Fistway Pundit is all atwitter over one line in the NYT story to which he links:

“passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps.”

That’s the outrage. It sure sounds like the new rules are meant to help terrorists, don’t it?

Frist, innit?

Pilot: Don’t make me stop in Fort Worth and put you off this plane!
Passenger: …

At least they’re letting us keep our pants on in security, for now.

Christ, remember when you could say goodbye to someone at the gate?

It is probably the stupidest rule in a long, distinguished line of stupid TSA rules.

Like the sporadically-required shoe removal or the pointless liquid rules, it’s so narrowly reactionary that there’s obviously been no thought whatsoever put into security either *before* or *after* the incidents in question. Why shouldn’t Mr. Terrorist detonate his whatever in the *first* hour of the flight? Or at any other point in the flight?

Oh and this from the same story:

“The government was vague about the steps it was taking, saying that it wanted the security experience to be “unpredictable” and that passengers would not find the same measures at every airport — a prospect that may upset airlines and travelers alike.

But several airlines released detailed information about the restrictions …”

Where, oh where, are the howls of outrage about how the newspapers are traitors for revealing this kind of information?

Hoft’s penchant for long, rambling, semi-absurdist post titles (à la Atlas Juggs) allows us now to claim a first in shorter history — namely, a shorter which is shorter than the title of the post being shortened.

Not true, not true.

As I said on the thread yesterday evening, since when has someone slipping through security at a foreign airport had anything to do with TSA or TSA regulations?

Also, if this dumbass’ plan was to bring down the plane over Detroit to maximize the destruction, obviously al Quaeda knows nothing about Detroit, much of which already looks like it has been bombed out.

Well, the point of the “last hour” thingie is presumably because they’d rather the plane blew up over the Atlantic or Nebraska rather than say in downtown Detroit or the McNamara terminal.

Not much solace for the apparently expendable passengers, however.

Next they will require all passengers to be cathetered, bundled, and loaded on like cargo. Hell the airlines will love it. It might even reduce fares…

You know, as soon as I read that news story I was thinking to myself, “Self, how long until the wingnuts are all over this like stupid on a book by Jonah Doughpants?” Nice to know they didn’t let the Season of Peace And Goodwill To All Men stop their paranoid blatherings.

BTW, the BBC is still treating that bullshit “liquid bomb” thing as if it were true. *sigh*

If passengers were forced to use the airplane lavatories in randomly selected pairs, “Bathroom Buddies” or “Toilet Twosomes”, then this style of miscreant (pantsbomber) would be, ahem, uncovered. Just trying to help.

Yeah, I was thinking about making a crack about downtown Detroit being as empty as most of Nebraska on Christmas day. But it just seemed cruel; Detroit is battered enough without my mite. I’m from there so perhaps a little sensitive.

With all of that long curly hair, he looks kinda gay.

I am not going to click on the link but please, for the love of beelzebub, tell me this person is not that fucking stupid.

Always trust the shorter.

Hufpost reports that if the detonator had worked properly, the 80g of PETN would have been enough to bring down the plane. And yes, the bad guys knew that the present screening machines were not able to detect PETN…

I know that they have machines that will detect explosives. They used one to check out my 100ml of Kernoel pesto. Maybe everyone from now on will be swabbed down with a piece of filter paper and the paper will be run through the machine….

Funny how TSA is always one step behind the terrorists.

Funny how TSA is always one step behind the terrorists.

Or quite a few steps, given that Richard Reid attempted to use PETN back in December 2001. Like Bruce Schneier says, all the crap you’re subjected to is merely security theater, which apparently comforts stupid people.

Seriously though the new rules are bullshit. I can see the day where breathing during flight will be outlawed since it’s a potential bio-weapon dispersal mechanism…

Shell Goddamnit – sorry about the swipe at Detroit. I’m pretty fascinated with the place, though I’ve never been there, thanks to my dystopian fantasies. I kind of look at it like this: everyone knows about how we lost a major American city to a hurricane when New Orleans flooded – but here’s a major American city that’s been dying a long and agonizing death for decades while the rest of the country pays no attention and just kind of pretends it’s not happening. If you haven’t checked out this blog, I highly recommend it. It’s kind of a chronicle of decline and how it affects the people who are caught up in it.

If passengers were forced to use the airplane lavatories in randomly selected pairs, “Bathroom Buddies” or “Toilet Twosomes”, then this style of miscreant (pantsbomber) would be, ahem, uncovered. Just trying to help.

I like it. Here’s another idea: Just before boarding, passengers will be required to draw a random seat number from a pilot’s hat. They will have to find the person assigned that seat and change underwear with them. Passengers who find a syringe or a packet of strange powder sown to their new drawers should press their call button when convenient.

