I feel your aggravation, but I stand by my points in last week's comment-- linked @ signature for ease of review.

You're not wrong to decry the irrational, self-inflating, and on balance (or should that be "on imbalance"?) harmful reaction, but it comes across a bit like arguing with a person in anaphylactic shock. Well, not exactly arguing with the person, but with the body.

It's a bee sting, for God's sake! OK, it's not a good thing, but we're talking about a microscopic puncture wound and a dose of toxins. But there's no reason in the world that you should break out in hives, or pulmonary edema, much less let your tongue swell to a point that can choke you!

Neither of us expects the toothpaste to go back in the tube, but you seem determined not to appreciate that a flurry of poorly-managed bullshit with gravy was jammed down the public's throat by the individuals and spokespersons involved, and that it wasn't sorted out promptly and unequivocally by the airlines. And hasn't been yet, AFAIK.

It may just amount to a fluke, or bad break, but the spontaneous evasive maneuvers crashed and burned-- and that's what set off the overreaction. And, as I and others who actually fly have repeatedly pointed out, in the absence of a credible and comprehensive explanation of what actually transpired, the imagination will run prurient and rampant.

In fact, I suggest that the story still hasn't resolved, and that the reason that your salutary cold compresses of rationality and reason are ineffective is because the underlying truth of the matter remains a mystery.

If the culprits had immediately and credibly blurted out, say, that they'd suddenly, gloriously fallen in love, just couldn't keep their hands out of each other's pants, and completely lost track of time, the story would still have been scandalous enough to go nuclear and raise a stink.

But I submit that it wouldn't be as pernicious a stink as the one we're winding up with. The outrage, and concomitant pressure on authorities to do something, would have been mollified, or at least diffused, by people saying, "Ohhh, so that's what it was! You know, we thought it was probably something like that! Mmph, mmph, mmph!"

All that said, it absolutely sucks that flight crews have to face excessive and undue restrictions and scrutiny; it is like the bogus TSA rituals created to supposedly reassure an anxious flying public.

Hysteria always brings out the worst petty, pissant, sadistic high-school disciplinarian instincts out in the Elected Misrepresentatives, sorry to say. And Better Big Brothering is the universal solution.

I can just imagine some harried congressman snapping, "What about their goddamn genitals? They're just sitting there in their laps, for Christ's sake! Is there a way we could make 'em lock them away in a bin?"

Actually, the Chastiforms™ are much more comfortable than they look-- they're doing wonderful things with Velcro and microchips these days!

Good luck!

At least I think it was Mooser!

The word is schmuck.

I can't explain the etymological anachronism, but it's Yiddish for "killfiled".

Skipping past the latest breathless "Sources say..." Breaking News on SalonFugly's main... thing reminds me of the increase in all-around sloppiness in posted AP reports.

Here's the entire text of an AP report that caught my eye yesterday; I often find unintentionally silly misphrased headlines, but this time it was in the text, copied and pasted below without alteration. It's linked @ sig, if you want to check the original.

I see it as evidence of the hysteria animating corporate media SOP; in its headlong haste to Go to Press, there's no time-- and more importantly, no need to check things through.

It's a sad enough story, but the final line made me think of Lionel Hutz:

Thursday, Nov 5, 2009 17:55 PST

Jury finds Iowa woman guilty in son's slaying

A jury has found an Iowa woman guilty of killing her 2-year-old son and seriously injuring his older brother when she slit the boys' throats before cutting her own neck last year.

Michelle Kehoe's hands trembled and she wiped tears from her face as District Court Judge Bruce Zager read the verdict on Thursday.

Kehoe, of Coralville, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Her sentencing hearing is set for Dec. 15. The jury convicted her of first-degree murder, attempted murder and child endangerment.

Kehoe was accused of driving her sons to a pond, where she covered their faces with duct tape before slicing their throats with a knife in October 2008.

During closing arguments, Kehoe's attorney suffered from severe depression.