Monday, December 28, 2009

Airline Travel to Get More Awful

By Dave

Awesome. In response to the Nigerian terrorist who tried to blow-up a flight over Detroit, everyone wants to make flying a more miserable experience. The loonies on the right, of course, think now would be a perfect time to enact racial-profiling. But this is their standard refrain, so no surprise there. But the TSA thinks we should all be punished. Airlines are scrambling to enact new regulations to make flying "safer." Here's the NYT:
But several airlines released detailed information about the restrictions, saying that passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. It was not clear how often the rule would affect domestic flights.
Wow! Great! Put your book away, shut off that ipod, and stare straight ahead. NO TALKING! Totally worth the price of a ticket! Not only do you get to sit in a tiny, uncomfortable chair, you get to be actively bored. Yay!

Come on, how is this making travel any safer?  This is just knee-jerk reactionary thinking. There has to be a better way to make flying safe and convenient. We have the technology , right? Where's that stimulus money? Why aren't we making hijack-proof planes and creating better liquid-explosive detectors? We obviously haven't solved the problem by making everyone throw away their shampoo and nail clippers, so now let's try actual improvements.

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