Jennifer: No one cares about Detroit or St. Louis for that matter because they are populated with the coloreds, especially East St. Louis, which used to be a real city and is now nothing more than a Superfund site with poor unfortunates and hold-outs living there and the Monsanto plant which regularly pollutes the area, but has managed to call itself its own township to skirt any ordinances relating to E. St. Louis. People should no more about that.

Anyway, when I heard that the guy was Nigerian, I wondered if he really is Al Queada or if his performance was part of some kind of High Yield Investment scam or phony cashier’s check scam and no damaging detonation was supposed to occur. Just a thought.

Funny how I don’t feel any “safer” because no one will be allowed to get out of his seat for an hour before landing, or because I had to remove my belt and shoes in one airport but not in another.

Or that everyone is limited to 100ml of liquids in a plastic bag, but this guy apparently had 80g of a high explosive sewn into his underwear and that is enough to bring down a plane. An explosive that can be detected using the proper equipment.

I remember when some airports would swab the outside of a checked bag looking for traces of explosives. Do they run all checked luggage through chemical scanners? It would be pretty easy to hide this PETN in a bag with a detonator that could be set off by a cell phone.

Oooops, don’t let the terrorists know about that.

no=know.

I know, I’m no genius.

This Thanksgiving I went on three planes, through three security checks before security on the last plane I boarded in St. Louis found a pocket knife in my carry-on that I had long forgotten about. They stopped the whole line, showed it to me for explanation, I sort of shrugged and said I forgot it was in there and they didn’t give it back.

No, no, it’s okay Jennifer, no grudges held for the truth. I’ve said enough bad things about Detroit – part of the process of disentangling, I think – and I don’t like the way it makes me feel any more. Just that it’s kind of horrible to…speak ill of the dead, as it were.

Jane Jacobs said Detroit was in trouble in the Life & Death of Great American Cities @ 1960 – lack of density being the main issue, IIRC, and yeahbuddy, ain’t that the truth.

I loved it once, but that was in another country, etc etc.

There is a twisted win-win for terrorists in this type of situation –
even though he didn’t succeed, the whole thing has caused a mass freakout which is one of the objectives of any attack.

I heard Obama was gonna nominate that Nigerian bomber guy to head the Defense Department so he could help Bill Ayers blow up buildings. I done heard it.

I remember when some airports would swab the outside of a checked bag looking for traces of explosives.

When I was late for a flight back from New Mexico, my bag was swabbed because I had forgotten that I had a container of lotion in the main part of my back pack. (Also, I looked suspicious due to being in a big rush and nervous, etc….because my flight was about to leave.)

P.S. I caught teh flight after all.
~

These rules are impossible for anyone traveling with an infant or small children.

I looked suspicious due to being in a big rush and nervous, etc….

That ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© alias might have raised a red flag as well.

kate – interesting that you should mention that. For all the years we’ve been lecturing the south about racism (not undeserved), no major southern city has ever been abandoned and left to rot because of a high, or even majority, population of the coloreds. My dad, who grew up in Atlanta in the 30’s and 40’s and was a bigot (though not of the violent white supremacist variety) always said that the difference in race relations between north and south was in the south, you could get (or live) as close as you like, just don’t get too high (read: uppity), while in the north it was the reverse. I think there was something to that.

That ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© alias might have raised a red flag as well.

I didn’t have my gravatar with me, also.
~

…to think that even his intellectually challenged fan base can imagine a flight attendant….

Yes they can! First comment out of the gate, in all its WCW-conflated glory:

Right out of professional wrestling! The guy lights up the fuse, a passenger tries to stop him, and the stewerdess goes after the passenger for leaving his seat!

PERFECT!

Dateline August 2014: TSA announced today all passengers will be anesthetized before their flights so please arrive an hour early and don’t bring a carry-on.

Ok, you can’t set your pants on fire.

Is lighting farts still ok?

all passengers will be anesthetized

Dateline 2254: all passengers will be euthanized before being reconstituted by the teleportation device. you are advised to make your own decision about whether this travel requires a funeral for your present self.

Like Bruce Schneier says, all the crap you’re subjected to is merely security theater, which apparently comforts stupid people.

Problem is, the security theater stops being effective when the people it’s designed to comfort believe that the TSA and Homeland Security have been taken over by secret Chicago-style cryptomuslims bent on forcing people into dusky pharma-regulato-fascism.

You know, if they’d just wrap everyone in bubble wrap and store them stacked like cordwood in the baggage compartment, stuff like this wouldn’t happen.

Return of the Middle Passage?

Chicago style. Also.

The obvious solution here is to deputize the Underpants Gnomes as TSA agents.

Yes they can! First comment out of the gate, in all its WCW-conflated glory:

Right out of professional wrestling! The guy lights up the fuse, a passenger tries to stop him, and the stewerdess goes after the passenger for leaving his seat!

