Bear in the Air*

Joel finds himself somewhat worried about new FAA regulations which could arm every Barney Fife in the nation with his own sky spy surveillance system -- straight optical, thermal, and, when the technology is ripe, x-ray for seeing through your bedroom curtains.**

Me too, but it may be an opportunity for some tech-savvy lad to start working on a new, affordable,  man-portable air defense system. I'm thinking along the lines of a smart .22LR, 36-grain hollow point. With the proper digital internals  -- fire and forget --  it would be just the thing for neutralizing  cop-snoop-robots with a takeoff weight of six ounces, including the camera. I claim naming rights: The TMR Fourth Amendment Special.  (C'mon. It isn't that much more linguistically awkward than, say, the .22/.30-30 Ackley Improved.)

---

*Objectionably young readers may not get this. It's from the 1970s era of the national 55 miles per hour speed limit. which (a) turned every driver in America into a criminal and (b) almost single-handedly created the CB radio industry. "Breaker breaker one-nine, Bear in the air mile post 69 makin' eights."  It meant a cop in a Cessna 150 was up there, timing you. It sounds best drawled out in Tennessean.

**Rick Santorum would love this X-ray bit. Seems the weather in Joel's desert empire  is miserable, giving him time to point out gaspers like this. Rick proposes to use this presidency to improve your sex life, apparently by making sure you get less.