February 14, 2010

With sufficient followers on Twitter, you can cry out in the midst of an incident, get mass support...

... and get the big corporation to tweet you an apology:
Director Kevin Smith was kicked off a flight leaving Oakland airport because they deemed him a safety risk and asked him to leave the flight....

"I broke no regulation, offered no 'safety risk,' (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?)," he Tweeted. "I'm way fat… But I'm not THERE just yet."
Later:
"Dear @SouthwestAir, I'm on another one of your planes, safely seated & buckled-in again, waiting to be dragged off in front of the normies," he continued to Tweet. "Look how fat I am on your plane! Quick! Throw me off!"

Southwest even sent him some apologetic Tweets after they saw all the support he received on Twitter for his embarrassing inconvenience.
Life is so vivid and in the moment these days, isn't it? But did the plane single out Smith because he was the heaviest person? Once one of my sons got kicked off a plane that was overloaded. He was pretty skinny, but he got picked because he had the last assigned seat and the airline didn't try hard enough to get a volunteer:
Two people did volunteer, but American only needed to kick off one person and so it would only offer one of these two the measly $200 travel certificate, and the two volunteers didn't want to split up. So one of my sons had to leave, to get the next bus to Madison, at 11 pm, and arrive at the Memorial Union at 2 am — on a cold night, with no shelter open, and nothing warm to wear, because he hadn't worn a coat in Austin, and his luggage had traveled on the plane.

Many passengers on the plane witnessed how rudely my sons were treated and at least one came up afterwards to say how offended he was and how he was going to write a letter to the airline about it....
Today, there'd have been a lot of tweeting going on.

98 comments:

Unknown said...

Sorry, but I'd still want more facts than Perez Hilton's say-so. Technically, Southwest was doing some damage control after a mob (virtual though it was) started making noise.

I'd say there's still a lot we don't know.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm,

So, Ann, do you believe everything you read on Perez Hilton?

Have you seen any evidence that Southwest actually Tweeted an apology to Kevin Smith? I mean, other than Perez Hilton's say so right above his link that's designed to get you to follow Perez Hilton?

You're not really that gullible, are you Ann?

Jason (the commenter) said...

edutcher and Florida,

The person's Twitter feed.

Southwest Airlines' response.

Wasn't that hard to investigate.

chuck b. said...

Boring troll award goes to Florida.

http://twitter.com/SOUTHWESTAIR

Scroll down.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Watch out you two, or I'll unleash the wrath of my Twitter followers on you!

MadisonMan said...

There are two types of people I don't like to sit next to on a plane. First on the list is Fat people. People who, when they sit, have blobs of flesh rolling over the arm rest. People who when they stand up probably would take the seat with them if it were not bolted to the ground. If I am seated in my seat and see an obese hulk lumbering towards me, I say a silent prayer that Mr. Fat will invade the space of some unlucky other person.

I'm not fond of Smelly people either, they'd be #2, but at least one's nostrils will eventually not scent BO Plenty.

I am entirely in favor of airlines making people fit into a space -- just like they have for carry-on luggage -- and forcing them to purchase an extra seat if they don't fit. Such an airline would get my business, meager though it may be.

G Joubert said...

That dude DOES need to go on a diet. Bruce Willis even got to call him "Dump Truck" in the last Die Hard movie.

Anonymous said...

This is a nice ad for Southwest, Kevin Smith and Perez Hilton.

Other than that, I'm not sure this is anything except some clever PR.

Posts about Twitter are boring, repetitive and predictable.

If you want to blog boring shit, be my guest. I'll be elsewhere.

chuck b. said...

"If you want to blog boring shit, be my guest. I'll be elsewhere."

Promises, promises.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Florida: Posts about Twitter are boring, repetitive and predictable.

If you want to blog boring shit, be my guest. I'll be elsewhere.

Twitter, what can't it do?

chuck b. said...

The plane wasn't overloaded because it had too many fat people, was it?

Don't airplanes carry a lot of non-passenger-related commercial freight in the cargo hold?

Jason (the commenter) said...

It would be funny if he broke an elevator next week.

EnigmatiCore said...

I was stuck next to a really fat guy on a very long flight not long ago.

He was way over the boundary between the two seats, and was ticked at me for not contorting my body way the hell over the opposing arm rest.