PERFECT!

Yet everybody should carry a concealed gun in case criminals try to rob the Burger King or steal their beautiful blonde wives, since everyone knows criminal-types, with their phrenological imperfect skulls and their striped black-and-white shirts and their burlap sacks with a green $ painted on them, are distinguishable at a glance from proud Americans flexing their Second Amendment rights.

Is lighting farts still ok?

Even now, a specially selected and highly trained squad of fanatic Islamomaniacs are gobbling down copious amounts of refried beans and Vienna sausages in preparation for a synchronized Blue-Flame Martyrdom Attack.

Next they will require all passengers to be cathetered, bundled, and loaded on like cargo.

Well, if they gave us drugs, it might be a more pleasant travel experience that currently..Just knock me out in the gate lounge, and let me wake up on a gurney in my destination city. I could do that.

Even now, a specially selected and highly trained squad of fanatic Islamomaniacs are gobbling down copious amounts of refried beans and Vienna sausages in preparation for a synchronized Blue-Flame Martyrdom Attack.

Training exercise.

I had forgotten that I had a container of lotion in the main part of my back pack. P.S. I caught teh flight after all. got the hose again.

O hai. Ur internet tradition, i fixxed it 4 u.

…highly trained squad of fanatic Islamomaniacs are gobbling down copious amounts of refried beans…

Beans, beans, good for the heart,
The more you eat the more you fart unleash a glorious wave of terror on decadent western infidels!

Someday, it’ll finally be impossible for anyone anywhere to carry anything that could even remotely be conceived as a weapon anywhere near an airplane.

You know what terrorists will do then? Pick the twenty or thirty biggest, meanest and most muscular people in their organization, send them onto the same flight completely unarmed, and have them take over the cockpit with sheer force right before landing, then crash the plane into the building.

What’ll the TSA do then? Probably pass a new rule saying that passengers must be shackled to their seats at all times. After that, terrorists will pack their biggest and meanest and train them to ask if they can go to the bathroom, THEN take over the plane.

There’s just no way to make air travel completely hijacker-proof. The rear echelon motherfuckers at Fox and PJTV can whine and bitch about what could have been done better until hell freezes over (and it looks like they’re going to), but none of their bitching and whining can change that.

i fixxed it 4 u.

i thanks the closet spider for this kindness.
~

Dair Mom And Dad, howe ar yu? I am havign a gud tyme at Underpants Nome Skool. Sune I wil bee onna frunt lyne aginst tera. I am gettng funny rash onna elbow.
yur Sonne, Cherry

Is Fartor on the no-fly list? Janet Napolitano says, “Get me Abby and Ty!”

Methinks the TSA should hired some El Al consultants – those folks have a good rep for keeping their flights safe.

There’s an urban legend – I say that because I don’t know if it’s true or not – that each and EVERY El Al flight has an armed air marshal flying undercover. Anyone who stood up and made a threat during the flight had best be Wolverine, or he’s going down.

Also, Qantas never crashed, according to Rain Man.

El Al has extremely thorough passenger screening. They pretty much put you through an interrogation.

The problem is, you literally have to show up 3 hours prior to an El Al flight. They can get away with that because they don’t have that many flights on any given day.

There’s no way you would be able to implement that level of screening at DFW or O’Hare.

Just knock me out in the gate lounge, and let me wake up on a gurney in my destination city.

Come to think of it, you are quite right. I’m one of those pitiful mooks who can’t sleep on airplanes. Fifteen hour flight to Hong Kong? Awake & alert during every endless minute. A cosh and a straitjacket would be an improvement.

UH-OH! More Trouble!! On the same Amsterdam-Detroit flight!!!

The crew had requested police assistance on the ground because a passenger was “verbally disruptive”

We’re never hearing the end of this. Never.

Sure 80g can bring down the plane.

…But not from a passenger seat.

And aren’t the TSA flacks all still Bush appointees and hires?

Beans, beans, the muscial fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel.
So let’s have beans at every meal!

yay beans

Beans, beans, the muscial fruit.

Pop, is that you?

Shorter Jake Tapper, amping up teh st00pit this morning on teevee: “Why wasn’t an FBI squad sent immediately to Nigeria to retrieve Abdul’s visa because for god’s sake somebody said something bad about him! This, even being told there’s over 500,000 people on “that list.”

It was amusing to watch Gibbs struggling not to say “Jake, you’re a pants pissing shorts crapping whiny-assed idiot.”

Why not just give each passenger a pistol with one bullet?

I have to agree a rule restricting passengers to their seats for an hour does seem like the passengers are being punished.

I have to agree a rule restricting passengers to their seats for an hour does seem like the passengers are being punished.

Only if they have to wear conic comic paper hats.

