Stupid Government Tricks

The FAA has finally come to its senses: Whooping cranes are cleared for takeoff after getting FAA exemption.

A group has been raising whooping cranes, and then releasing them into the wild to increase the tiny number of the endangered birds. Part of the process involves teaching them about their migration flight, and this is accomplished by having an ultra-light aircraft act as the lead bird to show the young birds where to go.

The FAA got its knickers in a bunch because the people who fly the aircraft are full-time employees of the non-profit that conducts the program, and the pilots are thus being paid. The license used for an ultra-light is highly restricted, and it can’t be used for commercial purposes. It has been difficult for the FAA to understand that the people flying the aircraft aren’t professional pilots, they are bird handlers who have volunteered to fly the aircraft, to act like an adult whooping crane.

The FAA finally decided to allow the flight to continue, and we can only hope it didn’t destroy the chances of the birds to survive.

As has become routine, TSA not only didn’t back down, but it doubled down: TSA defends cupcake confiscation.

That’s right, they confiscated cupcakes because the frosting was ‘gel-like’ and violated the rules about carrying gels on the aircraft. This was the same excuse they used when they confiscated my Mother’s chocolate pudding, despite being a sealed commercial container.

It is irrelevant that this stupid rule arose from a British incident, and the British have since discontinued it, because the hysteria about the possibility was shown to be totally in error – you can’t do what ‘the terrorists’ said they were going to do. It was a dumb rule, prompted by ignorance, and pathetically still in force in the US.

The only good part of the article is the reaction of the bakery that made the cupcake – they have changed the name from red velvet to ‘National [Security] Velvet’.