He should have been escorted off the plane and had to buy two tickets to fly.

If this guy is that fat, then he should shut the heck up.

Paddy O said...

Why is Kevin Smith flying on Southwest?

It's a discount airline. Couldn't he afford first class on a nicer airline? Something with a nice wide seat.

I guess I should appreciate the fact that he's willing to go slumming among hoi polloi, but all things considered I'd rather he not.

Scott said...

Most of my flying is on Continental. On overbooked flights, I always try to volunteer to get bumped. They have always booked me on the next available flight and issued me a travel voucher worth 150-200% of the cost of my ticket. I love it.

Peter V. Bella said...

Damage control? More like cowards in charge. If I was SW airlines, I would have either ignored him or told him he was too fat,he is a loud mouth boor, and a pos. Then I would have told him to find another airline. He would no longer be welcome to fly.

Most people who Fly Southwest do not know or care about the tantrums of bobble headed pseudo celebrities.

XWL said...

I don't know if Southwest really owes Kevin Smith an apology, but I suspect Kevin Smith will owe the moviegoing public an apology after Cop Out hits theatres in a few weeks.

Lawyer Mom said...

Who is Kevin Smith?

Sorry to be clueless -- I'm working off the bad buzz I got from Google's horrendous Buzz.

Irene said...

I guess Michael Moore was not on that flight.

Henry said...

With sufficient followers on Twitter, you can cry out in the midst of an incident, get mass support...

Quick, someone, get Phil Jones a twitter account.

Wince said...

I still can't figure out who is saying what to whom on Twitter.

How are you supposed to follow the "exchange"?

Am I alone in this?

I'm Full of Soup said...

I was on a small plane once with maybe 20 seats. They came on and told two non-revenue passengers they had to get off due to weight problems. I was kinda surprised since I did not see them weight any passengers when we got on so I was wondering how they knew how much overweight the load was?

And screw this celeb Kevin Smith - afterll this happens regularly to regular people.

Palladian said...

"I still can't figure out who is saying what to whom on Twitter.

How are you supposed to follow the "exchange"?

Am I alone in this?"

Nope. Twitter grosses me out. I can't wait till it dies.

Anyway, sorry to interrupt the fat-person-bashing that seems to give many internet people their jollies. Carry on!

MadisonMan said...

So I read elsewhere that Kevin Smith is 6' 4" and 300 pounds. That's an inch and 100 pounds more than me. I'm not thin.

Palladian, a person's right to be fat ends when they spill into my space on a cramped airplane. That's not fat bashing; that's reclaiming stolen personal space. If you're sitting in a coach seat and see a 300-pound person coming down the aisle, and you don't hope he sits somewhere else besides the open seat next to you, then you possess saint-like levels of tolerance.

Anonymous said...
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Ann Althouse said...

I keep getting new people "folllowing" me on Twitter, but I don't think of tweeted anything in the last month or 2.

Anonymous said...
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Popville said...
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Anonymous said...

The people who "love" me on Twitter seem to be those who have figured out a way to make 30 gazillion dollars by attracting thousands of followers, and wouldn't I like to know how it's done?
Or, SexxyKitten69, who just want to be my friend.
Or, Some guy in South Australia with an Indian name, who has a multi-level marketing scheme.
Or.....

Anonymous said...
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Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Just a short time ago if this happened to someone it would been a source of shame and embarrassment, not to be broadcast.

A friend of mine recently sent me a viral email of photos from a lost camera of a couple's most intimate acts. He thought it was hilarious.

What the hell is going on?

SteveR said...

Palladian, I agree with you about Twitter and specifically why would anyone "follow" Kevin Smith?

Popville said...

So I just spent 10 minutes trying to find out how much Kevin Smith weighs. Lots of yak-yak & blah-blah but no facts. Where's Joe Friday when you need him dammit?

How much? Enquiring minds want to know.

*** Ok, so Madison Man sez he read 300 lbs, but no citation. C'mon, if you want tenure you need citations (lots, & on time), or magnum force & one helluva lawyer (defense team), or work for Hillary's State Dept & drive a big black SUV ***

Though I just heard on radio a completely different story (yeah I know, don't always believe what you hear - but what if Cousin Brucie said so?). Anyway....that he bought bought two (2) seats on one flight then switched to an earlier flight where there was just one seat available. This gives Ann's story gravity - it was just business, not personal - unlike that Solazzo bruhaha.