“…You know what terrorists will do then? ”

Get jobs as airplane cleaners, airplane food suppliers, or even as that guy who waves the light-sticks at the plane?

Require attractive female security to play with your balls right before boarding. How could any real teabagger object to that.

Um, maybe a good thought on the security front would be the idea to at least reduce the activities that piss these people off. I mean, just a thought.

no major southern city has ever been abandoned and left to rot because of a high, or even majority, population of the coloreds.

New Orleans might disagree with you, but I see your point.

And the idiocy goes on.

Sometimes it really pisses me off, what these people have done to a formerly functional public information system.

Usually, it just makes me sad.

Usually, it just makes me sad.

Mary Matalin speaking for the Party of Personal Responsibility. Uh-huh.

(And my earlier comment referred to not pissing of people who are potential terrorists. One thought: stop bombing their countries into the Stone Age. Call me crazy.)

Was there not a time in America’s history-like, 2002-when conservatives supported all these sorts of safety regulations and rules? I mean, surely the effectiveness of these rules hasn’t changed because a Muslim Communegro has stolen the presidency, right guys?

Right?

Also, fuck you, Mary Matalin, that recession began in March 2001, and Bush was president. Also.

Now wait a minute. This guy thinks that someone who would otherwise take heroic action in an emergency would be deterred because of a stay-seated rule?

How stupid can these people get? I mean seriously, how do they manage to chew and swallow their food?

Of course, we have nothing to worry about as long as this guy in the comments is around:

If I’m ever in an airplane and a man-caused disaster is unfolding, God help anyone who gets in my way, because I will go through anyone and anything to try and stop an attack on freedom.

That rustling you hear is al-Qaeda shaking in their sandals.

Of, course, TSA releasing a poorly “redacted” version of their standard operating procedures manual, detailing scanner tolerances, samples of ALL kinds of guvmint badges, screening procedures, etc – on the goddamn intertubes was clearly a 4-D chess gambit to – my branez hurts now.

Also, fuck you, Mary Matalin

All of them.

That whichever dim bulb interviewing her didn’t immediately shut her up and say, “Excuse the fuck out of me, BUT…” is just a travesty. Yes, now they can say whatever the fuck they want and nobody will call them out on it no matter how obvious and absurd their lie.

Frankly, I find it bad for the business as well. It lets the fuckers be lazy. They don’t have to worry about anything. There’s no reason to improve their game. I mean, shit, if I have to have flacks on the tube, can they at least be good flacks? Ferchrissakes, an interview with Trig Palin would be more worthwhile. What’s the point, really, after a certain threshold?

feh

During the “death panels” fiasco I wanted to go on CNN and say that even I recognized it as cynical bullshit, but you know Mom. I was also going to ask how I’m still a baby. Still bugs me.

As I said on the thread yesterday evening, since when has someone slipping through security at a foreign airport had anything to do with TSA or TSA regulations?

Since October and there was a predecessor program that was canceled in 2004. Although the program is not fully implemented and I don’t know whether it’s up and running with Northworst yet.

If I’m ever in an airplane and a man-caused disaster is unfolding, God help anyone who gets in my way, because I will go through anyone and anything to try and stop an attack on freedom.

Yeah, I saw that comment over there (I got out of the boat, hey, mangoes).

Personally, I would be more concerned with an attack on aerodynamics, but I’m funny that way.

The fact is, some other Nigerian went to the bathroom and didn’t come out. They are keeping this one quiet, because he was a jihadist and black and foreign triple PC bias word score. The liberal media, Obama and the academic eleite and apologizers for jihadists want America to lose. They want us to be attacked and destroyed by jihadis from the Ummah.

The fact is, we need to attack Nigeria now. It is next door to where Saddam’s bombs came from.

http://www.redstate.com/andrewhyman/2009/12/27/lets-use-real-names-at-redstate/#comment-82

*********

Me too, I have a couple of stalkers who collect

Achance Sunday, December 27th at 2:18PM EST (link)

stuff I write, take it out of context, or excerpt it so as to change meaning and then post it all over Hellngone or send it to people.

In Vino Veritas

*******

Hey, since you guys are stalking and guilty already, why don’t you visit Redstate and cut and paste this whole thread by this confirmed asshole’s diaries.

http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/25429.html
I suggest opening 10 windows and posting them all at once.

If I’m ever in an airplane and a man-caused disaster is unfolding, God help anyone who gets in my way, because I will go through anyone and anything to try and stop an attack on freedom.

This is Sparta!!!!!!!!!!!

The fact is, we need to attack Nigeria now. It is next door to where Saddam’s bombs came from.

You could about Nigeria, people used to laugh atcha. Now I look and see Teabag for Africa?

God help anyone who gets in my way, because I will go through anyone and anything to try and stop an attack on freedom.

