Careful, or the Pentagon will flash you

It seems that the idiots at the Pentagon have come up with another blatantly stupid idea. In response to problems caused by planes flying into the capital's "restricted" airspace, they have decided to warn pilots to turn back by shining lasers at the plane. Wow, that's one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard. Before I continue, take a moment to read about this fodder.

I'm trying to imagine what the meeting must have been like where they came up with such a stupid solution. There would have been a bunch of meat-head Pentagon officials, sitting around a table, eating donuts and discussing the problem of planes flying into restricted airspace. Obviously this would have been a very important issue to them, because we all know how terrified Americans are of airplanes.

It is entirely possible that a few good ideas may have been presented, most likely from the people at the meeting who weren't smoking weed. The trouble with meetings though, is that the managers are always the ones to get the final say. And, as many of you know, managers are often totally incompetent.

Even as a common civilian, I was able to come up with a perfectly logical solution to this problem. Why couldn't they just have spent $30 on eBay to purchase an aircraft radio? Then, if pilots flew into restricted airspace, they could just tell them to get lost. Gee....that would be easier.

Then I remembered, doing things the logical way just isn't the Pentagon's style. They seem to have protocols that they follow when it comes time to make defense decisions. I haven't actually seen their official protocol document, but I'm sure it looks something like this:

Any new defense system should:

• Cost a whole load of money.
• Sound really awesome on paper.
• Generate fear in the American population.
• Be prime material for inclusion in a Hollywood movie so that Americans can sound cool.
• Showboat America's technological prowess.

With this in mind, I think it's pretty plain why a logical idea like using a radio got shut down. Here's my interpretation:

-The radio isn't expensive enough. Buying a $30 radio wouldn't waste nearly enough tax money.
-Using a radio just doesn't sound very cool. Next to a system that uses lasers, a radio sounds boring.
-Talking to pilots on a radio doesn't run the risk of blinding them. In order to keep the American public afraid, they need to live with the very real possibility of having their pilot suddenly blinded by lasers.
-A radio wouldn't make a movie more interesting. Defense systems aren't any good if they can't be included in a Hollywood picture. How else is America going to remind the world how great it is.
-Using a radio just doesn't say, "look at us, we have super-duper technology to warn our pilots". Morons.

It sounds like this laser system is going to be put in place very soon. I wonder if it occured to them that if the pilot of the airplane really did have the intent for terrorism, shining colored lights at the plane wouldn't stop anything from happening. What a joke. When I buy a plane, I think I'll use one-way glass for windows, just to throw them off.