Sky Warriors - Normally I don't read the Washington Times "Insider." In fact, I am usually annoyed to find the conservative rag's daily e-mail digest in my Inbox. Today, however, I'm pleased I didn't just toss it in the trash bin, because the Insider contained this jem of a story about fashion and federal air marshals.

It seems that the studly law enforcement officers "must follow a strict dress code and military grooming" which makes them conspicuous to terrorists, tourists and everyone in between. The requirements stem from earlier complaints that marshals were going too casual, but the bureaucratic overreaction has led, in the words of the Association of Flight Attendants, to sky marshals who "look like FBI or Secret Service agents straight out of central casting." (Especially on those Orlando flights full of Disney vacationers.)

Well, come on, who hasn't enjoyed playing a game of "spot the cop" on the plane flight? And lest we really worry too much about this, consider that the staff of the 9/11 Commission recently reported that "the so-called muscle hijackers actually were not physically imposing, as the majority of them were between 5'5" and 5'7" in height and slender in build."