Now there is a man who will not be denied his extra pouch of pretzel sticks.

Robert– that legend about El Al air marshal’s probably originated with the fact that the entire crew of an El Al or Israir flight will be Israeli (per Israeli law), and thus ex-military by definition. Plus, El Al x-rays large checked baggage, in front of you, and you do have to submit to an interrogation (their word is interview), and the first questions ascertain your Jewish bona fides. And it is an open secret that El Al sepcifically recruits tired Mossad agents.

Have you read the comments? Teh stupid she make-a my head hurt.

The fact is, Lieberman is right, we need to invade Yemen before they attack us again.

it is an open secret that El Al sepcifically recruits tired Mossad agents.

I sure hope you meant retired Mossad agents. A tired agent would probably be prone to mistakes.

I flew on El Al once and they never asked me anything about my religious or ethnic background. Then again my background is pretty obviously Irish Catholic so I don’t think they were that concerned about me. I had a lot more trouble flying between Ireland and London in my college years and through my early twenties. I must look like an IRA man because the damn Britishers profiled me every time but relaxed when they figured out I was American. And I don’t know about ex-Mossad but El Al claims to have at least two armed undercover staff on board every flight. I doubt they’re lying about it.

In addition, all seats on El Al have been designed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld. At the press of a button, flight attendants can drop troublesome passengers into the onboard vat of sharks.

Um, maybe a good thought on the security front would be the idea to at least reduce the activities that piss these people off. I mean, just a thought.

No Looch, that just makes too much sense. And someone might lose some money. We die so others can be rich. When I think of bankers, CEO’s and stock traders making huge profits, my sense patriotic duty is ignited.

Oh and on Mary Matalin. Is she still legally sanctioned to suck Carville’s dick? And her name sounds like an evil character that eats little children.

They both deserve each other, but what did we do to have to suffer either of them?

And as for St. Louis and racism, if I could land a decent job there, I’d go right back and land myself in the middle of the now desolate, crumbling North End section. I’d join other brave souls who are there building back what was, I really would.

I do security work, & I can confirm that “security kabuki” is alive & well – sad to say, I’m forced to live with the unpleasant reality that some of that “stagecraft” actually winds up reducing security … just so some dickhead in a boardroom somewhere can score another SuckUp-Point, by being seen to do something, regardless of its utility or sanity.

In my case, said dickhead appears to have a real thing for (useless) devices that go “meep” & involve a visible laser. SHAZZAM!

Methinks somebody didn’t get the glow-in-the-dark lightsaber they wanted for Xmas back in 1978 2007.

YOU DIRTY HIPPYS MAKE ME SICK. EAT A CHEESEBURGER AND SALUTE THE FLAG!

Molehill =/= Mountain … anyone who keeps up with this stuff knows that letting some suicidal lunatic set his gonch ablaze is still small potatos in the Security Fail Olympics … if you want a spot on the podium, you’re going to face some very stiff competition.

If you’re flying El Al out of Israel, you can request (for a fee) what they call an “express check-in service” where they basically have an agent come to your house/hotel the night before, inspect and pack your things for you, and then take your luggage with them when they leave again, so when you go to the airport, all you have to do is check in, walk yourself through the security, and get on the plane. Unfortunately, they don’t offer this service if you’re flying to Israel, khaval.

I hear from various friends of mine who have experienced it that El Al security agents are so good at folding and compressing items, they can pack four times as many things in a standard size suitcase as a normal mortal. And if they unpack and repack your things in the baggage handling area as part of a routine security check, they always leave a nice note. 🙂

J. Neo Marvin writes about Vic Chesnutt dying:

http://earcandleproductions.blogspot.com/2009/12/west-of-rome.html

He was being sued by a hospital for $70000 in surgery bills at the time.

Kate, places like this one, I imagine?

How about six miles west of there in U-City instead. 😀

Also, not to be looksist- did you guys see this?!
http://www.ils.unc.edu/~bwilder/inls111/georgewashington/images/emery.jpg

notice that the guy who jumped on the bomber was a weak, soft, eurotrash namby-pamby, and not some PJM Wolverine.

Funny the wingnuts not dwelling on that….

The fact is, you liberals are the bedwetting faggots when it comes to terror. You want to do nothing, to feel their pain, to surrender. Well, feel THIS, terrorists: we, the people of the USA Heartland will hunt you down and kill you all.

Well, feel THIS, terrorists: we, the people of the USA Heartland will hunt you down and kill you all.

No Gary, you won’t. Because none of you feckless members of the Screen Beret Action Figure League ever do anything but sit in front of your computer. None of you. Not a one. Every last one of you is a coward. Impotent little shitstains. Every. Last. One.

The fact is, it is liberals who advocate surrender. We advocate fighting them over there so we don’t fight them here, which works which is how Bush defeated the terrorists and kept USA safe.

