Government would require permission just to fly on a plane

If new rules proposed by the Transport Security Administration are enacted, every airline passenger in America will need advance permission from the government just to fly. Not just to fly from the U.S. Not just to fly to the U.S. But even within the U.S. And even over the U.S., if the flight begins and ends outside the U.S.

Anyone who has to fly from, to, within, or over the U.S. and A. will have to submit all their personal information to the U.S. government 72 hours before flying - and be cleared by the TSA, the same rocket surgeons who brang you the no-fly list that almost everybody seems to be on because they have the same name as someone else who's on it. The new rules will apply to U.S. citizens and foreigners alike.

Even if you're just taking a small business flight out of your local general aviation airport, the rules will apply the same as if you're an international traveler.

Pretty much everybody opposes the new rules, and you know the new rules won't stop terrorism, because everyone knows that no terrorist is going to give their real name if they think they won't be cleared. Anyone who actually thinks it'll stop terrorism is off in the Flat Earth Society somewhere.

Travel data expert Edward Hasbrouck said the new rules are an infringement on the right to domestic travel and the right to assembly. The ACLU's Barry Steinhardt said the watch list (which contains the widely mocked no-fly list) has 500,000 to 750,000 names on it. "If there are that many terrorists in the U.S., we'd all be dead," he correctly pointed out.

Today, air travel. Pretty soon, the government will require permission for road travel too. If you don't think it can happen in America, there was a time when I never in a million years thought America would have uniforms in public schools or force people to sign a log to buy cold medicine - but here we are.

(Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/12/flying_into_data_hell)