Lawmakers in favor of keeping the ban say they’re not worried about the safety of passengers. They’re worried about their sanity.
“For passengers, being able to use their phones and tablets to get online or send text messages is a useful in-flight option,” Shuster said. “But if passengers are going to be forced to listen to the gossip in the aisle seat, it’s going to make for a very long flight.”
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) became the second lawmaker after Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to offer legislation to keep the ban in place.
“Let’s face it, airplane cabins are by nature noisy, crowded, and confined,” said Shuster, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“For those few hours in the air with 150 other people, it’s just common sense that we all keep our personal lives to ourselves and stay off the phone.”And they are supposed to be the sensible party…
Also rushed-through ‘feel good’ policies that fall at the first hurdle, the total inversion of previous guidelines as a result of media hysteria, expansion through scaremongering, confusion over competing rights and equality legislation, rigid application of ‘weapons policies’, prosecution via hindsight and justice system intransigence.
4 comments:
I'm not much of a bansturbator, but I do have sympathy with the reasoning behind the ban.
Me, I have a PAYG mobile, and a tenner credit lasts me months and months. When you're cruising at 20k feet, mid Atlantic, if the house has burned down/dog run over/wife hit by a bus, there's not a right lot you can do about it anyway.
Now call me a ludite/technophobe all you like, but some people seem to believe that a mobile works on the principle of 2 tin cans and a piece of damp string, and feel the need to shout confidential/personal info so the person on the other end can hear them.
Sorry, but I don't want to listen to conversations regarding anal sex, blood tests, or love lorn teenagers giving it "I really love you" and 3 quarters of an hour of "You hang up/no you...".
When annoyed by people talking loudly on their mobile phone, I usually take mine out, pretend to answer a call and relate to the topics of the noisy caller by saying things like, "No!!!!!", "You're kidding", "There used to be tablets you could take for that", "That really sounds painful", "I would suggest the sexual disfunction clinic. They can do great things with erectile problems". It's not only great fun, but the noisy caller realises I'm taking the p*ss, but can't really do anything about it as I am merely taking a phone call-ish.
Penseivat
I would support planes having a "noisy area" where you could bring your inconsolable baby or your blabbermouth. However, this should be up to airlines, not The State.
"...but I do have sympathy with the reasoning behind the ban."
But where do we stop, if we start banning things that some find annoying?
"It's not only great fun, but the noisy caller realises I'm taking the p*ss, but can't really do anything about it as I am merely taking a phone call-ish."
:D
"However, this should be up to airlines, not The State."
Spot on! c2c has a 'Quiet Carriage' on each train. It doesn't always work, but it's a better solution than having it enforced by the State.
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