I guess this guy on the Northwest flight didn’t get the word that we were supposed to be fighting him over there.

Just sayin’

The guy was in Amsterdam, and he got on a plane to Detroit. That’s pretty suspicious behaviour for a start.

Gee, sure glad we spent a trillion dollars invading Iraq to end terrorism.

We spent a trillion dollars to boost the profits of Exxon, Halliburton, and such as, Major Kong.

(As well as those of the Saudi Kingdom.)

Mission Accomplished!
~

not to be looksist

yeah, right

Noemie is an asshole, and not only that she’s AGING!! The noive!

we, the people of the USA Heartland will hunt you down and kill you all.

Gary, here’s a one-way ticket to Lagos. Happy hunting!

The fact is, you liberals are the bedwetting faggots when it comes to terror.

Really?

Cuz the only terror attacks on American soil come during or just after Republican administrations, which tells me that its the Republicans who are cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

Does anyone remember how cigarette lighters and matches were banned on all flights, until the tobacco lobby went bezerkers and now you can carry matches?

Cuz, you know, it’s a lot more important that people light up….um, where? You can’t smoke in any terminal in the US and you can’t smoke in any internation terminal until you’ve passed through immigration and customs, either way when you have your fucking luggage back anyway.

It sure would make it a lot harder to, you know, light up a fuse if you had to rub two sticks together…

They’ll need to ban firesticks next.
~

Also, not to be looksist- did you guys see this?!
http://www.ils.unc.edu/~bwilder/inls111/georgewashington/images/emery.jpg

Give her a break. She hadn’t sucked her daily virgin dry yet.

actor – Point taken, although there are quite a few terminals in the US where you can smoke in designated smoking areas inside the terminal, adjacent to the gates. At least there were the last time I flew, 2 years ago. But do we know that this guy lit a match to start the fuse? I haven’t heard one way or the other, but I was under the impression that a chemical reaction started the fire.

Jennifer, you may be right. When I heard he tried to use the same explosive as Richard Reid, I assumed he tried to light it, but it looks like he might have used something with glycol in it for a chemical reaction.

Still…

What’s up with the ridiculous “no moving around one hour before landing” new rule? Are the terrorists going to be foiled because they won’t think to blow up a plane 1.5 hours before landing?

What’s the deal with the “no personal belongings on your lap” rule, too? What the heck is this supposed to mean? Perhaps we should all be asked to place our hands on our tray tables where they’re visible at all times.

G,

The flying rule is about blowing up a plane in the air over a major urban area, which would cause more devastation than blowing one up over the ocean.

It makes sense, and likely is based on some credible intelligence. After all, this guy waited until the plane was on final approach. It’s clear Al Qaeda intends to try this again.

The “Earl of Grosconnard”. Excellent.

After all, this guy waited until the plane was on final approach.

Somewhere I saw the alternative explanation: He got caught up in the movie, then had to move fast as the plane was getting ready to land.
~

He got caught up in the movie

Four Christmases?

Land of the Lost?

Post-Grad?

Somehow, I doubt it.

It makes sense, and likely is based on some credible intelligence. After all, this guy waited until the plane was on final approach. It’s clear Al Qaeda intends to try this again.

Right. And we’re foiling their dastardly plans by not letting people read magazines for the last hour? I think not.

BTW, I’m not sure about the “blowing up a plane over a major urban area” deal. I don’t know where the Detroit airport is located, but for most cities, other than LA or NY, the area around the airport is pretty empty, with rural or light industrial use. I mean, yeah, sure, it would be really terrible if a plane were blown up over Highway 99 north of Sea-Tac, and took out a bunch of used car lots and some hooker hotels, but that would only be incrementally worse than blowing up over the Okanagan. I mean – 200 deaths vs. maybe 225.

It doesn’t make much sense, really.

I dunno, g, Chicago Midway Airport’s approach is straight over some fairly populated areas, Hartsfield down in Atlanta (Delta’s hub) is directly adjacent to two very busy highways, Lambert in St Louis (American’s hub) is smack dab in the middle of a lot of subruban development, and Detroit Metro is pretty much on a direct line with Detroit, Dearborn, and Grosse Pointe.

Argh, I mean “O’Hare”…that’s the Intl airport. I’ve been flying too many business trips.

Well, feel THIS, terrorists: we, the people of the USA Heartland will hunt you down and kill you all.

Will you cut their heads off? On video?

Will you cut their heads off?

[shakespeare] Only the maidens. [/shakespeare]

Personally, I’m still of the opinion that the TSA is in the business of trying to put themselves out of business by putting the airlines out of business. Not that that justifies this cheesedick trying to milk the hysteria a little bit more.

