Bureaucratic Bluster

The Federal Aviation Administration is flailing about like a worm on hot pavement, trying to increase its regulatory power into areas where it currently wields no authority--and for good reason.

The Federal Aviation Administration proposed on Thursday to amend its regulations to ensure that it can enforce a law that prohibits "obtrusive" advertising in zero gravity.

"Objects placed in orbit, if large enough, could be seen by people around the world for long periods of time," the FAA said in a regulatory filing.

Currently, the FAA lacks the authority to enforce the existing law.

While I agree in principle, I can't seem to come up with any path of logic, however tortured and twisted, which the FAA could use to justify such an attempt to usurp authority in the area of orbital regulation. They wrote and encouraged the passage of a toothless law, one which their charter gave them no authority to enforce, and now want to amend their charter to expand their powers of enforcement. It is possibly the most blatant case of dog-wagging I've ever seen, and that in an organization which is riddled with such bureaucratic boondoggles.

From Webster's Online:

a·vi·a·tion - n. - The operation of aircraft.

Aircraft, last time I looked, required air in order to operate properly. Also last I looked, air was rather hard to come by in a vacuum.

What's next? Is the FDA going to propose amendments to its regulations allowing it to enforce arbitrary laws against software piracy?

Speaking as someone who has dealt with the FAA in private aviation, I can assure you we don't want this pack of douchenozzles involved in any capacity with the exploration or exploitation of space. I can think of nothing--short of global thermonuclear war--that could more effectively smother the growth of privatization in space and abort the economic boom it could represent for the entire planet. The FAA makes NASA look downright competent and efficient.