"What's the storreeee, Jerry?", as the old Jamaica Gas & Electric ads used to ask.

Anonymous said...

Hard to believe they didn't explain why they considered Lardass a safety risk. I could do it in one word: evacuation.

MadisonMan said...

I confess I read the 6' 4"/300 pounds on Kevin Smith's twitter feed, but going back and re-looking, I may have mis-attributed the size. Because I, like many others, can't figure out who says what over there!

So I'll withdraw my statement about his height and weight. :)

Anonymous said...
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TWM said...

"Who is Kevin Smith?"

Evidently he's the Orson Welles of his generation. Only not as talented.

MadisonMan said...

I could do it in one word: evacuation.

I was on a flight in January, and a person who needed seatbelt extenders was 10 or so rows up and as I saw him come down the aisle, I looked over at the window emergency exits and thought Hmmmm.

I don't ever recall seeing a really fat woman on a flight. Always men.

Popville said...
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Popville said...

re: Jamaica Gas & Electric ads: forgot to add that was Crazy Eddie.

That's the storeee!

Anonymous said...

I should add that I'm not convinced that the possibility of their blocking aisles and emergency exits is a valid reason for keeping fatsos off flights, given that they don't keep children, cripples, and geezers off. But it's not that hard to see how the concern is plausible.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Correction: That's an iPod Shuffle. You know, the kind our neighbors here in west suburban Boston Thoreau-land literally gave a favors at their kids' birthday parties.

And they'd have to fly the can of Coke round-trip.

Palladian said...

"Palladian, a person's right to be fat ends when they spill into my space on a cramped airplane."

And your right to be a complete asshole ends when I have to read it.

The airline industry is repugnant and deserves pain, falling profits and failure. There's nowhere that I want to go that a car, train or a boat won't take me.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Johnny from Airplane the movie.

@1:31 Bad news.. the fog is getting thicker.

..and Leon is getting laaarger
.

Donna B. said...

First: Twitter cannot die too soon.

Second: This Kevin Whoever person originally purchased two seats, and apparently has been in the habit of purchasing two seats, on SW Airlines because of his size.

In this particular instance, he chose to *try* to get an earlier flight where there were not two seats available for him... so he got booted because of his size/weight.

I can see where he would have a complaint if SW had charged him for both seats and only gave him one, but I cannot see where he has a complaint when he tried to take an earlier flight where only one seat was available rather than the two he originally purchased... and purchased because of his size.

Southwest is not guilty in this case... other than having sold a ticket to a loudmouth. They had every right to bump him back to his original flight.

I have never flown on Southwest, so I can't comment on the configuration of their seats. I have flown numerous times on American... and can tell you that there's no such thing on more than one of their planes as armrests that can be raised... especially in first class.

I'm a "big girl" and you either fit in the seat or you don't. I wish all you complainers about fatso "spilling over" into your seats would tell me which airline has seat configurations that allow that? I've never been a passenger on one.

Ralph L said...

Kevin Smith wears shorts! And leaves his shirttail out, so he looks like a little boy. He's no where near 6'4", except maybe in circumference.

I got a car seatbelt extender for my b-i-l. Thirty odd years of dragging an extra 150-200 lbs around must be exhausting.

blake said...

Smith is 5'9". He's heavy but not that heavy. He didn't need the seat extender. He could put down the armrest. He doesn't ooze out into the aisle.

Smith tweets like his movies: Punchy, incredibly vulgar, self-deprecating.

Smith flew on a later flight with no issues. This really was just someone who (stupidly) went on a power trip, I think.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Smith Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.

The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows where
But I'm strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain't heavy, he's my brother

So on we go

His welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We'll get there

For I know
He would not encumber me
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Smith should take the train next time.

You see, man made the cars to take us over the road
Man made the trains to carry heavy loads
Man made electric light to take us out of the dark
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark.

Titus said...

I am sorry, no one wants to accept to fly next to a fattie. Try it, it sucks. Fat on my seat, labtop, etc. It is disgusting. Get over it and find your own fat airlines fatties. It's gross.

