The Qatari diplomat debacle proves that our nation has lost its mind - and how to start fixing it

[derby378]

ChickMagic and I were talking about that giblethead Qatari diplomat on that United Airlines flight when we both agreed that our nation is doing exactly what the rabid right-wing wants it to do in the first place - overreacting like a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off.

Our government deployed two F-16s to escort that airliner down to the ground, where the diplomat was taken into custody but won't face charges because of diplomatic immunity.

Here's how we can prevent this sort of thing from happening again...

Legalize smoking on commercial airlines.

Hear me out for a moment. I've never smoked anything in my life, legal or otherwise. Cigarette smoke doesn't agree with me much. But if I'm on an airline, all they have to do is improve the in-flight air filtration system to reduce second-hand smoke, and I'm happy. So are the passengers who do smoke.

Honestly, I wonder how many people are gung-ho about legalizing marijuana but have a fit when someone smokes tobacco within a hundred feet of them. I've never smoked either and don't intend to, but what the hell. This is supposed to be America.

[Oregone]

1. Fuck that. Have em pop nic gum

Air filtration isn't magic

[derby378]

9. Normally, I'd be all for it...

...but nicotine gum isn't exactly magic, either, from what I've come to understand. Otherwise, you wouldn't see so many people rushing off the plane towards any place where they could smoke without being harassed.

[Oregone]

13. Well, if its all about comforting them, should we give crack smokers a pass too?

The magic air filtration will take care of it

[derby378]

21. Tobacco is legal, but crack cocaine is not

Big difference.

[Oregone]

24. True. Magic filtration only works on legal particles

[derby378]

28. You keep saying "magic" for some reason

It's odd. Even if there is no way to devise an improved filtration system, I'm not suggesting we go metaphysical.

[Oregone]

31. Because, no matter how well you design a filtration system

You will still have non smokers sharing some amount of toxic particles in the air, save for some magic solution. So either you are advocating magic or you are advocating that non-smokers need to just literally suck it up and be happy the smoke isn't worse. With enough time, that shit will just get everywhere (seats included, which will have dangerously high nicotine levels)

[azurnoir]

32. Do you drive a motorized vehicle? n/t

[Oregone]

34. No. I have a sleigh driven by reindeer

[azurnoir]

36. well then why should we nonreindeer owners have

to breathe in their gas

[Oregone]

37. You would anyway

Whether I put the on my sleigh or let em roam in the forest, you have to deal with it.

If I could power my sleigh with a reindeer patch, Id kill all the reindeer and do that instead.

[naaman fletcher]

2. sorry..

no filtration system is good enough is such an incredibly enclosed space.. I used to smoke and I am not an anti-smoking nazi, but there is simply no way to do it.

[my2sense]

3. I don't want to inhale

someone's jacked up habit. They need to put on a patch if they can't control their craving.

[Swede]

4. You're stuck in a tube that is recycling the air.

No thanks.

[derby378]

12. And how much did that airline ticket cost?

I'm sure some of those profits could be used towards a cleaner, greener air filtration system so I don't have to breathe everyone else's smoke.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. If you knew how an airplane air conditioning/pressurization system worked

you'd realize it's not that simple. It would be virtually impossible to remove the smoke before it reached the other passengers who didn't want to inhale the obnoxious byproduct of someone else's filthy habit. Compressed air is extracted from the engines, cooled and channeled into the cabin. In order to maintain a pressurized cabin the air has to keep moving, so there's no way to separate the nasty, smoky air from the air everybody else needs to breathe.

Most airplanes have recirculation fans, and there are filters; however, filters, no matter how good they are, can't remove the smoke before it is inflicted on everyone else in the airplane because it will circulate throughout the cabin before it can be filtered.

