in New York — creates both hysteria and weariness at the same time. Neither is good for the national mental state.

Nor apparently for my mental state. While in Chicago recently I visualized planes hitting the Sears Tower each time I saw the city skyline. When I buy coffee in a public place and the sugar is in one of those pouring towers rather than a small packet, I think how easy it would be to put anthrax or some other thing in the container. It took two days in the U.S. for me to succumb. Paranoia does not become me.

When I was in Canada I watched and listened to the CBC and other Canadian news services, all of which have devoted a great deal of programming to the war and the anthrax crisis. Nearly without exception, however, the Canadians have been able to avoid the hysteria of CNN et al while offering in-depth and intelligent discussion and perspectives on the international crisis that seem well beyond the capability of American news services. CBC Radio is the very best of all the Canadian news services and should be made available to all North Americans.

Beyond all this is the flag business. Never have I seen so many flags, not even on Flag Day. It would seem that nearly everyone is displaying flags on or about their person, their home, or their car or truck. I have seen flag motif shirts, pants, shorts, hats, socks and shoes. No doubt there is an array of underwear displaying the same patriotism. All of this, of course, is in the very best of taste. But the truth remains that I have no red, white and blue anything. Clearly I am out of step.

Flags come in a mind-boggling variety of sizes and types, from paper to plastic. They hang from buildings, construction sights, cranes, bridges, overpasses and underpasses. In Pennsylvania there are flags in the lights along the interstate highway shoulders. There seems to be a mentality among the business community that the bigger the flag the greater the patriotism. Flag envy is everywhere, especially among car dealers. Size, it would appear, does matter.

At sporting events, the stands are filled with red, white and blue. I have seen those lapel bows painted onto the ice surface in National Hockey League arenas and on basketball courts and football fields. Flags appear on basketball backboards and on the large television replay boards. And, of course, “God Bless America” replaced “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” — which I always thought was the most American of songs — for the seventh-inning stretch at the World Series, making it an exercise in civil religion and a competition to see who could give the most moving rendition.

Where will it all end? Will it ever end? An article in the San Francisco Chronicle recently took readers on a shopping tour of red, white and blue intimate apparel, including patriotic condoms and the “American Flag Print Suspender Thong.” The article also notes that official flag rules condemn using Old Glory as clothing. But I’m sure there won’t be many complaints. After all, ours is the land of freedom — and marketing.