Letters to the Editor
denny401
Published Letters: 16 Editor's Choice: 1
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Chicken Little
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Would some of these posters like to quote what source suggests human extinction is on the horizon?
Aren't we all just sick of these dramatic visions of environmental apocalypse? They sure sound informed, but on closer inspection how do you know?
What do you suggest we do? Turn off the laptop? Turn off the electricity? Then shut off the water supply, because surely there are workers who drive cars to get to the reservoir to manage our drinking water etc etc. Where do you draw the line?
There is a saying. "Penny-wise, pound-foolish". Turning off my laptop might help but it does nothing on a large scale.
Here's a novel suggestion!
Let's INNOVATE our way out of this situation like we have done so many times before in the past! Lobby your government to give $10 BILLION to the first inventor or consortium to come up with an environmentally-friendly, sustainable and cost efficient energy source. The reason we don't have one today is INCENTIVE. Too much incentive to stay with oil, too little incentive for anyone outside the industry to care.
How many minds would begin working on our energy crisis with a cool $10bn carrot dangling before their very eyes? VERY MANY.
How much is $10bn to the US govt? Not much at all.
Do you take a cholesterol drug? Do you have digital photos of loved ones that you can email around the world? Is your life enriched because you can participate in a democratic process?
Then you have benefited from innovation and surely agree that this is the way forward.
Too bad Chicken Little is still the mascot for environmental concerns today!
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Boarding, Overhead bins etc
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The reason we still have nitwits messing up the system is because they get away with it.
How many times have you boarded a plane, headed to row 20 having waited for your group to be called, only to pass people already seated in rows closer to the front?
It's because the ticket agents caved into their whining and their pleads of ignorance to let them board sooner then they should. And what will happen? Nothing and these passengers know it. The only contact they will have with a disgruntled person is you - walking on by.
Same with the overhead bin problem. The offending passengers who abuse efficient bin policy know you are just another face on a flight and in two hours they get to go on their merry way.
I propose the solution is to make the general public hyper-aware of these infringements in basic human etiquette.
Do you remember the problem we all had with cell-phones going off in movie theaters etc? How angry it made us feel? It was because the interruption was obvious. It was a clear and annoying distraction. We need to tap into this same awareness and make all passengers aware of these petty, selfish idiots who have escaped scrutiny for far too long.
Cell-phones going off are for the most part a non-occurrence now. Sure the odd one here and there. The social pressure to conform to silence was far too great. Why not incorporate proper boarding, seating, stowing etiquette into the in-flight safety announcement, most of which are now videos? Yes, most people don't pay attention to these announcements but more because they have heard them before. Once everyone gets used to hearing the same message over and over any violation will be readily identifiable and the social pressure to conform will be too much for these idiots to muck things up for everyone else.
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Are you serious?
[Read the article: Who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Your article has some troubling anarchistic undertones.
Spitzer's actions go far beyond the personal hypocricy you outline in your article.
He is a democratically elected official, put into power as a public representative, and enforcer of state law.
Forget that Spitzer's image is one of "ethics champion", that is not the issue here.
The issue is simply he has violated the very laws he has been elected to uphold.
If you pooh-pooh this you basically pooh-pooh the integrity of our democratic and legal systems, a system that protects you every day (including your right to publish this article and my right to respond).
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I have learned two things from reading this article
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. There are many brain-washed-by-media idiots walking among us. Congratulations. You are the reason we wake up to headlines like "iPod bursts into flames in man's pants! Don't use iPods!!"
It's hilarious to me that people are threatening to take the bus over flying. Go ahead idiots. Oh by the way. Checked the road fatalities lately? Guess not. Your precious media does not view highway fatalties as having the same appeal as threats to airplane safety. How many movies have been made about plane crashes? How many movies have been made about highway pile-ups? Q.E.D.
2. Pilots will ALWAYS be needed and those that think planes fly themselves should read this article.
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Security Measures don't always make logical sense BUT
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I live in NYC. Anyone who lives here has surely seen the NYPD squad car cavalcades that roll down an avenue with full lights and sirens blaring.
Now these cavalcades are not on their way to some enormous crime in progress. They're simply driving around to remind us civilians of how organized they can be.
I feel the same way about airport security. Yes, I am frustrated by the sometimes meaningless procedures.
But more importantly I don't want a security system that necessarily 'makes sense' to me. There should be an element of the screening process which is counterintuitive, random even. This is the best defense against a terrorism attempt. If the screening process is whacky and subject to change, it becomes much harder to get around.