Short summary – any non-citizen wanting any sort of flight training has to get TSA approval, and as well as the cost and hassle of getting the photos and fingerprints and stuff, there will be a several hundred dollar fee. Oh, and knowing the federal government, probably a 6 month wait for approval.
Category: Rant
The forest behind the trees
In spite of the fact that the Bush camp has turned the whole debate around to be about one set of probably-forged papers, one shouldn’t forget that the basic facts are not in dispute. And those facts are that Bush received a sweetheart deal because of his wealth and status, and then didn’t fullfil his committments, and then has had his proxies and surrogates lie and dissemble about this. Why does he get a by on his obvious lack of integrity and faithfulness to his comiittments from the majority of the press?
Some highlights:
“I heard George Bush get up and say, `I served in the 187th Air National Guard in Montgomery, Alabama,'” retired Lt. Col. Robert Mintz said on camera. “Really? That was my unit. And I don’t remember seeing you there…”
“Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country.” – That’s from Colin Powell’s 1995 book “My American Journey”.
This morning’s fun discovery
If you discover a bunch of old files in /var/mailman/qfiles/shunt, do NOT run unshunt. It doesn’t get rid of them, it delivers them to the mailing lists that they’d originally been rejected by since they came from non-members and are spam.
I just sent 18 peices of spam to the members of the Upstate Aviation Mailing list. And they’re all helpfully tagged ‘[UpstateAv]’ in the subject line so people know where they came from.
One bullet dodged, how many to go?
WEINER WITHHOLDS “OUTRAGEOUS” ANTI-GENERAL AVIATION BILL IN HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE
This bill would have essentially outlawed general avaition. For one thing, it would have required the Department of Homeland Security to security screen general aviation flights – I could see them rushing out to put screening stations in all 18,000 general aviation airports in the country. And what about private airfields? And for what? To make sure my friends and family don’t threaten me with a box cutter when I’m taking them flying?
Another provision would have forbidden me from flying within 1500 feet of any structure or building. I don’t see any exemption for airport buildings. I wonder where I was supposed to land?
Oh, and it would have required all aircraft to remain in contact with the FAA (presumably by radio), regardless of altitude or location. Remember that 18,000 airport figure? Guess how many have control towers. About 600. Somehow I don’t see the FAA rushing out and building 17,400 control towers.
The Connector Conspiracy
I just heard a little “beedely-beep” coming from the general area of my desk. Oh oh, my cell phone is showing “Low Battery”. That’s weird, I plugged it in before I went to bed last night. And when I went for a pee in the middle of the night and again this morning, I could have sworn that the backlight was on, which it generally only does when it’s charging. So why didn’t it charge?
Personally, I blame The Connector Conspiracy. The connector on this cell phone is little, and fiddly, and doesn’t make a very good or reliable connection. I don’t know why they have to make a different connector for every single cell phone brand out there, but it’s either:
- greed – they could save a few cents per phone by using this new funky connector instead of something simple and positive like an RCA-style jack or
- greed – they realize the real profit is in making the chargers and car adaptors and the like, and the only way to make you buy their chargers and car adaptors is to use a different connector than everybody else.
Either way, it’s damn annoying. And I’m cellphone-less for the rest of the day because the only cell phone charger I have at work is for my last cell phone. Not that I’d have anywhere to plug it in – I’ve already used the only slots in my power strip for my PDA and my iPod. The fact that at work you can only use power strips that have been attached to something in a vertical orientation is rant-worthy, but maybe for another time.