I was in Northamton and the Berksires this weekend it was fabulous. No fatties thank god. I am sorry I don't want to be around fatties, like most normal people. Fatties are fat

And Southwest Arilines....how fat?, right?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Broken Wings - Mr. Mister

wv - carri

Methadras said...

I think most people are missing the state of affairs of flying in this current cultural climate and it's not going to get any better. Not a single flight on time, not a single recompense when things go badly at all. I fly SWA almost exclusively between San Diego and SFO/Oakland and they are never on time, there is no coordination with BART for flights that come in after midnight for those passengers that rely on BART for transport. Even today, flight was supposed to leave at 9:05, gets delayed to 9:20, doesn't take off until 10:15. Lands just in time for me to run my ass off to the BART station in SFO within 2 minutes of catching the last train out. Throwing a fattie off a plane isn't the problem. It's the policies of how people are cattled that's the problem.

MadisonMan said...

I disagree that flights are never on time or that there is no recompense for inconvenience.

On my last flight (to Atlanta, through OHare), I was at the gate for my flight early enough that I saw the earlier departure, to St. Louis, that kicked 6 people off because of weight restrictions. They all got free tickets, even the woman who came up late, all angry and huffy because she got in to OHare late. Her new flight actually got her to her destination earlier, and she got a free ticket. (Why her initial flight was from someplace to OHare, then to St Louis, and then to the Twin Cities? No idea).

On the way home to Madison, my OHare to Madison flight was cancelled due to weather (low ceilings), but I flew in on an earlier flight.

Flexibility and advance planning go a long way to making flying bearable and interesting.

KCFleming said...

Airlines seem afraid of calling people fat when folks like Smith seem unashamed of proclaiming their rotundity to the world.

They need to use the luggage scales at the ticket counter, and have a big siren go off when the weight exceeds, say, 280 lbs. If two adjacent seats are unavailable, no flying.

Tank said...

I'm with Pogo and MM on this.

I paid for my seat too. Why should some fat guy take 25% of it? If he's going to use more than one seat, he should pay for it.

Why is this even controversial?

Phil 314 said...

Quick, someone, get Phil Jones a twitter account.

Does Twitter increases your carbon footprint?

Meade said...

At least fat people are happy. And nice.

I say look out for the skinny people. Skinny people are fearful. And mean.

AllenS said...

Why not have two fat seats at the back of the airplane. One on each side for balance. Plus at check in time, you could have them stand on a scale, get x-rayed at the same time to see if they are hideing bombs in all that fat. If they weighed too much, you could then charge them more.

MadisonMan said...

At least fat people are happy.

Of course they're happy! They're getting all that unpaid-for space on an airplane! What's not to like about getting something for nothing? Although Kevin Smith paid for 2 seats, so maybe that's why he comes across as unhappy in the tweets.

But I would not be surprised if this whole kerfuffle was cooked up between Kevin Smith and SW just to generate publicity for both of them.

Anonymous said...

We fly a LOT coast-to-coast, especially my wife and kids. In fact, my kids (13 and 15) calculated this Christmas that, between them, they had been on transcontinental flights almost 200 times, one kid a few more times than the other. My wife is a minor genius at scouting cheap flights and coordinating everything with work, school, AND ground transportation, including BART. Believe me, airline schedules seem NEVER to be coordinated with ground transportation anywhere we go.

Even my kids, who have grown up with modern airlines, have started to complain about the crowding, lack of food, delays, etc. It seems to me, though, the longer-haul flights that we take are generally as on-time as I remember any being in my 49 years of flying.

The bigger problem is the crowding and generally tacky conditions, including famously shrinking aisles and seats. We actually had a gage to measure this. When our oldest was an infant, my wife bought a clever combination airline booster seat and stroller. This could be lifted out of the airline seat, a handle and wheels extended, and off mom and baby could go. It fit nicely down the aisles of both domestic and foreign airliners 15 years ago.

By the time our 13-year-old was ready to fly, it could only clear the aisles of a few older aircraft, everything else having shrunk an inch or more. It would also no longer fit into many seats, the width having been reduced proportionally, making, of course, the fattie-next-to-you problem much worse. My wife is no longer slim herself, and she has found it increasingly hard to comfortably fit into airline seats, certainly not wanting to bother the next person.

