• The abortion non-issue
• A new kind of surge
• Congrats Cap'n!
• Game over, man!
• Regarding Education
• Trivia Question of the Day
• What Right to Privacy?
• John McCain is 72 years old! [laughter, applause]
• Bug Braaaaaaaaaains!
• Sarah Palin
• Reich's advice to Democrats
• Women's Lib
• On Barak Obama and Joe Biden
• Late Night Punchline Imbalance: the details undermine the headline
• Better questions about climate change

• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
• November 2007
• October 2007
• September 2007
• August 2007
• July 2007
• June 2007
• May 2007
• April 2007
• March 2007
• February 2007
• January 2007
• December 2006
• November 2006
• October 2006
• September 2006
• August 2006
• July 2006
• June 2006
• May 2006
• April 2006
• March 2006
• February 2006
• January 2006
• December 2005
• November 2005
• October 2005
• September 2005
• August 2005
• July 2005
• June 2005

« Presumption best precedes failure | Main | Striped Iceberg »

Hold my calls...

You make the call… is this actual news, or is it a piece of satire?

By a voice vote, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed the Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace--or HANG UP--Act, which was introduced earlier this year by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.).

We only wish it were satire, friends. CNET’s blog notes that the FCC and FAA already coordinate a ban on in-flight cell phone use, but apparently the House doesn’t have anything more important to do than to move the prohibition from federal policy to federal law. Representative DeFazio justified the legislation by noting that without it, airlines might offer customers choices!!!!

"Polls show the public overwhelmingly doesn't want to be subjected to people talking on their cell phones on increasingly over-packed airplanes. However, with Internet access just around the corner on U.S. flights, it won't be long before the ban on voice communications on in-flight planes is lifted," DeFazio said in a statement. Cash-strapped airlines could end up charging some passengers to use their phones while charging others to sit in a phone-free section of the plane, he said.

And that’s un-American.

The cake is taken by a House member who the AP declines to name:

A third House member raised the specter of national security, saying she'd witnessed one man use his cell phone camera to take pictures of sensitive parts of the airplane.

So let’s look at this realistically. Will it still be legal for passengers to talk to one another? Will it still be legal for passengers to talk to themselves? Is it legitimate to make my speech illegal based solely on who I am talking to? I am trying to figure out any situation in which that makes sense.