green laser

The blog's been neglected while i attended to more immediate and pressing matters, but I feel compelled to respond to an act of incredible lunacy being perpertrated by the government, to wit, the arrest of a New Jersey man under the Patriot Act for shining a laser at a Cessna and a helicopter. If the FBI had actually tried to verify the man's explanation, that he was using a device purchased on the Internet for $100 to point out stars to his daughter, it should have been immediately apparent, as it is to me, that he's telling the truth. Anybody who's an astronomy buff, as I am, is aware that such devices have been openly sold as observation aids, with warnings not to shine them at planes. The difficulty is in anticipating the arrival of a small plane at an alititude of 3000 feet in time to point the laser elsewhere, if the plane happens to fly into the area of sky where the laser was already pointing at. And for this infraction, a man had to post $150,000 bail and faces a 25 year sentence and a $500,000 fine.