Those of us old enough to remember the old days of flying, when men wore jackets and ties, and the service aimed to be elegant, know that the problem began with deregulation. Flying is much cheaper now, even than when I was in college and flew a lot, and it has become mass transportation. Modern airliners are no longer ships of the air, but busses with wings.

Deregulation has placed flying within the reach of nearly everyone, but at the cost of bankrupt airlines, shoddy and nasty service, shockingly low pay for many pilots, and, from what I've heard from my wife's cousin who was in that business, really cheap and dodgy maintenance. It's a testament to the design of modern aircraft, and not the carriers or the FAA, that more of them don't fall out of the sky. I suspect that may be the next step in all this.

The problem is that unregulated competition has proven unworkable in moving large numbers of passengers over fixed routes. The railroads found this out around the world nearly 100 years ago. Ergo the large number of state-run passenger services worldwide, including AMTRAK. Unregulated competition means that there simply isn't enough money in the overall system to pay for decent or even tolerable service.

We have made deregulation a fetish in this country, and both political parties are responsible. But everything I've seen, from trucking to airlines to banking and finance, points to the fact that, since the 1970's, the unwinding of New Deal regulation has been a disaster.

I'm a great believer in private enterprise, but there are certain things that naturally need fairly heavy regulation, mass transportation being one of them.

And it's curious how, in the same time deregulation has been all the rage in things that ought to be regulated, the business I'm in, namely light manufacturing, has been regulated, harassed, and nearly taxed to death.

"End bothersome commerce" seems to be the motto of government at all levels in this country. But at least we'll all be able to get cheap flights to our bankruptcy hearings.

Meade said...

I'll tell you something else about skinny people. They're unreliable. You make plans to meet them for coffee or lunch or something. Do they show up? No! And not just once, but TWICE!

Yeah, we're all as skinny as we want to seem. On the internet.

RHSwan said...

AJ Lynch
The FAA actually has an “average” passenger weight the airlines use for those sort of calculations. I'm not sure if it has been updated recently.

To simplify things, there are two basic ways weight matters on an aircraft. One is the max weight. In other words, beyond a certain weight, the aircraft is unsafe to fly. This is for a variety of reasons; the heavier the aircraft the longer it takes to take-off, the smaller the safety margins, etc. One example of an overweight aircraft that killed was the one that killed the singer, Aaliyah.

The other area weight matters is in what is called “center of gravity” or C.G. Think of an airplane as a seesaw with the aircraft weight on one side and the aerodynamic surfaces on the other. The C.G. has to be within a certain range for the aerodynamic surfaces to be able to safely control the aircraft. The C.G. changes as fuel is burned.

In economic terms, the more the aircraft weighs, the more fuel is required to fly from point a to point b. So airlines would much rather fly one hundred babies, than one hundred NFL lineman.

chickelit said...

Titus sent Palladian a photo of himself once IIRC. What did the photographic evidence show?

And Althouse, I remember the first night he stood you up: Link

Phil 314 said...

Deregulation has placed flying within the reach of nearly everyone, but at the cost of bankrupt airlines, shoddy and nasty service, shockingly low pay for many pilots, and, from what I've heard from my wife's cousin who was in that business, really cheap and dodgy maintenance...

The problem is that unregulated competition has proven unworkable in moving large numbers of passengers over fixed routes... Unregulated competition means that there simply isn't enough money in the overall system to pay for decent or even tolerable service.

We have made deregulation a fetish in this country, and both political parties are responsible.


Hmmm. And I thought the data suggested that airline travel in the US has become safer. And I guess lowering prices so that flying (is)within the reach of nearly everyone is a bad thing.

We should have a public option for flying so that we can see real competition among airlines!

Freeman Hunt said...

I have no animus toward fat people on a plane. It isn't their fault that the seats are so small.

I've been seated next to non-fat, large-framed people with broad shoulders who took up half my seat. What are they supposed to do? Saw off their arms? Or you have people, like my father, with thirty-six inch inseams, legs folded up like grasshoppers to fit in the space.

I am small, and I find the seats rather cramped.

That said, I love that tickets are so cheap now, so I'm generally happy to endure it.

Freeman Hunt said...

I have to agree with c3. Isn't it a good thing that more people can afford to fly now? Especially since it's safer and faster than driving?

Freeman Hunt said...

I would also point out that first class is available to those who want a more expensive, more luxurious option.