There's also the fire hazard issue. Some moron will inevitably drop hot ashes on something, like another passenger's clothing or paper in the seat pocket or the paper towels in the lav waste container (where there is a fire extinguisher precisely because morons used to throw their cigarette butts in the lav waste container). In-flight fires are extremely dangerous. Not only do I not want to breathe secondhand smoke, I also do not want people setting fire to *anything* in the airplane.

[derby378]

23. Good point about the fire hazard (n/t)

[customerserviceguy]

5. Nope, no smokes in a closed environment ever again

However, if I had to make a choice between a flight with smokers in the back rows (the way it used to be) and one with peoples' screaming-brat-seat-kickers, I'd certainly opt for the smokers.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. That's a terrible idea.

Airplane air filtration systems don't extract the smoke; in fact, they circulate it around and make it unpleasant for everybody. Flight attendants in particular used to be exposed constantly to secondhand smoke and many of them became ill as a result. The airline I work for banned all in-flight smoking some 20 years ago and everybody (including the electric components in the aircraft itself) was better off for it.

[Brickbat]

7. Smoking on a plane is nasty; have you ever experienced it? That air is so disgusting and recycled

anyway -- cigarette smoke just makes it worse.

ETA: And I say that as someone who enjoyed smoking very much.

[Ozymanithrax]

8. If people want to slow poison themselves with smoke fine. But no to smoking around people who do...

not.

The problem wasn't in the government reaciton, but in the media shitstorm around the event.

[Luminous Animal]

10. Hey, I smoke but, in the bad old days...

the fog of cigarette smoke on a plane was awful. Nicotine gum and diazepam is sufficient.

[dorkulon]

11. I really don't think that addresses the issue at all.

I'm a smoker, and lord knows I'd like to be able to light up on a plane, but you seem to be missing your own point. Our nation has lost its mind because a bad joke can cause this kind of hysteria, because an ad for Aqua Teen Hunger Force can bring a city to its knees, because we are so paranoid and shit-scared that half of us would probably love to see all Muslims rounded up and shot. I really don't see how smoking on airplanes is going to help that.

[derby378]

15. It removes one thing that air marshals can harass and arrest you for

Until someone comes up with a really great nicotine patch or stick of gum, I think it's important to make people less stressed on a 16-hour overseas flight instead of more.

[dorkulon]

20. Seems to me you just want to smoke on airplanes.

I can sympathize, but trying to tie it in with terror-hysteria is a bit of a stretch.

[Oregone]

25. Bingo

[Paladin]

14. Spectacularly Bad Idea. (n/t)

[TexasObserver]

16. Better idea: ground travel if you can't wait two hours to smoke.

[derby378]

17. Two? Try sixteen

My wife travelled to Australia 12 years ago (lucky girl). The flight took 16 hours, and in accordance with American law, no smoking was allowed regardless of whose aerospace the plane was in.

She loved Sidney, Manly, and the Blue Mountains - but didn't care much for the flight.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. Aww.

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[Luminous Animal]

30. I just flew to Sydney... 21 hours total (flight & stopovers) and I smoke.

Like I said, nicotine gum and diazepam.

[lonestarnot]

18. Now can you imagine a 60 day junket w/o a smoke? And they carry nukes!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4336877&mesg_id=4336877

[dorkulon]

26. I think 60 days without a smoke is called "quitting"

Maybe I should join the Navy.

[lonestarnot]

27. No fucking thanks. Did my time in the fly above it all.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. No will not go there

even with improved filtering you are putting the crew at risk for cancer

And of course we asthmatics...

Mow the Airlines could distribute free nicorette gum...

[piedmont]

33. derby, I frequently agree with you on other topics, but this is spectaculary stupid.

If having one incident like this every ten years or so is the price we pay for not having to deal with people setting fire to cancer sticks inside a sealed tube lined with flammable materials 5 miles from any possible aid, then we're getting a hell of a deal.

[Electric Monk]

35. Wow, dumbest idea I've heard in weeks, whether in bold or not.

Maybe if you'd changed the text color it'd be more convincing ;)