I’m still of the opinion that the TSA is in the business of trying to put themselves out of business by putting the airlines out of business.

If it’s accompanied by the appropriate expansion of rail service, I could go for this. Leave the skies to the very few who have to travel that way.

Let’s see…current high-speed rail (internationally, not the joke we have here) is in the 150-200 mph range, so NYC-CHI should take four or five hours. Sounds fine to me.

Let’s see…current high-speed rail (internationally, not the joke we have here) is in the 150-200 mph range, so NYC-CHI should take four or five hours. Sounds fine to me.

Or we could just put train carriages on the jets, cut their wings off and ZOOM.

Huh?

Huh?

What?!

Actually, minimizing the number of airborne buses might be a very smart way of limiting the opportunities for terrah. Good luck hijacking a train and running it into a skyscraper.

NYC-CHI should take four or five hours

N__B,

You read my blog this morning, it looks like.

He actually had much less chance of bringing the plane down (even if his device had worked) by trying to do it on final approach.

At altitude there would be a pressure differential of about 8.5 psi in the cabin. On final approach it would be close to 0. This makes it much less likely to have a catastrophic “blow out”.

You read my blog this morning, it looks like.

No, actually, but I’ll read it now.

You read my blog this morning, it looks like.

No, actually, but I’ll read it now.

Yeah. We all end up saying the same thing because it makes sense.

Or we could just put train carriages on the jets

This summer, taking the train from Berlin to Copenhagen we got to a point where we ran out of land. The train rolled onto a ferry, the ferry went until it ran out of water, the train rolled off the ferry.

Kong, the news reports indicate he had more than sufficient PETN to blow the plane up, full stop.

I don’t really understand the American reluctance to take a train. It’s far more civilized than the planes to begin with, is easier on the psyche than taking a bus or car, and yet, for some stupid reason, people won’t get on a train

I don’t really understand the American reluctance to take a train.

Too few opportunities to get off and collect mangoes.

The railroads got out of the passenger business because they wanted to haul freight, which makes a lot more profit for them.

There is a twisted win-win for terrorists in this type of situation –
even though he didn’t succeed, the whole thing has caused a mass freakout which is one of the objectives of any attack.

Damn straight.

Wingnuts are a terrorist’s best friend: the longer & louder they squeal, the greater their success at terrorism-as-psyop. Oh, & they just LOVE that “kill ’em all” hokum too – a perfect adjunct to recruitment, & it feeds right into their “slay the vicious decadent mad-dogs before they kill again” schtick.

With all the “ARGH FUCK KILL” comments he makes, Gary Ruppert ought to check & see if he qualifies for a complimentary Al Quaeda mousepad or Taliban tote-bag yet.

The real motherlode is when they can get their victims to blame each other instead of them. When Jerry Falwell went on national TeeVee & blamed 9/11 on pagan lesbian potsmokers, Bin Laden was probably reaching for a Kleenex – & not because he was crying, if you know what I mean.

The railroads got out of the passenger business because they wanted to haul freight, which makes a lot more profit for them.

True, but the feds and the states spent fifty years screwing with the RRs on rates (in reaction to the previous fifty years where the RRs had screwed the public) at the same time that they were building highways (the old US routes and similar state routes) and subsidizing airports. The introduction of interstates in the late 50s and progressively larger jets in the 60s were the last straws.

The real problem at this point is that so much track infrastructure has been dismantled that getting back to where we were will be a lot of work.

“The fact is, you liberals are the bedwetting faggots when it comes to terror. You want to do nothing, to feel their pain, to surrender. Well, feel THIS, terrorists: we, the people of the USA Heartland will hunt you down and kill you all.”

This from the people who spent the entire 1930s indicting Roosevelt as a warmonger and calling for isolationism, based on the manly principle that fascism, since it was anti-communist and didn’t prevent trade relations that enriched Wall Street, really couldn’t be all that bad.

This from the people who spent most of the Cold War either railing against unions and civil rights at home, or overthrowing third world democracies that refused to take orders from Wall Street overseas, while people like Truman and Kennedy stared the Soviets down in Berlin and Cuba.

This from the people who spent the entire 1990s whining that Clinton was too involved with the outside world and that now that there were no more commies we should be isolationist again (after 9/11, they quickly changed their tune from “Clinton was too involved” to “Clinton wasn’t involved enough” and never mind that if they’d had their way he wouldn’t have been involved at all).

God, I really hate conservatives.

Kong, the news reports indicate he had more than sufficient PETN to blow the plane up, full stop.

Maybe. It depends on a lot of things, like what components are under his row of seats.

A shoulder-fired missile like an SA-14 carries about a 5-pound warhead and very likely won’t bring down a large aircraft. I can’t imagine this guy had more than 5 pounds of the stuff strapped to his leg.

