Detention at 30,000 Feet
I won’t fly anymore. Not unless work absolutely demands it. No thanks, I’ll drive.
It’s not that I’m afraid of being blown up — not only are the odds against it, but as I’ve said since about 9/12/2001, the days of hijackings/bombings are over. We passengers aren’t cattle. We won’t just sit there. We fight back.
Then again, look at the TSA’s new “safety” regulations:
1. Passengers must remain in seats beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
2. Passenger access to carry-on baggage is prohibited beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
3. Disable aircraft-integrated passenger communications systems and services (phone, internet access services, live television programming, global positioning systems) prior to boarding and during all phases of flight.
4. While over U.S. airspace, flight crew may not make any announcement to passengers concerning flight path or position over cities or landmarks.
5. Passengers may not have any blankets, pillows, or personal belongings on the lap beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
Janet “The System Worked” Napolitano does, in fact, think we’re cattle. One hour prior to landing, we are to sit there, doing nothing. You may not get a Kleenex out of your bag. You may not hold a book or magazine in your lap. You may not get up to pee.
For an hour.
Because her agency failed to stop a terrorist, but passengers like you and me succeeded. She failed. You pay. Typical.
Sit quietly. Don’t fidget. Stare directly ahead.
I won’t do it. I’m not cattle. I won’t just sit there. But I can’t fight back. So I’ll drive, instead.
You should, too.
Motor vehicles remain one of the last frontiers of true liberty. Unlike planes, what we do in them is mostly our business – cell phone regulations be damned.
I look forward to some satirical bunch tackling the topic of the mile high club under the new TSA regulations environment.
I already have a flight scheduled for tomorrow. Nothing caps off a 3.5 hour flight like having the last hour set aside for doing NOTHING. Can’t read, can’t play the Nintendo DS.
I can hardly wait.
Ditto, Steve. The pic on my blog is actually me (Photoshopped a wee tad), at a rest stop in New Mexico during a trip from Austin to San Diego. I could be that, or I could be benched by a flight crew because someone’s too gutless to frakking profile.
Think about this next time you want to be a hero on your flight. Sure, you may save your life and the lives of the passengers aboard, but millions of members of the flying public will be punished.
Better to die so that the government will not feel threatened by a private citizen who solves a problem without recourse to taxes, civil servants or regulations.
I would rather drive I-95 from Portland ME, to Miami FL than get in a plane these days.
“Because her agency failed to stop a terrorist, but passengers like you and me succeeded. She failed. You pay. Typical.”
Very typical of statist regimes of any stripe. They do not want personal initiative, they want citizens to be dependent upon the government.
Next June I was going to have to head out east for my sister’s wedding, and was going to just fly for the weekend. Even though I hate flying commercial.
A few years back we drove back and forth, took 3.5 days each way. Looks like we’ll be doing that again.
This is the classic flail. People in charge have no idea what’s going on, but the can’t look clueless to their superiors (and in Napolitano’s case that includes the furniture in her office) so they order something, because all motion is progress.
Thrice-damned idiots.
If there’s any saving grace of these stupid new regulations, it’s that they only apply (for now) to international flights coming into the US. Something similar was already in place for flights into Reagan International a few years ago. We were not allowed to get out of our seats for any reason within a specified period before landing. There were no restrictions that I can remember about reading or other activities, though.
I’m just glad these new rules weren’t in effect last Thursday when my wife and I returned from New Zealand. Kind of hard to drive to New Zealand.
Heh. I want to see them try to enforce this in February as we’re flying out to Hawaii from Maryland. Two six-year-old boys in tow. I’m either going to get busted for doing what I can to take care of them, or for disturbing the peace as I keep the neighbors from killing two screaming maniacs.
Terrorists ain’t got nothin’ on my boys!
I had planned to fly to Britain this spring, to take my granddaughter on a tour of NE England, etc… but I’m cancelling the thing. The news of yet another monstrous rule (do nothing, you peasantry, for one hour) is just infuriating. I am thinking that perhaps I’ll check El Al flight schedules; or just staying on the continent (Savannah? Sir Archibald Campbell of Inverneill fought and WON a battle there, back during the American Rebellion, folks. Plus, Sherman didn’t burn the city down.)
passengers like you and me succeeded.
We have met “the system,” and it is us.
I love taking long, cross-country road trips. I haven’t traveled by plane in over 27 years and I don’t miss it one iota.
Frankly, I’d be a basket-case if I had to fly frequently because of my career. Not enough therapy and prozac in the world!
