I've always loved flying... big jets, small prop jobs... you name it, I enjoy it. I love the view - the change of perspective - from the air. I love the feel of bouncing on air currents that can be downright exciting in a small plane. Heavens, I even like airline food.

I never tire of the history of the development of flight. It has been a bit less than 100 years since the Wright brothers, bicycle builders, made the first controlled flight. My own, late, father was already 4 years old when they made that flight. Look where we've come in one lifetime!

Recently, the National Air Tour visited the Anoka County airport in Blaine as part of 27-city tour by a couple of dozen aircraft built in the 20's and 30's. 5,000 excited fans greeted them in Blaine, and they've had big crowds in each city visited to date. The tour is a re-creation of tours that were made during the 30's... tours that helped make aviation part of everyday life.

As I described in "I still want to go into space", I fully expected to be able to fly into space in my lifetime, only to watch with disappointment as space travel failed to meet its potential:

I've certainly enjoyed watching NASA's progress over the years, but it's abundantly clear to any informed watcher that government programs, despite their enormous cost, may never result in space flight for ordinary people. Despite the excitement and hoopla, NASA inevitably developed into a typical government bureaucracy.

Now, the same thing is happening to airline flight, which I've enjoyed since 1958. Government regulations are spoiling it... turning it into such a hassle that it is no longer any fun. First there were the ridiculous non-smoking regulations. Instead of providing separate smoking facilities, most airports simply forced smokers out into the cold. In some airports, even that requires a very long walk and passing through security again, just to take a smoke break while waiting for a flight. Even though I smoke between 2 and 3 packs a day, not smoking for a few hours doesn't drive me up a wall... but it does reduce my enjoyment of the experience, and it angers me that it would be so easy to accomodate smokers.

Non-smokers should be aware that, since flights have become non-smoking, airlines have reduced the amount of ventilation, and air is now less fresh than it was when smoking was allowed.

Now we have the spectacle of ever-increasing "security" in airports... more hassles... and lots of horror stories. As I reported in "I'm law-abiding... I'll be safe":

When you fly... even if you don't look "foreign"... if you're among the first people off a plane, it shows you're in a hurry. If you're the last off the plane, you're trying to appear unconcerned. If you deplane in the middle of a group you may be trying to lose yourself in the crowd.

Seeming to be nervous, looking around, pacing, looking at a watch, making a phone call - all things that business travelers routinely do, especially those who are late or don't like to fly - sound alarms to waiting drug agents.

If you walked quickly through the airport, or walked with intentional slowness... if you deliberately don't look at a policeman, or if you stare at one... if you have too much baggage or not enough... or if you use a pager or cellphone (drug folks do too)... do you look "out of place" in First Class? All of these things may draw the attention of the law.

Now, thanks to lists prepared in the name of security by our invasive government, all airline passengers are going to be classified by a color scheme. Those coded green will face normal security, while those coded yellow will face additional screening. Travelers coded red will not be traveling at all, and may be arrested.

For me, that's the last straw. I'm not going to fly again. Given the paranoia of government these days, if I were classified green, I'd feel like I wasn't doing my job as a libertarian writer. Besides, I don't like the colors. As a libertarian, I resent the choice of being called a Green, being called yellow, or being called a Red.

Just color me blue.