Letter From America (About Ignorant, Desperate Politicians)

Spare Us

Forbidding cell phones and other electronic devices on aircraft has been a major irritant to air travellers.  Now commercial aviation is on the cusp of removing those restrictions.  Ah.  Not so fast.  Some overreaching, nannying ignorant politicians in the United States are opposing the nullification of the no-cell phone regulations, originally put in place for reasons of safety. 

Since technology has now moved on to where cell phone use does not pose any risk to commercial aircraft, on what grounds might the cancellation of such regulations be opposed?  We are glad you asked.  Something momentous to be sure.  This from The Hill:

In-flight cell calls? No way, say lawmakers

By Keith Laing 

December 09, 2013, 08:38 pm

Political momentum to keep a ban on cellphone calls during flights gained momentum Monday as lawmakers said it would be crazy to allow them.  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.” [Emphasis, ours]

The vast omni-competent government's overreach continues--at least in the mad imaginations of some Captain Nemoesque politicians.  The government now must extend its hand to legislate common sense.  Apparently the sense over cell-phone use is so common, it requires Federal regulation to ensure it is followed.  Spare us.  No wonder the conservatives within the Republican Party despair.

The bills follow a flood of complaints to the Federal Communications Commission, which announced last month that it would look into ending the ban.  For years, the use of many electronic devices on flights has been banned for fear they could interfere with navigation systems. But the FAA earlier this year loosened rules and said passengers would be allowed to send texts and emails from their phones during flights.  Now the FCC is looking into whether the ban on the use of cellphones is needed for safety reasons.

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.”

How nice for politicians to advocate new rules, regulations, and restrictions to protect our sanity.  The nannying soft-despotic state knows no bounds.

Shuster and Alexander, who both face primary challenges in 2014, say they are responding to popular opinion.  “Imagine two million passengers, hurtling through space, trapped in 17-inch-wide seats, yapping their innermost thoughts,” Alexander said last week in a statement. “The Transportation Security Administration would have to hire three times as many air marshals to deal with the fistfights.”

“Stop and think about what we hear now in airport lobbies from those who wander around shouting personal details into a microphone: babbling about last night’s love life, bathroom plans, next week’s schedule, orders to an assistant, arguments with spouses,” Alexander said.  “Imagine this noise while you travel, restrained by your seatbelt, unable to escape,” the senator continued. “The FCC commissioners will earn the gratitude of the two million Americans who fly each day by deciding: text messages, yes; conversations, no.”

Oh, yes, let's stop and think.  Think about that irritating musack in shopping malls.  Drives one insane, it does.  We need it to be outlawed.  Otherwise we will need a vast, orcish horde of marshals to patrol every shopping mall in the country to keep consumers under control, lest they be driven into mad frenzy.  The regulation is the cheaper option you know.

Or how about this: if the cell phone use ban is not removed global airline traffic and consumers will progressively route between hemispheres via the Middle East and Asia because they enjoy more freedom and can keep in touch with their families and loved ones.  US carriers and industry will suffer the loss.  Fortress America, ossifying under the weight of Nanny State and unprincipled, venal politicians who know what's best for everyone else.