What is LAX like these days? When I used to travel I rated it, together with Heathrow, as the worst and most unpleasant airport in the western world, maybe the whole world. I assume the decades have brought at least some changes and things I have seen in passing give the impression that it has improved. So has it? The last time I went through there I swore I never would again and I always took the Asia route to Europe, via the magnificent Changi airport (my best in the world). What a difference! How did Americans ever get this weird idea that they are from the greatest country on earth? Compared to Singapore, they live in a chaotic disintegrating slum.