Source: American Spectator
Just Stay Home
By Jed Babbin November 15, 2010
The trade association of U.S. airlines -- the Air Transport Association -- says that it expects that about 24 million Americans will take to the air over the Thanksgiving holiday. That would be about 3 percent more air travelers than flew last Thanksgiving. I hope they are wrong. Travelers should drive, take the train, bicycle, walk or just stay home. Just don't fly. If we stay on the ground, the message may finally get through to our government: stop harassing us and concentrate on finding the bad guys.
Air travel was almost pleasant in the 1970s and '80s. The food -- at least on airlines other than the now-defunct Eastern Airlines -- was pretty decent, service existed and all in all it wasn't too bad even for those of us shuttling between Washington and Los Angeles every two weeks. It got steadily worse because the airlines were going broke in the 1990s and now -- since 9/11 -- only fools travel when they don't absolutely have to.
There are two ideas which dominate US airline security, and both are false. The first is that every air traveler -- be it a four-year-old girl or a 24-year-old Yemeni man -- is an equal risk. The second is that it more important to keep dangerous objects off the plane than to keep a dangerous person on the ground. And plans based on these assumptions are metastasizing into a burden on air travel that will damage our economy severely.
We have been dutifully marching through magnetometers for decades. After 9/11, were grimly tolerant of the new searches, taking off our shoes, divesting our laptops of their cases and even leaving liquids and cigar lighters in the checked bags. But last Christmas, none of that prevented Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding a Northwest flight with PETN (a very concentrated and powerful explosive) sewn into his underwear. Were it not for the action of a young Dutch filmmaker -- who, if memory serves, leaped over several rows of passengers and forcefully doused Umar's drawers -- a lot of people might have been killed.
I ressle with this whole issue - the Agenda 21 people are trying to make all nonessential travel by air obsolete (& with that make most forms of travel out of reach for the general public) - i don't think many people are aware of this... so us boycotting flying is giving TPTB what they want all the more quicker? - unless we people REALLY WAKE UP to what's going on & take informed appropriate action..?! Don't get me wrong, am not against boycotting flying, just i don't think ppl are aware of how we're playing into their plans. It's like protesting & they create riots with their hired thugs, then take away our freedoms all the more, which was their plan all along. (Talking from someone who's well weather beaten from years of direct action)
ReplyDeleteI suppose what i'm getting to is, what is needed is much more intelligent actions than simple boycotting - so we're not just playing into their game....& make no mistake -THIS IS ALL VERY DELIBERATE.
Bankrupt the airlines faster then expected; put thousands of airline employees out of work; apply pressure where it is felt most: money.
ReplyDeleteThis shit is ONLY going on in America, it isn't happening in China, in Japan, in Russia.
Apply unbelievable pressure where it hurts most: jobs and incomes.
That should pretty much settle your qundary about this flying issue.
Yes, it is pressure from above to humiliate people to discourage them from flying; but think strategically and economically abut what is practical.