If republicans were not pathetic, they would have started buying ads in the airports, and linking liberal PC policies and federalization of security with the FUBAR situation for flying. They could do even one better and say that anyone who likes how the feds deal with airport and flight security, would love Obamacare. Moreover, don’t forget to add a huge portrait of Obama-Pelosi-Reid, so that everytime you are stuck in the airport – you enjoy watching these three. The power of negative association…
Don’t forget to visit my blog:
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/
If republicans were not pathetic, they would have started buying ads in the airports, and linking liberal PC policies and federalization of security with the FUBAR situation for flying. They could do even one better and say that anyone who likes how the feds deal with airport and flight security, would love Obamacare. Moreover, don’t forget to add a huge portrait of Obama-Pelosi-Reid, so that everytime you are stuck in the airport – you enjoy watching these three. The power of negative association…
The only advantage of flying is saving time and possibly money and safety(?).
The advantages of driving is:
A You depart time is when you feel like it
B You don’t have to kennel your dogs [Lots of pet friendly motels]
C You can bring your other ‘little friend’ [The kind that barks over here and bites over there]
D You can bring consumables that would be confiscated. [Not talking Tobbler Bars]
E On some trips, you can rent RVs [All the above, plus your own kitchen and you can BBQ]
Unless your international travel destination is Canada, I don’t see any way to drive instead of being subjected to these rules. For example, I certainly can’t drive to my conference in California next week from Shanghai. On the bright side, my attempts to do anything are usually useless the last bleary hour of a 12 hour flight, so I doubt I’ll even notice these changes.
@Hyphenated – Don’t be a moron. Where was Clinton or Bush when they started to foist this stuff off on us. Obama is just carrying it toward its logical conclusion.
I’m guessing the Romney/Palin administration will have us boarding in our hospital gowns and the Jeb Bush regime will only allow us to board fully naked and having submitted to a body cavity search.
well we can’t have any more heroes jumping up and saving 300 people from a fiery death, can we? just stay buckled up in your seat and die like the filthy infidel that you are.
uhhh..don’t think i will be flying anywhere any time soon but thanks for keeping the system working, ja-na !
Amen Stephen. My thinking EXACTLY.
I’m with you Stephen. I’ve flown once since 9/11. The new guidelines are a little confusing though. There are a lot more short hop flights than people realize. St Louis to KC and back, Jacksonville (and about 20 other nearby cities) to Atlanta and back etc.. Does this mean you can’t move at all once the plane starts to taxi? Oh how practical! Put a catheter next to the barf bag I suppose.
Steve, after 9/11 you could not stand within 30 minutes of takeoff or landing when flying in or out of Boston, New York and DC. The result was there were a lot of one-hour flights along the mid-atlantic region where you could not get up at all. Most people can survive for one hour (stretched to up to two if there are delays taking off or taxiing) without needing to use a restroom… especially since the prohibition against standing is well-known in advance so you can plan accordingly.
And anyway, I thought these new rules only applied to international travel?
As someone who flies a lot, no crazy TSA rules will ever get in my way of taking advantage of the convenience of quick travel. The number one thing that makes flying bearable in the US is the grace and good humor of my fellow passengers; as long as we all manage to maintain that in the face of increasingly bizarre and restrictive regulations, flying will remain an acceptable way of getting across the country and back without losing a week in the process.
Thank KingM for demonstrating to the group precisely what a strawman is. Class, mark this comment and refer to it in the future.
Anyway, this entire administration sans Robert Gates has been a collective knee jerk reaction. Sure, their lefty worldview runs counter to my view, but these guys can’t even live by their own credo as the real world is moving much too quickly for them to even apply what they believe to it. Not that Homeland Security was ever an agency worth its bloated, overreaching bureau-worth, but I predict that Janet Napolitano will have the Peter Principle named after her before she’s done wrecking all the individual liberties of the majority of law abiding citizens in this country.
On second thought, maybe that life of crime thing might not be such a bad career move after-all? The worst that could happen to me would be some art-therapy in Illinois. Hell, I love displaying my angst with a little hazel and mauve crayolas on yellow construction paper.
Uhhh…uhbuhma and his team DO NOT GIVE A SHIT what you/we/I think.
I think everyone is missing the beautiful simplicity of these tactics. Make flying as inconvenient as possible and eventually only terrorists will fly. They can then be arrested at leisure before take-off, eradicating terrorism forever. Thank you Washington!
“Whenever a new problem appears, a politician will appear to solve it.”
Janet Incompetano will not be inconvenienced by the new rules in the least.
When I fly I like to look out the window and point out landmarks, roads, anything I can identify to my family. Will I be in trouble if I say “Look! There’s Citizens Bank Park.”
A terrorist with a good knowledge of geography should be able to look out the window and identify where they are from rivers, buildings, the coast line, etc. Will they forbid looking out the window next?
This is why you want to learn to fly, Stephen. When you start looking at the Rutan designed canard pushers, self-flown, cross country travel really becomes a possibility.