Trooper York said...

Every thread about overweight people around here turns into "Lord of the Flies."

Anonymous said...

c3: It's true that flying is safer now. It's just that a lot of people, including some I know who are in the aircraft maintenance business, are worried about the direction things are going. Increasing use of potentially flakey offshore maintenance is one of the many worrisome things. As I said, modern aircraft are better-designed and have better manufacturing processes, materials and systems than before, so it is to be expected that they are safer. How that plays out over time in a semi-bankrupt environment is a real worry.

Look, I am old enough to clearly remember how much better flying was in a regulated environment. It was more expensive, but you got what you paid for. With modern aircraft, it should even be better.

I'm not after a state-run airline or a "public option." I just want the return of the New Deal regulatory regimes that made so many areas of life work a lot better in this country than they have since deregulation.

I used to look forward to getting on an airlner in 1969, when I was flying at least once a month. Now, I fly less, but dread it. And who my age hasn't had that experience? I'm in good shape, and it isn't the onset of old fartdom that makes me hate flying.

It's just that the whole damn thing sucks, and it didn't used to.

Freeman Hunt said...

But Theo, the trade-off is that people wouldn't be able to afford to fly. Is that worth it? If you want to pay more and have a better experience, why not fly first class?

Anonymous said...
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chickelit said...

I was 19 years old when I first flew on a commercial plane: steerage class on Icelandic Airlines. It set me free in many ways.

Freeman Hunt said...

Theo, I understand that you'd be willing to pay more, but if you impose that by regulation, you're making everyone pay more. I think it would be better for some niche airline to cater to customers like you rather than force all airlines to cater to you through government strong arming.

I've been flying since I was a small child. The space and the service have definitely gotten worse. But the seats have also gotten cheaper. I think this is because people prefer the cheap seats over the nice service.

Anonymous said...
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blake said...

Theo,

Maybe I'm wrong, here, but I think the cost of First Class is proportional to old flights.

Things are about 6x now than they were in 1969. So if you paid $250-$400 for a flight 40 years ago, you're looking at $1,500-$2,500 now. You can fly first class for that.

SWA lied, by the way, when they said Smith routinely bought two seats. He did that for two L.A. to Oakland flights where it was cheap just for a spacer. (Anyone might do that.)

Also, if you've been paying attention to what he's been saying (and he lays out his story in a "SModcast") he's more complaining about how a woman on the same flight was treated. It's not really about him.

And, yeah, I believe that. Smith's always come across as a straight shooter.

Anonymous said...
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Freeman Hunt said...

But Theo, you're the one advocating that regulations and prices be higher which would necessarily prevent more people from flying. Wouldn't that be much more akin to watching the Lord of the Manor go by on his coach than the current situation?

Also, if fewer people fly, more people will die in car accidents, car travel being less safe than air travel.

Kensington said...

I just listened to Smith's podcast about this, and he says that, whilst he does regularly purchase two seats, it is not because he cannot fit in one. Rather, he just likes having personal space around him and thinks the extra expense is worth it.

I hate stories like this. It always brings out the asshole in people, across the political spectrum.

Joe said...

I suspect there's a lot more to this story. My own theory: someone didn't like Kevin Smith, acted like an asshole and will soon be fired.

BTW, Southwest is the most trouble free airline I've ever used.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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blake said...

Joe,

My theory is that somebody paid $10 to see Mallrats and wanted revenge.

More seriously, his movies are offensive by many different sets of standards. Heh. I can see someone deciding this was a good excuse to teach him a lesson.

Revenant said...

Palladian, I agree with you about Twitter and specifically why would anyone "follow" Kevin Smith?

He's very funny. I like his movies, but he's actually much funnier in person. He should get his own talk show.

And no, he's not the Orson Welles of his (my) generation. The Woody Allen, maybe. :)

Anonymous said...

But Theo, you're the one advocating that regulations and prices be higher which would necessarily prevent more people from flying. Wouldn't that be much more akin to watching the Lord of the Manor go by on his coach than the current situation?

As the man said, it's tough to reason someone out of a position he hasn't reasoned himself into.

Theo, the reason you were able to afford to fly within California back in the day is that intrastate flights were not subject to CAB regulation.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

After more than 30 years of deregulation, any chicken that hasn't yet come home to roost is almost certainly an imaginary chicken.

kentuckyliz said...