I’d still rather be on final that at 35,000 feet, 4 hours from the nearest land mass. I’d at least have a chance to put it on the ground before the fire burned through something I needed to fly the plane.

Well, he was sat by a window, so if he had blown a large hole in the fuselage…they were twenty minutes out when he started, so that’s what? 10,000 feet?…it wouldn’t have sucked the passengers out, but it certainly could have wreaked havoc with keeping the plane on a smooth trajectory.

News reports indicate that he had the chemicals taped to his leg near his penis, figuring that no one would check his groin.

I wonder…are all African men that well-hung that the bulge would be negligible?

It’s not so much a matter of the passengers getting sucked out.

Think of an airliner fuselage as something like a balloon.

At altitude, it’s like a balloon that’s been fully inflated because of the pressurization. A little pinprick (veiled penis reference) and it explodes, mostly due to the air pressure inside it.

At low altitudes, it’s like an uninflated balloon. The same pin will poke a hole in it, but the whole thing won’t come apart.

Now, if the explosion is say right above the center fuel tank or the hyrdaulic lines then you’re probably still out of luck.

He was seat 19A. That sounds like it should be near a wing

This whole plot seems odd to me. AlQueda planned 9/11 to have a spectacular effect. It was precise, it was simultaneous, it targeted and hit two sites that were hugely symbolic, and that had mass casualties.

So now they’re relying on knuckleheads who just might take out a jet somewhere – not sure exactly what it would land on, maybe take out a couple of shipping warehouses or junkyards or maybe a couple of suburban houses? there’s no way someone detonating a bomb on a plane could determine the results, other than what might happen to the plane itself.

Heck, there’s a good chance a crash-landing in the Cass corridor of Detroit would end up in a vacant urban prairie with no on-ground casulties at all.

There’s no precision in this plot, just a kind of hit-or-miss goofy desparation. I think the Richard Reids and this latest guy are such crackpots AlQ enabled, but didn’t actively promote.

Plus, why the fixation on planes on the part of the media and right wing blogistan? It’s hilarious. Like a serious AlQ plan would include some loud-mouthed obnoxious “Arab” guys glaring at the White Women.

BTW – did you know that there was another incident this weekend of a disruptive passenger taken off a plane by Security? Cursing at children and causing trouble for the crew….sounds suspicious to me.

Yup. Right over the wing.

If he has enough to do real damage to the wing, that’s a problem.

“notice that the guy who jumped on the bomber was a weak, soft, eurotrash namby-pamby, and not some PJM Wolverine.”

In real life, I’m always amazed by the sheer number of soldiers, cops and other heroes who are NOT in line with conservative fantasies. It’s no accident that Gore, Kerry and Cleland actually served their time in Vietnam and that those Republicans who did the same tend to be moderates like McCain, Bush I, Powell or Armitage. The hard-line conservatives either pulled rear echelon duty (Reagan, Bush II) or dodged altogether (Cheney, Chambliss).

PJM is simply an extension of that. The only one of them I read occasionally is Bill Whittle (http://pajamasmedia.com/ejectejecteject/) – a pampered, sheltered, spoiled upper middle class Los Angeles yuppie from the entertainment industry – funny, that’s the condition that you’d think describes your standard “liberal elitist,” right down to his job, home city and hippie/welfare queen background. The rest of the Pajamahideen, from what I’ve seen of them, are from the same chickenshit stock.

The discrepancy between these cowards and the heroes they idolize is vast, and easy to explain; people who really do heroic things don’t feel the need to talk about them all the time.

Actually that’s the strongest part of the airplane structurally because the main spar runs through there.

Unfortunately the center fuel tank is right under there as are most of the hydraulics. That center fuel tank would be my main worry (as in TWA 800).

Also, not to be looksist- did you guys see this?!
http://www.ils.unc.edu/~bwilder/inls111/georgewashington/images/emery.jpg

There’s your tired Mossad agent right there.

Because terrorists will dare to bring a bomb on an airplane, but politely law-abiding enough to not detonate it during the last hour of the flight.

Flight attendant: Sir! What’s that in your lap?
Terrorist: Just my bomb. . .
Flight attendant: I’m sorry, sir, you’re going to have to put all personal items away for the remainder of our flight.
Terrorist: Aw man! *pouty face*

Some DFH Frontpager at GOS links to this interesting report from ABC

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/men-believed-northwest-airlines-plot-set-free/story?id=9434065

So dudes we radicalized in Gitmo are plotting to blow up Detroit! That’s like blowback from our blowback-blowback!

(The ones we released from Gitmo were the goat-herders and shit that weren’t actually terrorists; That’s what Bush’s people said, anyhow.)

The woodcut is sublime.

Sorry to be the one to make note of this, but it’s central to my point:

PETN = veiled PENIS reference.

Thank you.