Bob Hoover, one of history's finest aerobatic pilots, used to fly at most of the LAX area airshows. The shows were held at both commercial airports and military fields, most of which in that area were Naval Air Stations. I think his first show plane was a yellow P-51 Mustang that was kept at the LAX airport in a North American Aviation hanger. Stories of both his skills and his antics were already legend in the 1960s.
As an early introduction to dumb government, even before my military service, I was subjected to an amazing display of bureaucratic dumbness at an airshow where Hoover would be flying his Mustang. I got to NAS Point Mugu late and there was a line to purchase the 50-cent tickets. Large temporary stands had been erected that effectively blocked view of the field except for a small slit between them. Through that small slit I could see a yellow flash as Hoover's P-51 shot by; first one direction, then another.
The line was stalled because the 2 sailors selling tickets had run out of tickets and were waiting for a new supply. Rather than just take the 50-cents and pass people through, the line was halted until some more tickets could be located. I was fit to be tied--Hoover was doing the thing I had traveled a couple of hours to see and 2 sailors and whatever supervisor was there were in a classic brain-fart preventing me and a lot of others from seeing the main event.
Why the story? In a sense, something like that is going on today within the TSA at our airports. Bureaucrats, when faced with a situation requiring adjustment from the "rules book" tend to take the safe position and just point to the "rules." That's understandable when one's livelihood is at risk; however, I think even many of those within the TSA rank and file know that in this case the rules need to be adjusted. Is there evil intent at the top? We all need to make that judgment ourselves. Perhaps it's another example of Ben Franklin's warning about the "busybodies".
Here is a link to an editorial out today--worth a read. Drudge is linking to a lot of information on this matter. I think it is a big deal.
Adios
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