I find it ironic that on the anniversary of the man many consider to be America’s greatest President – Abraham Lincoln (right), that I have to write a column about a country whose regulations have gone too far and have become so cumbersome and outright asinine that they are setting themselves up for once again becoming a laughingstock, albeit for different reasons than before.
With Clinton, America was being laughed at because Monica Lewinsky orally copped Clinton while he was on the phone with Yasser Arafat – among others. With Bush, we will be finding ourselves laughed at for a number of reasons, to include the knee jerk reactions taken in the wake of the events of 9-11. The fact of the matter is that with terrorism being a plague in the world such as it has been, we have seen this in the cards for over 30 years – look no further than (a), the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972, and (b), the Israelis as a people in general to see what they have had to put up with since attaining statehood in 1948. Surrounded by enemies determined and bent on their destruction, it has only served to make them a tenacious, determined and respected opponent. The Israelis don’t want to be liked by the international community – they don’t give a rat’s in that regard; they are however, respected – and even their enemies will concede that to underestimate their abilities for survival and self-preservation is to be done at one’s peril.
Rather than anticipating the possibility of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil and preparing for it a bit at a time, Congress and Democratic presidential administrations (all of them from Kennedy on down) basically hamstrung the American intelligence community keeping them from being able to make significant preparations for such an event. With Congress having been controlled by the Democrats until the 1994 midterm elections, it is largely the fault of the Democrats that the events of 9-11 occurred, and not “American greed” as claimed by former President Bill Clinton. I find that statement ironic as Clinton is getting paid $300,000 for giving a speech in Melbourne, Australia (I believe) which will more than likely touch on 9-11. Are we talking about a hypocritical SOB or what here? But then again, what else have we come to expect from the former skirt-chaser-in-chief?
Anyway, one of the more draconian measures passed is that on select flights you cannot get out of your seats for the remaining 30 minutes of the flight, which turned out to be the undoing of 59-year old Richard Bizarro, who was on a Delta Airlines (logo, left) flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. Given that Salt Lake City International is the host airport for the XIX Winter Olympiad, it has been designated as one of two airports where you have to remain seated for the remaining 30 minutes of the flight, the other being Washington’s Reagan National.
Anyway, from as near as I can tell, Bizarro had to go to the can something fierce – and went. As the 30-minute window approached, the captain reminded passengers to remain seated under the “Salt Lake City Rule” as it is called. Bizarro left his seat 25 minutes before landing to relieve himself and upon exiting the facilities was ordered to return to his seat by the flight attendant. At 6 feet 2 inches and 220 pounds, he ignored the flight attendant’s orders and gave what appeared a “thumbs up” sign to another passenger before returning to his seat. Two of the three undercover sky marshals saw this and at that point, seized control of the cabin, forcing all passengers to place their hands on top of their heads for the remainder of the flight as if they were all prisoners.
First of all, this rule is on its face and in a word – asinine. In another word, it is petty, and assumes that the Government of the United States can control the bowels of its citizens or its residents. Next we have to ask ourselves if Bizarro has a condition of possible incontinence that requires him to use the facilities frequently or if he may have had a sudden urge to “go”. I highly doubt that either the flight crew or the marshals asked him if he had a problem in this regard.
The fact of the matter is that this whole matter could have reasonably prevented by simply signaling the flight attendant. He or she could have asked Bizarro the nature of the problem and escorted him to the lavatory, waited and escorted him back. Under “escort” of the flight crew, this whole incident could have been prevented, and if the federal judge that draws this case has an IQ over 70, he’ll dismiss this as a nuisance case and put the Feds in their place and call on them to employ a little common sense – something that also seems to have been a casualty of 9-11 as well.
But then again, when you’re dealing with government why should that come as a surprise to any of us??
Timothy Rollins
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Abraham Lincoln
Delta Air Lines