Some really minor actress libtard with the handle valuemom tweeted false allegations that Andrew Breitbart sent her direct messages on Twitter threatening violence against her.

She took her tweets private after the avalanche, but she is an idiot nonetheless: even if you're private, anyone can search @valuemom to read any direct messages anyone sent her. DM's aren't private.

What a friggin idiot.

Go to twitter and search and see for yourself.

Busted libtard lies.

chickelit said...

even if you're private, anyone can search @valuemom to read any direct messages anyone sent her. DM's aren't private.

You are mistaken KL. Anyone can read one's tweeted stream and piece together public conversations comprising "@" tweets. But DM's are a different story. I'm convinced that you can't google up DMs without resorting to email-like snooping, though I'd be interested to hear if if one could!

kentuckyliz said...

No Pollo, not using Google search--using the searchbox in Twitter. You can go there now and see that she has locked down as private now, but search with the @ in front and you see everyone else's DM's to her (if they are public, like Breitbart is).

No hack needed.

Freeman Hunt said...

liz, Those are public tweets. The @ ones are public replies. DM's don't use @.

But all the same, I would assume the woman was lying whether I could see the DM's or not.

reader_iam said...

@[replies] belong to the Sender, not the recipient. That's why you can still see those even though she's privated her own, generated-by-herself Tweets.

I tried searching in the Twitter search box using both " @[xx] " and "D @[xx]" (in fact, if you manually code a DM, you do use @, but the D in front restricts it). The former will indeed turn up public (@) results, but doesn't return DM (D @) results. I tried this on a number of accounts, including my own (from another one I'm not using, different sign in, e-mail, everything). Then I privated my active account and repeated the experiement.

I could be testing this incorrectly, of course--and I've sent an e-mail to Twitter about this--or perhaps my results were a fluke, but I'm suspecting I'm not and they weren't.

Unknown said...

THe defense is that weight and distribution thereof is always a concern in aircraft. That is why the weigh luggage. They aren't currently weighing people because the military doesn't run the airlines.

Here is a solution to the problem: establish a fat person section in the load plan. Leave the seats the same size they currently are but make all the fat people wedge in themeselves in. Then perhaps they will be more sensitive to the needs and comforts of the thinner people. Or they can buy two seats.

Oh wait, this guy doesn't have to be understanding of skinnier people, he is the aggrieved class so the wants and desires and comforts of thin people are secondary to his.

Trooper York said...

Personally I think they should ban children on all airline flights. The little bastards never stop crying and yammering and kicking the back of a seat. They will clog the aisle when the plane hits the water and you have to worry about getting out of the plane because they can't do it themselves. Just because you have a freakin rug rat doesn't mean I want him sitting next to me smelling of crap and puking and screaming the whole flight. If you want to ban the fatties well keep those little bastards out too!

Fair is fair.

Trooper York said...

I mean I was on a flight to Vegas once and they had about twenty infants on it. They turned the heat way up to the point you were sweating your cujones off. They even wilted the flower in the label of my shark skin suit. WTF!

Let them be limited to the flights to Disney World and Chuckie Cheese.

Fair is fair.

Trooper York said...

And freakin old people. Talk about blocking the freakin aisle. And they spend all their time in the bathroom and you can never take a leak after you had a few beers. They will never be able to evacuate in time. It's a safety issue. Every Jet Blue has wheelchairs lined up in front of it like Flying Fortresses at the end of that movie with the guy with the hooks.

You old jerks should stay home. Who says you have the right to it next to me smelling of Ben Gay and peppermint Sknapps and taking an hour to get out of the way when I want to drain the lizard. Ban the old people.

Fair is fair.

Trooper York said...

And foriegners. I mean they can't follow the waitresses ....I mean the stewardesses instruction..they keep asking me questions in a foreign language because they think the big fat guy who looks like a cop should have to tell them what to do. Hey fly on your country's airline with your chickens and your goats or take a boat or make one out of fifty seven Chevy like you were a freakin left handed that the stupid Red Sox are going to overpay for. If you can't follow the directions in freakin English you are a safety risk and you should be banned from the flight.

Fair is fair.

blake said...

And lawyers.

Not for any particular reason, except the usual.