Sky Marshals Of The Universe

In the 1950s, no one gave Command Cody any problems with the technology he used to defeat bad guys in the Republic Serials he was featured in. In the 21st century, the FCC doesn't want to give Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) any flak either.

When the FCC recently announced that they were planning to relax the rules on cell phone usage in flight, everyone thought they were bowing to public pressure. Perhaps not. It seems that the feds have "wireless telephone equipped, super-PDA that can transmit crucial, real-time intel anywhere in the world within seconds." The FAM director admits to pressing for the rule change to allow his men to use their toys in flight. Congress appropriated more than $10 million for R&D on this hardware, but what they are probably using are ordinary Blackberrys. Your tax dollars at work. I wonder if the air marshals get to keep their frequent flyer miles?