Want some torture with your peanuts?

[Evermore]

Want some torture with your peanuts?

How far will they go?

[Xaiveir]

My god, this shit is getting ridiculous.

[vonkaar]

[Martrae]

Fuck that shit. Requiring that would absolutely devastate the airline industry. Seriously, how many of you would rethink any travel plans if something like that was required? I know I would.

[Tikker]

I love how you guys are so terrified of your own elected officials

[ClakarEQ]

I'd rather just have them put cuffs on my wrists and ankles everytime I board a flight, or maybe have bars / cells in place of chairs, hey, that be ok with me to, um, yeah, no.

[Arlos]

I'd only approve the plan if I got to have one of the control boxes, and could randomly shock other passengers on the flight for my own amusement.

Lady wearing 9 gallons of bad perfume and stinking up what would be a 3-block radius! *ZOT*
Parents with screaming kid! *ZOT*
Jackass who took too long in the bathroom! *ZOT*
Random person in Row 23 Just because I can! *ZOT*

Hey, it would beat the in-flight movie....

-Arlos

[Gypsiyee]

I love how you guys are so terrified of your own elected officials

not that I don't agree with you on most of your rabid america-hating in our current state, but I'm just gonna go ahead and point out that it was a canadian's invention, according to the article.. so the spark of interest isn't fear of 'our own elected officials' half so much as the inspiration behind it. we have our plenty of our own idiots without idiots from other countries imposing leash ideas on us.

that said.. what a stupid idea that clearly wasn't thought through. you're allowing every day people to decide what an imminent threat is, and you're absolutely batshit balls to the wall insane if you think that someone, somewhere, isn't going to let that power go to their heads and abuse it when it isn't necessary. these retards want to keep talking about 9/11, nevermind that it was 7 years ago and lots has happened in the world since then. let's go ahead and divert the attention from the mess we've made by nodding to 9/11 to inspire us to take away more freedoms granted to us not by constitutional rights, but basic human rights. it's like that family guy episode where lois runs for office and just repeats 9/11 over and over again and all the sudden she's the hero.

the fact that anyone in a higher office even considers this as a good idea is gut-wrenching, albeit unsurprising with the way the past 8 years have gone.

I can imagine that if this ever goes into effect, which feasibly I can't imagine it will thanks to the time it'll take to implement and the fact that with any luck the reign of terror will be over soon and we'll have a president half worth a shit.. airlines will make far less money. it's just another way to fuck people's travel by making them pay corporate america out the ass. it's more feasible to fly most places now because of the cost of gas, so let's take away the desire to fly and you'll have to pay one way or another.

I can see it now, though - the originator of the idea, inventing the bracelet in his basement thinking "I can make billions off of this, and I know just the country to sell it to. dumbasses will make me rich."

[Tikker]

the whole shock you into submission part is over the top, but as a tracking device it's not that far out

go to pretty much any tech company now, and when you sign in as a guest, you're given a passkey that tracks your movement, lets you in certain doors, restricts access to other doors, etc etc


the airline bracelet isn't exactly a radical idea

well, other than the shock you into submission part (which seems overly excessive to me)

I have zero issues with the tracking tho

[Gypsiyee]

I don't think the tracking is the issue, and without the shock on it it wouldn't be nearly so bothersome; you have to be tracked through the system as it stands currently anyway. I mean they scan your ticket, your name is attached, yadda yadda.. whatever, if there's a more efficient way of doing that that's fine.

Tying a punishment to it is where the line needs to be drawn and where it wasn't thought through. That's where it becomes treating humans as less than humans.. implementing a device that inflicts physical pain on you if you get out of line on something like taking a flight - rather ridiculous, no matter how you slice it, really. They won't know where to draw the line - the beligerent drunk? Shock em. Attitude with the dumb ass flight attendant who won't stop socializing long enough to do her job? Shock em. You know that someone, somewhere, just won't know how to (or just doesn't care to) distinguish between an actual threat and a regular person who's had a rough day and is less than chipper. They don't even have devices like that on prisoners, you know? Just overall pretty grade-A stupid.

[Lueyen]

They don't even have devices like that on prisoners, you know?

Not that it makes any real difference in your point, but law enforcement does in some cases use similar devices to transport prisoners, although it takes the form of a belt and not a bracelet.

