Althouse: When you're caught smoking in the airplane lavatory...

April 8, 2010

When you're caught smoking in the airplane lavatory...

... don't wisecrack "I was trying to light my shoes on fire."

17 comments:

MadisonMan said...: (laugh)

Totally. Apparently, diplomats are not selected by intelligence.; 4/8/10, 8:47 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Air Marshalls have no sense of humor.; 4/8/10, 8:49 AM
bagoh20 said...: Not his best material, and security people are a lousy audience for a comedian.; 4/8/10, 8:50 AM
bagoh20 said...: Hoosier you have an impressive mind.; 4/8/10, 8:51 AM
Hagar said...: Never joke, and NEVER-EVER wax sarcastic with the bureaucracy!; 4/8/10, 8:59 AM
Big Mike said...: This is why they invented "persona non grata." He needs to be sent home in disgrace.; 4/8/10, 9:03 AM
kjbe said...: Note to self...; 4/8/10, 9:44 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: He expected they would notice he was wearing sandals. And while he's expecting that, I'm expecting cigarette smoking to be clearly haram to believers.; 4/8/10, 9:55 AM
Fred4Pres said...: If you are a wise ass though, being a diplomat is never having to say you are sorry. Worse you are looking at is being sent home.; 4/8/10, 9:57 AM
SarcastiCarrie said...: His undersecretary should be fired. Obviously, he pre-trip briefing was seriously lacking. The part where it should have said "Don't Screw Around on an Airplane because 3,000 Americans were MURDERED, and it's NOT funny" was obviously omitted. It's like when you go on a business trip to Tokyo and they tell you whether to bow or shake hands and don't joke about the A-bomb!; 4/8/10, 10:00 AM
Fen said...: No, what happened was the diplomat, who profiles as a Jihadist, snuck a smoke in the lavatory.

When he exited, passengers nearby saw the smoke and gave worried looks.

This offended our arrogant diplomat who thinks he's above the law. So he sarcasticly rubbed their nose in their fear with a smart-ass remark about blowing the plane up.

Lucky for him, Obama will apologize to someone for our "bigotry".

Me? I'd put his head in a box and send it back, requesting a new diplomat.; 4/8/10, 10:22 AM
Unknown said...: Warsaw Pact diplomats, especially Russians, attached to the UN used to pull similar stuff back in the days of the Cold War. They'd point to their diplomatic license plates or show their passports and laugh at the cops before being shown the door.
Apparently, things have only changed on the surface.

Fen is probably right about The Zero apologizing (it's what he does best), but, if anything finishes his administration faster than ZeroCare, it will be some attack inside the US after all the bowing and scraping.

WV "buffian" One who assaults while naked.; 4/8/10, 10:49 AM
John Burgess said...: SarcastiCarrie: This guy is about as low on the diplomatic totem pole as one can get: Third Secretary. That's a beginner's job. And for this lad, perhaps a final job.

I truly doubt that he'll be PNGed by the US. That doesn't stop his own ambassador from sending him home, nor his Foreign Ministry from reassigning him to Mali or Guiana.

Sure, diplomatic immunity can be abused--what in life cannot? But it does serve a useful purpose, particularly if you're a US diplomat trying to work on assignment to a foreign police state.; 4/8/10, 10:58 AM
JAL said...: The Zero apologizing (it's what he does best)

Now that you mention it ....

But have you ever noticed he apologizes for *others* (i.e. our) awful behavior, never his own?

So yeah.

Instead of a complaint to Qatar & Co. it will be:

"I apologize for the over zealous, over the top response of those air marshalls. The air marshalls acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof they were entitled to diplomatic immunity and were being unfairly profiled. My deepest apologies."

(He probably won't include the part about being biased.); 4/8/10, 12:05 PM
David said...: He was misunderstood.

He said: "I was trying to light my tooth on fire."; 4/8/10, 2:15 PM
John Stodder said...: Does it make me some kind of wingnut to suggest possibly this incident was not merely about a goofball entitled diplomat thinking the anti-smoking rules shouldn't apply to him, but instead might have been a kind of test of to the response times and practices of US forces in the even of such an attack?

It probably does. But is it impossible that this might have been what really happened? Cuz the airlines lay on the "no smoking in the lavatories" message pretty thick.; 4/8/10, 4:47 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: John:

You show great potential to be a heckuva wingnut. And we'd welcome you to to our fairly exclusive asylum buddy.; 4/8/10, 10:21 PM