For those interested, these two email addresses both appear to be valid, as they were not bounced back, although I have yet to receive a reply:

paul.ruwaldt@dhs.gov
paul.s.ruwaldt@tc.faa.gov

[Gypsiyee]

but law enforcement does in some cases use similar devices to transport prisoners

in some cases sometimes with convicts vs. all cases all the time on regular upstanding every day passengers doesn't make much of a difference to me, no

[Eziekial]

Congress has already started a bill to create a National ID Card with biometric and tracking capabilities. Although it's being resisted by various groups I bet the next President will sign it into law by the end of their first term. Who knows? Maybe they will open the tracking to the public so we can all keep track of our loved ones.....

[Reynaldo]

To play devil's advocate....it's kind of like speeding. If you don't speed, you're not going to get a ticket. Don't be a jerk-off on the flight and you're not going to get zapped =D.

That being said, it IS rediculous. I have noticed more and more though with this emo generation that people want to be able to be menaces to society and not face consequences. I hate my parents and structure and rules omg omg omg! Give me some Sunny-D and a gift certificate to hot topic!

[Evermore]

anyone old enough to remember the days that your parents would knock the crap out of you if you got out of line?

[Gypsiyee]

To play devil's advocate....it's kind of like speeding. If you don't speed, you're not going to get a ticket. Don't be a jerk-off on the flight and you're not going to get zapped =D.

well, in rebuttal to your devil's advocate-ness, I'll reiterate that there is always someone somewhere abusing the power and being a douche. for every reasonable speeding ticket, there's always some asshole cop having a bad day giving ridiculous ones. guy here got a ticket not too long ago for not slowing down to 20 mph (in a 55 mph zone) when he saw a cop on the side of the road. I've only ever gotten one ticket in my life, and it was for 'tailgating' at 3 car lengths behind - an estimated length that the cop himself gave. 3 car lengths is *not* tailgating. He was one of those pompous short fat redhead napoleon complex asses who strolled up to my car and tried to paint me as a habitual speeder, "I don't know if you realize who you were following, but most smart upstanding citizens don't tailgate officers of the law." I wanted to spit in his face and tell him just because you graduate traffic school academy and make 24k a year doesn't make you special but I was nice.

well that went off on quite a tangent.. but the point is..! there are assholes in every profession who abuse power, and this won't be an exception. innocent people will get shocked as an inevitability, I believe~

[araby]

how will this effect the mile high club??

such bullshit...I won't fly. thankfully I'll have traveled to Europe by the time this goes into affect, if ever, and won't need to worry about it.

this reminds me of a *true* torture involving peanuts: eating one boiled peanut and having someone dangle in a bag in front of me. that'd be awful. kill me now.

[Lueyen]

To play devil's advocate....it's kind of like speeding. If you don't speed, you're not going to get a ticket. Don't be a jerk-off on the flight and you're not going to get zapped =D.

play devil's advocate, probably the only way we are going to hear supporting argument for this here.

Okay so these bracelets appear to be armed and activated by electronic transmission of some sort. To be effective this can not be by any technology that requires line of sight. While it would certainly be possible to have separate signals for each bracelet, whomever was activating the device would need to know who it was, good luck with that. Of course if there were an attempted take over of a plane and the perpetrators were not known... the quickest thing to do would be to shock everyone.

Now consider how this might affect someone with a medical condition, like say a pace maker? Are we going to exempt people with those? I guarantee you a terrorist will have a note from their doctor exempting them from the bracelet. While we are at that, what about the possibility of an attendant being a terrorist... not likely but still possible. If they aren't wearing one, they won't be very effective... and what if this person was in control of the zapper? Now the terrorist need not even have a weapon to subdue all the passengers and/or crew if you make them wear one.

From a security stand point this makes absolutely no sense, and I would submit that it makes people more vulnerable. What this is really about is keeping John Q Public in check, because as time goes on flying becomes more and more of a pita aggravation. I fly often, and it's not security, honestly if I'm in a foul mood during or after a flight, it's due to the conditions outside of security. If you've ever had to catch a flight at the last moment, perhaps through no fault of your own schedule even, and get stuck at the very back of a plane between with two large individuals on either side and a non reclining seat, with a screaming kid nearby then you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Cram hundreds of people like sardines into a tin can for hours, scaling back on amenities due to cost, and start having delays due to a plethora of reasons, add alcohol (possibly), and you brew conditions to turn normally even tempered people into irate jerks.

[Evermore]

here here lue